“No to Executions Tuesdays”: Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Families Rally Outside Evin Prison
6-May-2025
Category: Hunger Strike of Political Prisoners، Labor and guilds، Prisoners، protesters
6 May 2025
News category: Protests – Hunger Strike of Political Prisoners – Pensioners – Labour and Guilds
Breathing in Confinement – Tuesday, 6 May 2025
In the 67th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, political prisoners in 41 prisons across Iran went on hunger strike. At the same time, families of political prisoners sentenced to death gathered outside Evin Prison demanding a halt to the implementation of execution sentences.
According to the Statistics Centre of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran (Breathing in Confinement), the hunger strike took place in the Greater Tehran Prison, Evin (women’s ward, wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar (units 3 and 4), and also in the central prisons of Karaj, Khorramabad, Naqadeh, Khoy, Mashhad, Saqqez, Ardabil, Qaemshahr, Urmia, Marivan, Kamyaran, Baneh, Salmas, Nezam Prison, Adelabad in Shiraz (women and men), Rasht (women and men), Bam, Tabriz, Arak, Kahnuj, Asadabad, Dastgerd in Isfahan, Tabas, Khorin in Varamin, Rudsar, Ahvaz (women and men), Ramhormoz, Talesh, Borazjan, Gonbad-e Kavus, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Miandoab, Azbaram in Lahijan, Zahedan (women’s ward), Behbahan, and Sanandaj.
In a statement released by the political prisoners, they declared:
“It is essential that international human rights institutions compel their governments to make relations with the Iranian regime conditional on the abolition of the death penalty, because in the hands of this tyranny, executions are more dangerous than any weapon.”
Civil and labour protests also continued in other parts of the country:
• Bakers in Tehran, Kermanshah, Isfahan, and Mazandaran Province held protest gatherings due to the non-payment of subsidies and stagnant bread prices.
• Retired oil industry workers in Ahvaz rallied outside the pension fund office, protesting government interference with the fund, low wages, poverty, inflation, and unpaid dues. They chanted:
“Livelihood, dignity, our undeniable right,”
“We won’t rest until we get our rights,”
“A pensioner may die, but won’t accept humiliation.”
• Workers from the oil industry’s welfare restaurant services in Gachsaran protested against job insecurity, demanding clarity on their employment status.
• Employees of the Offshore Oil Company at Nasr Oil Platform (Siri region) protested to demand an end to job classification into ‘technical’ and ‘support’, the removal of salary caps, correction of wage floors, full implementation of Article 10, and an end to interference with the Oil Pension Fund.
• Residents of Ardakan held a protest in front of the local electricity office over repeated power outages.