So many state-inflicted atrocities, killings, torture, starvation, ethnic cleansing, genocide in the world. The death toll in Gaza (60,000) and Ukraine (up to 1 million civilians and military) obscures what is happening elsewhere. Starvation (25 million expected to go hungry this year), violence (150,000) and displacement in Sudan (14 million). Increasing numbers of executions in Iran. Hundreds of thousands deported from the U.S. More hundreds of thousands losing their livelihoods. How much empathy do we have? Can we care about the thousands of Iranians being executed for drug offenses, protesting government repression, torture, killing, for vague religious offenses, and fabricated charges?
In Iran, six hundred twelve (612) prisoners were executed through the first six months of 2025. An increase of 119% from the same period last year. In the last two weeks, 93 individuals went to the gallows. Iran, the religious state, executes more people than any other. It hardly makes the news.
I feel a special affinity with Iran. Nearly sixty years ago when I was in my twenties, I was a member of the Baha'i Faith which has its origins in Iran. Though theirs is the largest non-Muslim religious group, Baha'is face widespread repression and discrimination and are forced to practice their religion in private homes.
The United Nations has shown a spotlight on Iranian human rights violations, including executions. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, demanded an immediate halt to what he called a "disturbing escalation" in state killings. He also expressed concern over the lack of due process in death sentence proceedings and a proposed espionage bill that would expand capital punishment to include such acts as online communication with foreign media.
Iranians are not more criminal than other peoples. They are sentenced to death for opposing the government, involvement with drugs (knowing or unknowing), vague offenses such as "waging war against god" (Moharabeh) and "corruption on earth" (Fesad fel Arz). Trials, if they happen at all, can last five minutes before guilt and a death sentence are pronounced. Lawyers may or may not be present.
Iran has 253 penal institutions with a capacity of 150,000, though holding over 50,000 more. Children as young as 14 are sentenced to death, locked up until they reach 18 and can be executed. Women have been arrested immediately after giving birth, never to see their children and separated from children who rely on them for care and sustenance.
The increasing pace of executions reminds Iranians of 1988 when tens of thousands of political prisoners were killed. Fear of a repeat has generated organizing within the prisons and outside. On Tuesdays prisoners in 48 institutions and their supporters go on hunger strike in a movement known as "No to Executions Tuesdays." Over 90 Tuesdays, supporters and prisoners have made 48 podcasts to inform the world of the ongoing terror in Iran.
In 2022, thousands of women took to the streets after Mahsa (Jina) Hamini, arrested for improperly wearing a head scarf, died in police custody. The protest, called "Women, Life, Freedom," was brutally put down by the Regime.
When those who hold power feel threatened they increase oppression. That is what's happening in Iran after the fall of Assad in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the 12-day war initiated by Israeli and U.S. bombing. Iran's rulers feel more vulnerable today than at nearly any time in the past and executions have increased significantly.
ACTIONS THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN TO END THESE ATROCITIES:
1. Integrate measurable and objective human rights benchmarks into all diplomatic and economic engagements with Iran, particularly including an immediate moratorium on executions and transparent reporting of death penalty cases.
2. Impose targeted sanctions on individuals with a documented record of issuing or carrying out death sentences. Publish and update regularly a list of serious human rights violators. Equally important is accountability for the main architects of the machinery of executions, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
3. When Iranian nationals on the list of serious human rights violators are present in states that have adopted universal jurisdiction, those states should file cases against them in their domestic courts.*
4. States should file a case with the International Court of Justice for human rights violations in Iran.
5. Impose sanctions on human rights violators.
6. Support international initiatives for an independent truth commission on the 1988 massacre and 2022 protests.
7. Support and publicize the grassroots movements against Iran's use of capital punishment to silence opposition (No to Executions Tuesdays; National Council of Resistance of Iran (Maryam Rajavi, president elect), Iran Human Rights Monitor; People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran. Other sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Atlantic (articles by Arash Azizi).
*Sweden prosecuted and convicted Hamid Noury in 2022 for his role in the 1988 massacre of Iranian prisoners. While he was sentenced to life in prison, he was released in 2024 in a prisoner exchange with Iran.