The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign entered its seventy-eighth consecutive week on July 22, 2025, with political prisoners in 48 prisons across Iran launching coordinated hunger strikes in defiance of the regime’s escalating use of executions and repression.
Over the past month alone, Iranian regime authorities have executed at least 71 individuals between June 21 and July 21 (Tir in the Iranian calendar), many of whom were convicted through what human rights observers describe as grossly unfair trials based on forced confessions. These executions—carried out without due process—are part of a wider strategy of state terror aimed at silencing dissent and intimidating society at large.
In tandem with this wave of state violence, political activists, particularly those affiliated with the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign, have come under renewed pressure. Reports indicate that authorities have subjected detainees to torture, solitary confinement, exile, and arbitrary arrests. Families of campaign members have been threatened and summoned for questioning, while many prisoners continue to be deprived of basic rights, including access to legal counsel, medical care, and visitation.
🔴 Week 78 | #NoToExecutionTuesdays
Prisoners in 48 prisons are on hunger strike as 71 executions hit Iran in just one month.#StopExecutionsInIran pic.twitter.com/APdkAsZ8B1— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) July 22, 2025
This intensified pressure is not random; it is a calculated strategy to crush the “No to Execution Tuesdays” movement by targeting its most resilient figures.
A prime example is the case of Saeed Massouri, one of Iran’s longest-serving political prisoners. After 25 years of imprisonment without a single day of furlough, authorities in Qezel Hesar Prison informed him on July 19 that he would be exiled to the remote and harsh Zahedan Prison. Officials explicitly stated this was a punitive measure designed to break the anti-execution campaign. When guards attempted to forcibly remove him on July 16, fellow prisoners erupted in protest, temporarily halting the transfer.
In parallel, the regime is weaponizing its sham judiciary to silence other leading voices. On July 20, Amir Hossein Moradi, an elite student from Sharif University, was dragged to a “re-trial” in handcuffs and shackles. His new charge, leveled by the judge Ali Mazloum, is “propaganda against the system from prison”—a direct admission that his continued activism is the reason for his persecution. His fellow student, Ali Younesi, was to be tried in absentia, a flagrant violation of due process that even their lawyers’ written protests could not stop.
July 22—Iran
In tandem with the 78th week of "No to Executions Tuesdays," the family of death row political prisoner Vahid Baniamerian demand the cancellation of the death sentences of political prisoners.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/qTHYIbo2EO— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) July 22, 2025
A particularly shocking incident cited in the campaign’s weekly statement was the shooting of a young child, Raha Sheikhi, which further underscores what activists describe as the regime’s “anti-people” nature and willingness to use lethal force even against civilians.
Despite the repression, the campaign’s message remains resolute: execution is not justice—it is state-sanctioned intimidation. “No government has the right to take a human life, especially when the accused are denied fair trials and their fundamental rights are systematically violated,” the campaign’s statement reads. “Our voice is the cry of ‘No to Execution’—a voice that will grow louder every Tuesday until the day executions are permanently abolished in Iran.”
🔴 #Breaking: On July 21, Iran's regime retried elite student Amir Hossein Moradi in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court for “propaganda against the regime” over statements from prison. He appeared in shackles before Judge Seyed Ali Mazloum.
Amir Hossein is currently in Fashafoyeh… pic.twitter.com/HWrmOb4sts— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) July 21, 2025
On Tuesday, July 22, political prisoners in 48 detention centers are participating in hunger strikes to mark the seventy-eighth week of the campaign. The participating prisons include:
- Greater Tehran Region: Qezel Hesar Prison (Units 3 and 4), Karaj Central, Fardis Karaj, Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary
- Tehran Province: Qarchak, Khorrin Varamin
- Western and Central Provinces: Arak, Khorramabad, Yasuj, Asadabad (Isfahan), Dastgerd (Isfahan), Choobindar (Qazvin)
- Southern Provinces: Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz (Men’s and Women’s), Shiraz Military, Adel Abad Shiraz (Men’s and Women’s), Firuzabad Fars, Borazjan, Ramhormoz, Behbahan, Bam
- Eastern Provinces: Yazd, Kahnuj, Tabas, Mashhad
- Northern and Caspian Region: Gonbad-e Kavus, Qaemshahr, Rasht (Men’s and Women’s), Rudsar, Haviq (Talesh), Azbar (Lāhijān)
- Northwest and Kurdish Provinces: Dizel Abad (Kermanshah), Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqadeh, Miandoab, Mahabad, Bukan, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Sanandaj, Kamyaran
- Southeastern Region: Zahedan Prison (Women’s Ward)
Today #NoDeathPenaltyTuesdays campaign entered week 78.
Prisoners in 48 prisons in their hunger strike, condemned at least 71 executions in one month and intensifying repression.
"Execution is not a path to justice, but a tool of intimidation."
https://t.co/GAhbfaJNzE pic.twitter.com/uLNxSGoRqW— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) July 22, 2025
This coordinated resistance underscores the campaign’s growing reach and determination. Despite the regime’s crackdown, the campaign continues to serve as a powerful symbol of nonviolent defiance, demanding an end to executions, justice for victims, and respect for the fundamental rights of all Iranians.
The seventy-eighth week of No to Execution Tuesdays reflects a critical juncture in Iran’s ongoing struggle for human rights, where even the confines of prison walls cannot silence the call for dignity, justice, and life.