A group of prisoners in Sanandaj Prison has announced their participation in the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign. Starting from Tuesday, April 29, 2025, they will go on a hunger strike in protest against the widespread wave of executions in Iranian prisons.
With this move, Sanandaj Prison becomes the forty-first prison to join this nationwide campaign. Previously, the prisons of Behbahan, Zahedan, and Azbaram Lahijan had also joined the protest movement earlier this month.
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign began on January 29, 2024, with a collective hunger strike by political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison. This campaign, launched in response to an unprecedented escalation of executions, has continued without interruption and has become one of the largest protest movements within Iran’s prisons. Despite facing severe crackdowns and a rise in executions, the movement has garnered significant international support.
About the “No to Executions Tuesdays” Campaign
This campaign was initiated by a group of political prisoners in Qezel-Hesar Prison in reaction to the executions of two political prisoners, Mohammad Ghobadlou and Farhad Salimi. They decided that every Tuesday — the day typically reserved for carrying out executions — they would go on hunger strike to express their opposition to capital punishment.
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign asserts that the death penalty, as an inhumane and irreversible punishment, must be completely abolished, regardless of the nature of the charges or the motivations attributed to the accused. Participating prisoners issue weekly statements documenting executions and death sentences and invite other prisoners to join this resistance movement.
Today, this campaign has become a central pillar of resistance against the repressive judiciary of the Islamic Republic across many Iranian prisons — a movement that, despite mounting pressure, continues to expand.
