Iran’s death-row uprising: Hunger strike in Ghezel Hesar Prison exposes the regime’s execution madness and triggers nationwide resistance

From within the dark corridors of the clerical regime’s notorious Ghezel Hesar Prison, a powerful cry for life echoes across Iran and the world. On 18 October 2025, a massive hunger strike by 1,500 death-row prisoners in Ward 2 reached its sixth day. This is an act of defiance against the regime’s machinery of death, turning the very dungeons designed to crush the human spirit into a frontline of resistance. The prisoners are courageously choosing to fight for their lives, exposing the brutality of a regime that governs by the gallows.

The strike was triggered by an inhumane escalation in the regime’s wave of executions. The protest began on Saturday, 13 October, after prisoners in Ward 2 witnessed 11 of their fellow inmates being transferred to solitary confinement ahead of their imminent executions. This was the final straw in a horrifying surge of killings.

Between 13 and 15 October alone, Khamenei’s executioners hanged at least 38 prisoners — a shocking pace of one person killed every two hours. This frenzy is a desperate tactic by the ruling theocracy to sow terror and suppress social unrest. But instead of submission, this brutality has fueled an organized and powerful defiance, showing that the regime’s strategy of fear is beginning to backfire spectacularly.

A united front: solidarity spreads like wildfire beyond the prison walls

The courage of the prisoners in Ward 2 has inspired a wave of solidarity breaking through the prison walls. The strike quickly expanded when prisoners in Ward 3 of Ghezel Hesar joined the protest on 14 October. Shortly afterward, inmates in Ward 4 issued a strong statement of support, declaring: “For us, there is no other choice but to protest and strike.” In a significant development, political prisoners in Ward 7 of the infamous Evin Prison also released a statement supporting the hunger strikers, calling the death penalty an “unjust and inhumane sentence.”
This solidarity across different prisons and wards—especially the explicit support from political prisoners—reveals a cohesive and growing resistance movement within the regime’s prison system. It proves that the spirit of defiance cannot be isolated or confined.

The regime’s response: brutality and deception

Confronted with this courageous unity, the regime has responded with its typical mix of brute force and clumsy propaganda. The prison warden personally entered the ward and threatened the striking prisoners, saying he would shut down the kitchen and let them starve to death. Their response was a testament to their resolve: “When we are to be killed by execution, we prefer to die through hunger strike and protest.”
Meanwhile, the regime’s propaganda machine has gone into overdrive. State media have attempted to smear the protesters as members of a “terror gang” and “dangerous criminals” to delegitimize their humane protest. In a particularly absurd move, the regime filmed prisoners in another ward while they were eating and broadcast the footage to falsely claim that no hunger strike was taking place.
These crude tactics reveal not strength, but a deep-seated fear of the truth.