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Iran News Now

Iran’s Political Prisoners Inspire 1,500 Inmates on Hunger Strike Against the Clerical Regime

Written by Safora Sadidi Mohammadi
Inmates at Ghezel Hesar Prison have launched a mass hunger strike— October 15, 2025
Inmates at Ghezel Hesar Prison have launched a mass hunger strike— October 15, 2025

Three-minute read

Amid a surge of executions and intensifying repression across Iran, courageous political prisoners continue to expose the clerical regime’s brutality from within its own prisons. Their defiance has now ignited a wave of solidarity among ordinary inmates — most notably the 1,500 prisoners at Ghezel Hesar Prison, who launched a hunger strike this week to protest inhumane conditions, systematic torture, and death sentences issued through sham trials.

According to observers, many of these inmates drew strength from the steadfastness of political prisoners who, after years of imprisonment, torture, and deprivation, continue to stand firm against the clerical dictatorship. Their defiance — echoed nationwide through the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign — has become a rallying cry for justice and resistance inside Iran’s prisons. Even amid a surge of executions and the regime’s blatant contempt for international law, these prisoners have emerged as the moral core of a growing movement that refuses to bow to tyranny.

Death Sentences and Judicial Murder

The regime’s so-called judiciary, under the command of Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, has intensified the machinery of execution. This week, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of political prisoner Mehdi Vafaei-Sani, charged with “spreading corruption on Earth” — a vague accusation routinely used to silence opponents. His lawyer confirmed that the same court had previously overturned two identical sentences, but each time, intelligence agencies intervened to reinstate them.

This grotesque cycle of reversal and reinstatement reflects not a system of justice but a political instrument of terror. Mohseni-Ejei’s recent public call for “no leniency with traitors” was a clear order to accelerate executions and crush dissent. Over 1,000 people have been executed in 2025 alone — the highest rate in decades — as the regime seeks to terrorize a restless society increasingly ready to rise against it.

Torture, Forced Confessions, and Fabricated Narratives

The regime’s desperation to project control has led to a resurgence of forced confessions broadcast on state television. In recent weeks, videos have surfaced showing prisoners visibly tortured, coerced into thanking their interrogators and “confessing” to crimes they never committed. Among them were young artists and dissidents accused of “disrupting public order” for their music or social activism, as well as individuals who absurdly “confessed” to collaborating with Israel during the June Twelve-Day War — despite being arrested months before the conflict even began.

These falsified broadcasts are designed to reinforce a collapsing narrative of regime strength while concealing the regime’s moral and political bankruptcy. Even families of the executed are targeted: following the group execution of six Ahvazi Arab prisoners, authorities summoned their relatives, threatened them, and forbade memorial services. The victims were buried in secret, without final visits — yet their names, courage, and defiance live on through underground networks that continue to report the truth.

Medical Neglect as a Weapon

Medical neglect has become another instrument of slow execution. On September 25, political prisoner Somayeh Rashidi died in Qarchak Women’s Prison after repeated epileptic seizures were ignored by prison officials. She was accused of faking her symptoms and denied transfer to hospital. Her death provoked outrage across Iran’s prisons, sparking sit-ins and hunger strikes — protests that now extend to Ghezel Hesar, Evin, and other facilities.

Reports also confirm that Zeinab Jalalian, a Kurdish political prisoner serving her 18th year of a life sentence, is being denied urgent medical care unless she signs a forced “letter of repentance.” Her condition is deteriorating, but she continues to refuse submission. Similarly, Mohammad-Ali Akbari Monfared, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), remains in critical condition after an untreated infection spread through his body, while families of other prisoners say authorities are deliberately withholding medical care to break their will.

Ghezel Hesar Hunger Strike: A Collective Cry for Justice

Inside Ghezel Hesar Prison, where executions have become routine, 1,500 inmates have joined a hunger strike — a rare act of unity across political and non-political prisoners alike. Sources say their protest was inspired by political detainees who refuse to bow under torture and death sentences. The strikers demand an end to arbitrary executions, adequate food and medical care, and accountability for prison officials responsible for killings and mistreatment.

The regime has responded with intimidation, solitary confinement, and transfers to high-security wards. But the movement continues to grow, fueled by the knowledge that the world is watching — and by the legacy of Iran’s long line of prisoners of conscience who have faced death rather than submission.

A Regime Terrified of Its Own Prisons

The courage of Iran’s political prisoners stands in stark contrast to the weakness of the regime that imprisons them. Even as the mullahs tighten censorship and unleash their judiciary as an instrument of terror, they cannot silence the spirit of resistance that now thrives within the prison walls.

Every forced confession, every execution, and every hunger strike tells the same story: a dying theocracy trying to smother its own inevitable end. The defiance spreading from cell to cell — from the gallows to Ghezel Hesar — is a reminder that Iran’s prisons, once symbols of fear, are becoming the frontlines of a movement that will one day end the clerical dictatorship itself.

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