By CIVICUS
Aug 25 2025 –  
CIVICUS speaks about the Iranian regime’s execution of political prisoners with Safora Sadidi, a human rights activist with the Women’s Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Safora lost her father and six family members to the theocratic regime, and has dedicated over two decades to the Iranian Resistance’s international efforts.

Safora Sadidi

On 27 July, Iranian authorities executed two political prisoners, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, in Ghezel Hesar prison, Alborz province. They were accused of being affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), an opposition group, and their charges included ‘waging war against God’. Their trial lasted only five minutes. The regime executed at least 96 prisoners in July alone, just ahead of the anniversary of a 1988 massacre in which the state killed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners. The surge in executions is part of an intensified crackdown on dissent as the regime faces mounting international pressure.

How do the recent executions connect to your experience and what do they reveal about the regime’s strategy?

The killings of Ehsani and Hassani are a painful echo of my personal tragedy. I lost seven members of my family in the struggle against this religious dictatorship, including my father. Like Behrouz and Mehdi, he was a member of the PMOI/MEK and was executed in 1988 along with 30,000 other political prisoners whose only ‘crime’ was demanding freedom and justice. I was six years old and losing my father was the heaviest burden of my childhood. It’s a grief that never leaves you, and it resurfaces with every announcement of another life taken.

Last week, another five political prisoners were forcibly transferred to the site where Behrouz and Mehdi were executed. They are next in line, and at imminent risk.

As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran has stated, the killing spree continues because the architects of the 1988 massacre never faced consequences. Many of them now hold senior positions in the government, and impunity fuels their brutality.

Executions are a political weapon that exposes the regime’s strategy for survival: terror. Since its first day in power, it has ruled through systematic repression, executing dissidents at home and exporting terrorism abroad. To date, it has executed over 120,000 people.

The recent surge in executions shouldn’t be mistaken for strength: it’s a desperate act of a collapsing dictatorship. History shows mass killings are the final resort of failing regimes, and that’s exactly what we are seeing in Iran today. When state media praises the 1988 massacre as a ‘successful historical experience’ to be repeated, it exposes its only remaining tool to cling to power. The regime intensifies repression because it senses its end is near.

The fact that prisoners like Ehsani and Hassani were executed despite European Parliament resolutions and widespread international condemnation is a sign of a profound internal crisis. It also reveals that the regime’s primary war is not against any foreign power, but against the Iranian people, particularly women and young people, who it fears most. These killings are meant to frighten us into submission. But they are backfiring: with every drop of blood spilled, people’s resolve to overthrow this regime becomes a hundred times stronger.

What challenges do women human rights defenders face?

In Iran’s medieval dictatorship, gender apartheid is the law, with stoning and public executions of women as official policy. As a woman, I face double repression: from the regime’s institutionalised misogyny and from its political narrative, which seeks to erase women’s role in the opposition.

Those who dare to resist face severe brutality. Pregnant women and teenage girls as young as 13 have been executed, and mothers have been raped and tortured in cages designed to break their will. Yet it is their resilience that inspires generations. Take Maryam Akbari Monfared, a mother of three who has spent almost 16 years behind bars without a break, simply for demanding justice for siblings executed in the 1988 massacre. The regime has said she won’t be released unless she renounces her call for accountability, but she refuses to do so. Her courage inspires countless others.

What truly frightens authorities is that women keep organising, learning and leading despite the risks. They show their bravery in all-female teams of resistance units, risking their lives on the frontlines and motivating all of Iran to rise against the dictatorship. As Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, has said: the courage and leadership of women will strike the regime where it least expects it. That’s why I and so many others are willing to pay the price.

How do families of victims support each other?

Our greatest strength is solidarity. The bonds between the families of the executed and political prisoners began at the prison gates and grew into a united front that has resisted two dictatorships – first the Shah, now the mullahs – for some 60 years. We are bound by a shared love of freedom, a desire for justice and a common enemy: the regime that took our loved ones.

What cements that bond is the cause for which our parents, children and siblings gave their lives: the liberation of Iran. My father’s and 120,000 other people’s blood was spilled by a regime that thought it could extinguish this desire for freedom – but it was wrong. Before his execution, my dad sent me a cassette tape with a message: ‘My daughter’s heart is her homeland. And because her homeland is captive, her heart is also captive’. His sacrifice taught me, and millions of young Iranians, that we must fight to win back our homeland.

Knowing I am not alone gives me strength. Together with other families of the executed and political prisoners, we transform grief into resolve. We provide each other with moral and material support, organise memorials, run international campaigns and document every crime of this regime. We stand side by side in courtrooms, at conferences and on the streets, making sure the world hears the truth.

This is a deeply rooted, organised resistance, built on the sacrifices of those before us. We keep the flame of resistance alive while supporting the new generation of resistance units fighting for a democratic Iran. Rajavi’s 10-Point Plan offers a path to that future.

How should world leaders respond to the regime’s brutality?

As someone who has lived through this system’s brutality, I want the international community to truly understand the cost of silence. For too long, a shameful policy of appeasement has bought time for the mullahs, leading to more executions, more repression and more terror exported abroad. When the world remains largely silent, it gives a green light for state murders to continue. The consequences are devastating: in 2023, Iran accounted for 74 per cent of the world’s recorded executions. Silence and inaction are complicity. The world must choose between standing with Iranian people or their executioners.

But mere verbal condemnations aren’t enough. We need tangible action: states should make all political and economic relations with this regime conditional on a complete halt to executions. We also demand accountability for those we’ve lost. We call on the international community to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring the perpetrators to justice – including those responsible for the 1988 massacre – and judge them for committing crimes against humanity. The evidence is ready and the witnesses are waiting.

The international community must also reject the false choice between war and appeasement. There is a democratic alternative: the National Council of Resistance of Iran. We ask world leaders to end appeasement and stand on the right side of history, alongside Iran’s people.

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