While the world remains engrossed in the peace accord between Iran and the United States, counting down the moments for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to restore the global flow of oil and energy, the reality of sacrificing human rights remains glaringly obvious in this deal. There is no demand for the cessation of executions, no appeal for the release of political prisoners, and no accountability for the massacres, slaughters, and war crimes that have swallowed over 30,000 lives—predominantly Iran’s youth. Merely reading the headlines of human rights violations in Iran requires immense emotional fortitude, let alone diving into their details; yet, from the “civilized” world, nothing is heard but a deafening silence of inaction.
1. The Relentless Execution Machine: Sacrificing Human Rights in Seven Days
A- Political executions rights after the announcement of the deal
June 16: On 16 June, Mizan News Agency reported the execution of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, two individuals arrested during the nationwide protests of December 2025 in Semnan Province. Although authorities have published a list of security‑related charges against these political prisoners, no transparent information has been made available regarding the interrogation process, the judicial proceedings, the fairness and quality of the trial, or their access to legal defense rights.
B- Executions related to ordinary crimes just in one week:
June 15 : Execution of eleven prisoners across seven prisons in the country.- June 14 : Execution of 7 prisoners; one prisoner had been on death row for 26 years. Can you fathom the agony he endured?
- June 13 : Execution of eleven prisoners across four prisons.
- June 12 : Execution of three prisoners in the prisons of Bandar Abbas, Mashhad, and Dezful.
- June 11 : Execution of at least six prisoners in the prisons of Maku, Khoy, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Shirvan.
- June 10 : Execution of three prisoners in the prisons of Diesel Abad (Kermanshah) and Mahshahr.
- June 9 : Execution of four prisoners in the prisons of Mashhad, Isfahan, and Meshgin Shahr.
This amounts to 45 prisoners in just one single week; 45 human beings, 45 families.
Suppression of Protesters, Students, and Trade Unions: Judicial Framing and Judicial Limbo
A) Protesters and Detained Citizens
- Sentence of 6 years in prison and flogging; Mehdi Pak-mehr, an artist from Bojnourd and one of the wounded victims of the January 2026 (Dey 1404) protests.
- Sentence of 2 years in prison for Pedram Cheraghzadeh, one of the detainees of the January 2026 (Dey 1404) protests.
- Sentence of six months in prison for Zahra (Mahsa) Jamali, one of the detainees of the January protests.
- 110 days of judicial limbo for Morteza Arab-Khorasani in Vakilabad Prison, 14 days of which were spent in absolute incommunicado detention.
- Sentence of one year in prison for Youssef Ansari, a member of the board of secretaries of the Iranian Writers’ Association, on charges of propaganda against the state.
- 5 months of complete lack of news regarding the fate of Soroush Karami, an 18-year-old youth from Kermanshah detained during the 2025/2026 protests.
- Piranshahr; 16 days of arbitrary detention and lack of news regarding the fate of Khaled Hasanzadeh; no information is available about his whereabouts.
- A raid by security forces on the residences of two brothers, Sardar and Ehsan Rahmani, in Kamyaran on June 13, with no information on their fate following their summons.
B) Teachers and Trade Union Activists
- Sentence of 15 months in prison for Mehdi Fathi, a teachers’ union activist.
- Mohammad Ali Zahmatkesh, a teachers’ union activist in Fars Province, has been held in temporary pre-trial detention since April of this year and remains in judicial limbo.
- The detention order for Siamak Sadeghi Chehrazi, a teachers’ union activist in Khuzestan Province, has been extended for the third consecutive month.
- Masoud Farhikhteh, a teachers’ union activist—who has been serving his sentence of three years, six months, and one day in the Central Prison of Karaj since September 16, 2025, following the confirmation of his ruling by Branch 12 of the Alborz Province Appeals Court—is now facing a newly fabricated judicial case.
- Sentence of one year in prison for Iman Shahvandi, a teachers’ union activist; Iman Shahvandi, an educator and teachers’ union activist residing in Pasargad.
- Continued detention and lack of news on the fate of Kamal Omidi; Kamal Omidi, a 49-year-old citizen, instructor, and director of a language institute in Khomein, since approximately one month ago.
C) Students and the Academic Sphere
- Ilya Bakhshayi, a sports science student (class of 2022/1401) at the University of Yezd who was arrested during the January protests, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison.
- Confirmation of a two-year prison sentence for Ali Taherikia, one of the students arrested during the January 2026 protests.
- Pouria Amini; sentencing the former student of Mashhad University to 5 years in prison following an initial acquittal, raising deep concerns over the intervention of security apparatuses in the judicial process.
- On Monday, June 1, 2026 (11 Khordad 1405), Abolfazl Chamani, a pure mathematics student at the University of Tehran, was arrested by government forces and transferred to an unknown location; no information on his fate is available to date.
- Reza Dalman, a master’s student in computer engineering at Sharif University of Technology, was sentenced by the university’s disciplinary committee to expulsion and a four-year ban from studying in all universities across the country for hanging a mouse on a tree trunk during the days of protests.
- Approximately 22 students at Soore University are facing initial rulings from the disciplinary committee. These rulings include at least four expulsions and a number of temporary academic suspensions.
- Sajjad University of Mashhad; 10 students have been hit with academic suspension rulings.
D) Detained Women
- Female Detainees of the 2025/2026 Protests in Langaroud Prison, Qom: Fresh information obtained by the Iran Human Rights Monitor from Langaroud Prison in Qom has heightened grave concerns regarding the status of women detained during the nationwide 2025/2026 protests. According to these reports, hundreds of women are being held in the women’s ward of this prison, and some sources estimate their numbers to be significantly higher than officially reported data. It is stated that a notable portion of these prisoners consists of young girls and even minors who remain held in indefinite judicial limbo.
And this list could be extended for pages.
3. Structural Pressure on Religious Minorities
Continued judicial limbo for Mahsa and Mandana Sotoudeh, Baha’i sisters detained in Adelabad Prison, Shiraz, for over 70 days.- Pezhman Zare; continued judicial limbo for the Baha’i citizen in Adelabad Prison, Shiraz, despite bail being secured.
- Arrest of Ahmed Naeimi, a Baha’i citizen in Yazd.
To these cases, one could add the conditions of prisons, tortures, the list of individuals currently on death row, the list of political prisoners executed since the outbreak of the war, and dozens of other lists; yet one question remains.
Why is Domestic Crackdown in Iran Ignored?
Why did the world exert such immense effort to ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open, yet we see not a shred of effort or practical action to halt the countless human rights violations in Iran? Has the defense of global human rights deteriorated into a mere public relations veneer?
Decoupling economic interest from human principles in this accord sends a hazardous signal to the regime’s repressive apparatus: that as long as the flow of energy is maintained, sacrificing human rights and playing with the lives and fates of protesters, teachers, students, and minorities hold no currency in diplomatic transactions. This inaction is not merely silence in the face of injustice; it is a form of tacit legitimation granted to the survival of a structure that holds the fundamental rights of its citizens captive. It is time for the international community to recognize that true regional stability can never be achieved by turning a blind eye to the machinery of repression.
