Campaign 'Against Executions in Iran'; Activists on Social Media Call for 'Cutting This 45-Year Rope'

As the 'Against Executions in Iran' campaign launched by Ghazaleh Sharmeh, daughter of Jamshid Sharmeh, a prisoner sentenced to death in Iran, begins to gain traction on social media, many activists have joined the campaign calling for a halt to executions in Iran. This campaign is spreading online with the hashtag 'cuttherope'. Ghazaleh Sharmeh first used this hashtag to share a message and text on her social media, demanding an end to the 'brutal' executions in the Islamic Republic. Expressing regret that over 834 people have been executed by the Islamic regime in Iran in 2023, she referred to her father Jamshid Sharmeh's dire situation and his death sentence, adding: 'While the world follows the wars in the Middle East, the Islamic regime is using this opportunity to carry out executions and massacre innocent people in Iran. People who stood for human rights and against the regime of terrorists, but these crimes of the Iranian regime must not remain hidden from the world.' Yasmin Pahlavi, wife of Prince Reza Pahlavi, responded to this call by stating: 'Executions in Iran under the Islamic Republic are organized murder and a crime by a regime that lacks an independent judiciary and free press.' She also noted: 'Whenever global pressure on this regime decreases, the number of executions increases, so let us all say no to executions, increase domestic and international pressure on this regime, and cut this 45-year-old noose.' Nazanin Boniadi, a prominent Iranian actress and human rights activist, also joined this campaign, stating in a message in English that Iranians worldwide are calling for an end to executions in Iran and the illegal issuance of death sentences by the Islamic Republic. She urged all Iranian and non-Iranian activists to join the 'CutTheRope' campaign to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic until executions in Iran stop. The National Democracy Union for Iran (Nofdi), Darya Safai, an Iranian-born member of the Belgian Parliament, Maryam Kalaran, daughter of Nahid Taghavi, a dual national prisoner in Iran, and several other political, human rights, and women's rights activists joined this campaign and emphasized the need to stop executions in Iran and increase global pressure on the Islamic Republic authorities to ensure justice in their judgments. According to statistics, the Islamic Republic has executed over eight thousand people in the last fourteen years, including 70 children and 212 women. A gathering of a group of Iranians residing in Montreal condemned the issuance and implementation of death sentences in Iran. A protest gathering in London opposed executions and government killings in Iran. Reports indicate low public participation in elections, with a political activist stating: 'People do not participate in this charade.' A monthly report from the Kurdistan Human Rights Network indicated that 10 Kurdish prisoners were executed in one month. The fourth week of the 'Black Tuesdays' campaign continues with political prisoners on hunger strike in protest against death sentences. A letter from dozens of Kurdish clerics to Mohseni Eje'i urged the cancellation of the death sentence for Mullah Mohammad Khodrnejad. The Iran Human Rights Organization reported that 90 prisoners in Zanjan are 'on death row'. Mojahid Korkor, a prisoner sentenced to death in Ahvaz, has been deprived of 'phone calls and visits.'