65th Week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign: Gathering of Families of Death Row Political Prisoners and Six Other Protests Held
23-April-2025
Category: Labor and guilds، Retirees
Certainly — here is the same translation in full narrative form without bullet points:
22 April 2025
News Group: Retirees– Workers and Guilds
Breathing in Confinement – On Tuesday, 22 April 2025, during the 65th week of the hunger strike by political prisoners across the country, families of political prisoners sentenced to death gathered in protest outside Evin Prison.
According to the Statistical Centre of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Breathing in Confinement, the hunger strike has now spread to 41 prisons nationwide, with inmates from Behbahan Prison recently joining. At the same time, families of death row political prisoners held a protest in front of Evin Prison to voice their objection to the issuance of death sentences and the suspension of the right to telephone contacts. They demanded an end to executions and the reinstatement of phone communications with their loved ones.
In a statement, the striking prisoners said that the rising number of executions was a clear sign of the country’s explosive social climate. They condemned the recent execution of political prisoner Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heydaranlou and the issuance of a death sentence for political prisoner Pejman Soltani.
The hunger strike has been taking place in numerous prisons, including Greater Tehran Prison, Evin Prison (women’s ward, and wards 4, 6, and 8), Ghezel Hesar (units 3 and 4), and the central prisons of Karaj, Khorramabad, Naqadeh, Khoy, Mashhad, Saqqez, Ardabil, Qaemshahr, Urmia, Marivan, Kamyaran, Baneh, Salmas, Nezam and Adelabad Shiraz (men’s and women’s wards), Rasht (men’s and women’s wards), Bam, Tabriz, Arak, Kahnuj, Asadabad, Dastgerd Isfahan, Tabas, Khorin Varamin, Rudsar, Ahvaz (men’s and women’s wards), Ramhormoz, Talesh, Borazjan, Jowin, Gonbad-e Kavus, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Miandoab, Azbarom Lahijan, the women’s ward in Zahedan, and Behbahan Prison.
In Kermanshah, retired teachers, social security retirees, and telecommunications pensioners gathered to protest against low wages, economic hardship, inequality, poverty, inflation, and high living costs. They called for increased pensions, better welfare services, and free healthcare. Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Stand up against execution rulings,” “Imprisoned teachers must be freed,” “Their slogan is Hossein Hossein — but they are liars, they are thieves.” “Supplementary insurance is a form of national plunder,” “They looted Iran and left us destitute,” “Unity against oppression and corruption,” and “Sadeghi, Sadeghi (Minister of Education) — schools are not military bases.”
In Tabriz, social welfare workers gathered in front of the Welfare Office to protest low wages and poor benefits, following the disbursement of the first monthly salary of the new year.
In Amol, residents staged a protest against the deforestation of Chelav Forest.
In the village of Naseri, located in Khash, locals demonstrated in front of the Water and Wastewater Department over ongoing water shortages and the authorities’ failure to deliver on their promises.
In Tehran, victims of a property fraud scheme by the construction company Banna Afarinan Elna Alborz held a protest in front of the judiciary, demanding that their case be properly investigated.
In Qazvin, applicants for the National Housing Project protested in front of the Housing and Urban Development office. They expressed outrage at three years of delays and broken promises and urged authorities to take action on their housing issues.