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The Shadow of War: How Conflict Becomes a Cover for Killing Iran’s Youth

Prisons: The Forgotten Killing Fields

While the international community and global media remain fixated on troop movements and the rhetoric of regional tensions in the Middle East, a much closer and more devastating war is raging behind the walls of Iran’s prisons. This is a war against the youth, against protesters, and against their legitimate demand for freedom. Reports from inside Iran indicate a critical situation: parts of Fashafuyeh Prison have been damaged, leaving inmates without electricity or food. In Balochistan, prisoners have gone on a hunger strike due to starvation. In facilities like Gezel Hesar, torture and the execution of sentences have accelerated at an unprecedented pace.

We believe that exposing this inhumane policy is vital. For the clerical regime, regional instability is not just a political challenge; it is a tactical cover. Under the shadow of war and national security, the judiciary has deployed its deadliest tool with increased speed: the execution of political prisoners.

History teaches us that whenever internal cries for freedom reach a crescendo in Iran, a “state of emergency” is conveniently declared. By framing the current climate as “wartime,” the government suspends even the most basic human rights. A prominent historical precedent is the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, which was carried out with total brutality in the shadow of the news of the 8-year Iran-Iraq war, while global attention was diverted to the conflict’s end.

Victims in the Shadow of War: Names We Must Not Forget

The tragedy of recent weeks has names and faces that we must not allow to fade into silence. Last week, 22 prisoners were abruptly transferred to solitary confinement amid physical assaults. Following this, the execution machine was unleashed:

Akbar Daneshvar: Civil Engineer; executed last Monday.
Mohammad Taghvi: Executed last Monday.
Pouya Ghobadi (33): B.S. in Electrical Engineering; executed on Tuesday.
Babak Alipour: Executed on Tuesday.
Amirhossein Hatami (18): Executed on Wednesday; his “crime” was participating in protests.
Matin, Amirhossein, and Saleh: Three youths from the Dey Uprising who were sent to the gallows. Saleh was an 18-year-old wrestler whose life and sporting dreams were sacrificed to repression.
Mujahed Korkur and Reza Rasaei: Whose death sentences were carried out despite widespread international outcries.
Vahid Bani-Amerian (Management graduate) and Abolhassan Montazer (Technician): Both were recently executed under the same “wartime” pretexts in near-total media silence.

Urgent Danger: Lives Hanging by a Thread

The disaster is not only in those we have lost but in those who currently sit under the shadow of the noose. While public opinion is preoccupied with the news of missiles, the killing machine is moving toward new victims.

There are grave concerns regarding Ali Moezzi, a veteran political prisoner, and the other prisoners who were recently transferred to solitary confinement in Gezel Hesar. These 22 individuals, who were moved under violent conditions, are at extreme risk of retaliatory executions. Furthermore, activists like Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi still face death sentences. Although public pressure managed to temporarily halt the executions in the “Ekbatan” case, experience shows that in the shadow of war news, any sentence can be fast-tracked for implementation. Our silence at this moment is a death warrant for them.

International Condemnation: The World’s Awakened Conscience

Volker Türk (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights): “Human rights are a tool to navigate turbulent times, not a weapon to be used against one’s own people. Stop the executions immediately.”
Mai Sato (UN Special Rapporteur): “Authorities are using the chaos of military conflict to settle scores with protesters and political opponents.”
UN Independent Experts: They have labeled these recent executions as “extrajudicial killings” aimed at instilling public fear.

Our Responsibility

Our role today is more critical than ever. We must:

Amplify the voices of prisoners and expose death sentences on social media.
Increase international pressure to force global bodies into taking practical action against the execution machine.
Support campaigns and protests to capture the attention of the global press.

The gallows in Iran are not a sign of strength; they are a sign of a regime that is devoid of logic and fears its own people. Stand with the people of Iran.