Breathing in Confinement

14 October 2025
News group: Prisoners –

Breathing in Confinement – As the nationwide “Tuesdays Against Executions” campaign reaches its ninetieth week and the call for freedom grows louder, prisoners in Ghezel Hesar have staged a sit-in and returned prison meals in protest—not only against the widespread wave of executions, but also to demand justice and freedom. Prisoners in various wards of this facility have likewise stood up to the machinery of death through hunger strikes and sit-ins.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, freedom-seeking prisoners—who keep faith with the light even in the darkest cells—are, in this ninetieth week of “Tuesdays Against Executions,” sending their cry beyond the prison walls to the people of Iran and the world: a cry for liberation, for human dignity, for an end to executions. Despite torture, deprivation and pressure, they insist—steadfastly—that justice cannot be built on death, and security does not spring from spilled blood.

The statement issued by the prisoners is not only a voice from inside prison, but an echo of the collective conscience of a nation calling for an end to the death penalty—a voice for all the voiceless victims, for grieving families, and for a world that must remember once more that “no human being should be killed in the name of the law. Every execution—regardless of charge or background—is a wound to the conscience of humanity and a stain upon justice. The right to life is the most fundamental human right, one that no power should take away.”

Text of the prisoners’ statement participating in the ninetieth week of the “Tuesdays Against Executions” campaign:

“We sincerely thank all brave and free compatriots who took part in the broad campaign on the World Day ‘Against the Death Penalty’ and made their resounding opposition to executions echo across Iran. This passionate presence, tireless support and continuous solidarity gives us unparalleled strength to continue on until we reach an Iran without the death penalty.

The ‘Tuesdays Against Executions’ campaign still needs this support so that this call for justice and humanity is heard ever more loudly by awakened consciences and the international community:

‘No to executions—for anyone!’

As increasing pressures and inhuman conditions persist in the country’s prisons, we witnessed the transfer of women political and conscience prisoners from Qarchak Prison to Evin. After the horrific killing of their cellmate Somayeh Rashidi and widespread protests against Qarchak’s inhuman conditions, these women are now in Evin deprived of even basic facilities and heating, living in extremely harsh conditions. This situation—by no means limited to Evin—is yet another sign of prisoners’ torture and gross human-rights abuses.

Although these prisoners have escaped the hell of Qarchak, hundreds of women—including women on death row—remain imprisoned in that torture site. Qarchak, like other hellish prisons, must be dismantled and its officials prosecuted for human-rights violations.

In the continuation of oppressive rulings, a few days ago the death sentence of Ehsan Faridi, a student political prisoner in Tabriz Prison, was upheld—a decision devoid of due process aimed at sowing fear among youth and students. This is against human rights and human dignity and must be strongly condemned.

Further intimidating society, we also saw death sentences handed down to three prisoners of conscience: Nasimeh Eslam-Zehi, Arsalan Sheikhi (her husband) and Amanj Karavanchi. For us, these sentences symbolise the injustice of an authoritarian judiciary and compel us to keep our voices raised against widespread, merciless executions.

In these circumstances, coinciding with the World Day Against the Death Penalty, prisoners involved in the ‘Tuesdays Against Executions’ campaign in Ghezel Hesar chanted slogans against the death penalty, expressing their disgust and abhorrence at these cruel and inhuman sentences.

Amid the recent wave of executions—especially in Ghezel Hesar—on Monday, 13 October, following the transfer of a number of prisoners from Unit 2 to solitary confinement for execution, prisoners in this unit—over 1,500 of whom are on death row—staged a sit-in, returned prison food and demanded the return of their cellmates. We call on other prisoners to oppose the executions of their fellow inmates as those in Ghezel Hesar have done, and we ask abolitionists outside prison to take more decisive steps to stop the execution machine and not leave the families of death-row prisoners alone.

Reports from various prisons show that from 20 September to 10 October this year, 162 prisoners have been executed, and in the last six months, more than 1,000 people have been hanged—figures that shock the public conscience in Iran and around the world and demand urgent, serious global action to halt this criminal trend.”

Prisons participating in the ninetieth week of the “Tuesdays Against Executions” campaign (Tuesday, 14 October 2025):

Prisons:
Evin (Ward 7 and Women’s Ward); Ghezel Hesar (Units 3 and 4); Karaj Central; Fardis Karaj; Greater Tehran; Khorin Varamin; Qarchak; Choubindar, Qazvin; Ahar; Arak; Langarud, Qom; Khorramabad; Yasuj; Asadabad, Isfahan; Dastgerd, Isfahan; Sheyban, Ahvaz; Sepidar, Ahvaz (Women’s and Men’s); Nezam, Shiraz; Adelabad, Shiraz (Women’s and Men’s); Firuzabad, Fars; Dehdasht; Zahedan (Women’s Ward); Borazjan; Ramhormoz; Behbahan; Bam; Yazd; Kahnuj; Tabas; Mashhad; Sabzevar; Gonbad-e Kavus; Qaemshahr; Rasht (Men’s and Women’s); Rudsar; Haviq (Talesh); Azbarom (Lahijan); Dizelabad, Kermanshah; Ardabil; Tabriz; Urmia; Salmas; Khoy; Naqadeh; Miandoab.