Iran's other bloody war, fought with the death penalty

Much attention is focused on the war between Iran and Israel and on Tehran's nuclear program. Total distraction is the shocking number of executions carried out by the clerical regime against its own citizens. These figures are destined to rise and cannot be ignored. It has been a defining characteristic of this regime, since its inception with the 1979 Revolution, to respond to threats to its authority with brutal repression of internal dissent.

As was the case with the demonstrations following the death of Masha Amini, killed by Tehran's morality police in September 2022, when Iranian citizens flocked to cities across the country's 31 provinces. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of pro-democracy opposition groups, of which the People's Mojahedin of Iran ( MEK ) is the main component, approximately 750 protesters were killed during that 2022 uprising. Over 30,000 arrests were made during the same period—a figure later confirmed by Iranian state media. Subsequent judicial proceedings have resulted in an unspecified number of death sentences, of which approximately a dozen have already been carried out. Those who took to the streets then knew what they were facing. Less than three years earlier, in November 2019, another wave of protests had led to the killing of approximately 1,500 protesters.

The more threatened the regime feels, the more brutal the repression. This occurred in the summer of 1988, when the Mullahs ' theocracy faced both growing internal opposition and the humiliating conclusion of the eight-year war with neighboring Iraq. Then, Supreme Leader Khomeini issued a fatwa declaring that the opposition, particularly the MEK, were "enemies of God " and therefore deserved the death penalty. " Death commissions" were established in prisons to interrogate political prisoners. After approximately three months of these proceedings, over 30,000 inmates—90% of whom were affiliated with the MEK—were executed and buried in secret mass graves. With due numerical distinctions, that 1988 massacre now emerges from the past. Iranian state media have openly reported that around 700 people were arrested during the Iranian-Israeli conflict, while some human rights activists estimate that the real number exceeds 1,000.

Alarmingly, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ( IRGC )-affiliated Fars News Agency explicitly called on July 7 for a repeat of the 1988 massacre. The gravity of the situation was underscored by ten United Nations experts on July 4, who expressed deep concern over the escalating repression, stating that “Iran must not allow history to repeat itself by resorting to the same dark patterns of repression that devastated its people in the aftermath of past conflicts.” The new crackdown on dissent coincides with a surge in executions, which began as an extension of the crackdown linked to the 2022 uprising. In 2023, it was reported that over 850 Iranians were executed on a wide range of charges, many of them baseless or spurious. This figure was largely surpassed in 2024, when approximately 1,000 executions were carried out —the highest number in the last twenty years. Tragically, executions have become an integral part of the current regime's DNA. And the forecasts for 2025 are even more alarming. As I write, Hands Off Cain has counted at least 700 executions this year. And we're only a little over halfway through the year! We know how unsuccessful the policy of appeasement is. It's also clear that external war is not a solution.

For Maryam Rajavi, elected by the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) as president for the transitional period following the fall of the mullahs, the definitive solution lies in regime change by the Iranian people and their organized resistance. What can we do? Let's not focus exclusively on the nuclear issue, but rather look at the death penalty used against the Iranian people. Let's try to defuse this device. Let's draw strength from the hunger strike of death row inmates in Iran, which takes place every Tuesday from an ever-growing number of prisons. I do it every Tuesday. It would be good for many of us to do it, perhaps by joining every Tuesday. Let's acknowledge that Maryam Rajavi's ten-point plan for a free Iran includes the abolition of the death penalty. Let's recognize her as a political interlocutor, and the Iranian regime will fall.

FROM

Elizabeth Zamparutti