The death penalty, by depriving the right to life, is one of the most flagrant violations of human rights. For decades, Iranian society has suffered from the execution of loved ones, and these days we have once more witnessed the execution of a number of young protesters, others are still at risk of execution .
We, women political prisoners, live in a prison where the shadow of death sentences and death threats hangs over many of our fellow prisoners. Among them, Sepideh Kashani and Niloufar Bayani, two environmental activists, hailed by Iranians for having worked to preserve the environment and the future of our land, are part of it. Five years ago, they were arrested following a case fabricated by the Revolutionary Guards. They were subjected to psychological and physical pressure for two years in solitary confinement cells in the security section, so that they confess what they did not do and that their interrogators might justify their execution. One of the most sickening tools used by the Revolutionary Guards to extract confessions is to confront detainees with the staging of their own executions. To be threatened with death in the solitude of a cell is not far from a real execution. Sepideh Kashani and Niloufar Bayani, along with other environmental activists were brought to justice under these circumstances and were charged with espionage without any legal evidence, and were even charged with “Corruption on Earth” [la charge la plus grave du Code pénal iranien qui entraîne généralement la peine capitale].
Another of our fellow detainees, Maryam Haj Hosseini, a renowned scientist in the country, was imprisoned for 412 days in the secure quarter of the Ministry of Defense in a remote area of Tehran (a mountainous region) and was threatened every day with ‘execution. She was accused of “corruption on Earth”.
Mahahvash Shahriari and Fariba Kamalabadi (two Bahá’ís, a persecuted religious minority in Iran) have been in solitary confinement for many months and subjected to intense mental and physical pressure. Since their arrest, because of their beliefs, they have been threatened with death for “Corruption on Earth” and espionage. During their last arrest, their interrogators made it clear that the Ministry of Intelligence wanted to hang seven Baha’is.
Zeinab Jalalian (Iranian Kurdish women’s rights activist) suffered mental and physical torture to make her confess to participating in an armed struggle operation, which she never accepted. Shirin Alam Holi, a Kurdish activist, suffered the same methods and the violence of the justice system led to her execution.
It is true that we cannot understand the depth of the anguish and the suffering that they have undergone, but we have the duty to raise a cry once morest the executions, and this process which consists in threatening women with death in the loneliness of their cell.
We, political prisoners from the women’s ward of Evin prison, have decided to declare our support for these environmental activists because they have been in detention for five years and to ask for the support of international human rights institutions. , freedom fighters and public opinion for their release.
In this regard, we stress the importance of narrative in order to record historical facts. Telling regarding the tortures is the only way to stop the human tragedies. We support and appreciate the act of prisoners such as Sepideh Kashani and Nilofar Bayani, who have recounted the crime and repression in the dark rooms of interrogation rooms and participated in raising public awareness.
We declare our rejection of the death penalty, of the deprivation of the right to life and of all forms of physical and psychological torture, we ask the international public opinion to fight unceasingly to stop the death sentence of the demonstrators.
Signatories:
Hasti Amiri is a student, human rights activist. She was arrested following the organization of a student demonstration on March 8, 2022 and was sentenced to one year in prison for “propaganda once morest the system” especially for these positions once morest the death penalty.
Noushin Jafari is a photographer and journalist, she was sentenced in 2019 to five years in prison for “insult to Islam” et “propaganda once morest the system”.
Raha Asgarizadeh is a photographer, journalist and human rights activist, she was sentenced in 2022 to two years in prison for “conspiracy in meeting once morest national security”.
Sepideh Qalyan is a civil rights activist. She was sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison for “conspiracy in meeting once morest national security”.
Nargess Mohammadi is a lawyer, human rights activist and Vice President of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, directed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In 2016, she was once more sentenced to sixteen years in prison for having created and directed “a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty”.
Alieh Motallebzadeh is a photographer, journalist and women’s rights activist and vice-president of the association for the defense of the free press in Iran. She was sentenced in 2020 to three years in prison for “conspiracy in meeting once morest national security”.
Bahareh Hedayat is a women’s rights activist. She worked on the “One Million Signatures” campaign to change discriminatory laws once morest women in Iran. She has already been imprisoned for seven years since 2009 and sentenced once more in 2020 to four years in prison.
