Sixteen Protest Gatherings Held alongside the 88th Week of Political Prisoners’ Hunger Strike
1-October-2025
Category: Hunger Strike of Political Prisoners، Labor and guilds، Prisoners، protesters، Retirees، Students
30 September 2025
News group: Protests – Hunger Strikes by Political Prisoners – Pensioners – Students – Prisoners – Workers and Guilds –
Breathing in Confinement – Coinciding with the eighty-eighth week of the political prisoners’ hunger strike, at least sixteen protest gatherings were held by various groups of people in cities across the country.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the “Tuesdays Against Executions” hunger strike continued for the eighty-eighth consecutive week in 52 prisons nationwide. In their statement, the political prisoners said: “This week, once again with profound sorrow and boundless solidarity, we stand in memory of Somayeh Rashidi, a political prisoner who lost her life due to the denial of medical care.” Meanwhile, the execution of Bahman Chubi-Asl on espionage charges in an opaque process on 29 September, the issuance of death sentences for two political prisoners, Hamed Validi and Nima Shahi, by the Karaj Revolutionary Court, and the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the death sentence of Peyman Farahavar have again sparked concern over intensifying repression and violence against the people and prisoners in Iran. At the same time, Ms Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, drew global attention to the appalling conditions in Iran’s prisons with her stance on widespread violations of prisoners’ rights.
The hunger strike took place in Evin; Ghezel Hesar; Karaj Central; Fardis Karaj; Greater Tehran; Qarchak; Khorin Varamin; Choubindar, Qazvin; Ahar; Arak; Langarud, Qom; Khorramabad; Yasuj; Asadabad, Isfahan; Dastgerd, Isfahan; Sheyban and Sepidar, Ahvaz; Nezam and Adelabad, Shiraz; Firuzabad, Fars; Dehdasht; Zahedan; Borazjan; Ramhormoz; Behbahan; Bam; Yazd; Kahnuj; Tabas; Mashhad; Sabzevar; Gonbad-e Kavus; Qaemshahr; Rasht; Rudsar; Haviq, Talesh; Azbarom, Lahijan; Dizelabad, Kermanshah; Ardabil; Tabriz; Urmia; Salmas; Khoy; Naqadeh; Miandoab; Mahabad; Bukan; Saqqez; Baneh; Marivan; Sanandaj; and Kamyaran.
Alongside the hunger strike in 52 prisons, families of political prisoners sentenced to death held gatherings with the slogan “No executions, for anyone,” calling for the immediate and complete abolition of death sentences.
Applicants for the Education Ministry recruitment exam gathered outside the Ministry of Education and Parliament to protest discrimination and special privileges for certain applicants, demanding the removal of the “employee coefficient.” Their slogan was: “We’ve seen no justice—only lies.”
Bakers in Yazd, Mashhad, and Khorramabad protested over three months of unpaid subsidies, financial hardship, and inability to pay workers’ wages.
Social Security pensioners in Kermanshah demonstrated against low pensions, discrimination and inequality, harsh living conditions, poverty, inflation, and rising costs, demanding the removal of the Social Security Organisation from government control, reform of Article 89 of the Social Security Law regarding access to medical services, and improvements to pensions and welfare benefits. Chants included: “Stop waging war and killing; we want welfare,” “No to executions,” “O rich Iran, what has happened to you?”, “Unity, unity against poverty and corruption,” and “Our pain is your pain—people, join us.”
Health care staff of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences gathered to protest unjust discrimination, poor living conditions, low performance-related pay, and official indifference to their problems.
Employees of the Offshore Oil Company in the Gachsaran operational area, and staff of Pars Oil and Gas Company in Asaluyeh, Shirino, and the company’s gas platforms protested over incomplete wages, pay inequities, inflation, the failure to implement equalisation measures, and the planned outsourcing/privatisation of the oil industry’s health services. They called for full implementation of operational-zone allowances, removal of the salary cap, full payment of years-of-service benefits, cancellation of pension deductions, reimbursement of unlawfully deducted taxes, and full implementation of Article 10 of the Law on the Duties and Powers of the Ministry of Oil.
Tractor owners in Ardakan gathered to protest the reduction of fuel quotas.
Evening-programme (part-time) students at Semnan University held a demonstration at the entrance to the university’s main administration building over the lack of oversight of transport services and the authorities’ disregard for earlier student warnings about poor-quality buses and unsafe drivers—issues that led to a collision between a bus and a lorry and the deaths of two female paramedical students from Sorkheh.
A group of citizens also protested the dowry (mahr) laws and the custodial sentences arising from them, calling for legal reform.