Iran launches coordinated propaganda campaign against prisoners’ hunger strike in Ghezel Hesar
Dozens of prisoners held in Ghezel Hesar Prison are on hunger strike to protest the inhumane practice of capital punishment. Despite facing daily threats from prison authorities, they remain steadfast, while a coordinated propaganda and psychological campaign has been launched by media outlets affiliated with Iran’s security institutions. The purpose of this campaign is to delegitimize the prisoners’ protest and undermine one of the most organized collective actions against the death penalty in Iran.
The hunger strike began in early February 2024 at the initiative of political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj and quickly spread to other prisons across the country. Since then, it has continued every Tuesday under the campaign name “Tuesdays against Execution.” In response to the regime’s ongoing executions and disregard for international warnings, prisoners in Ward 2 of Ghezel Hesar intensified their protest, with several sewing their lips shut as a symbolic act of resistance.
According to data compiled by Hengaw’s Statistics and Documentation Center, at least 1,180 people have been executed in Iran between January and mid-October 2025, keeping the country among the world’s leading executioners relative to its population.
Following the expansion of these protests, on Wednesday, October 15, dozens of state-controlled and judiciary-affiliated news agencies and Telegram channels simultaneously launched a smear campaign against the striking prisoners. These outlets published nearly identical reports labeling the participants as “armed robbers” or “dangerous criminals” in an attempt to divert public attention from their main demand—the right to life and the abolition of the death penalty.
An analysis conducted by Hengaw’s Media Team found that reports published by Fars, Mizan, Tasnim, IRIB, Javan, Mashregh, Raja News, Kayhan, and Iran newspapers, as well as by Telegram channels linked to security agencies, shared identical language, structure, and narrative—a clear indication of centralized coordination. These outlets have collectively sought to discredit the prisoners’ movement through repeated use of terms such as “staged hunger strike,” “defending murderers,” and “enemy project.”
In parallel with the state propaganda, a number of self-proclaimed opposition figures and groups abroad echoed similar rhetoric on social media, defending executions and reproducing state-aligned narratives. Past experience shows that such statements often surface ahead of major civil campaigns against executions and, in practice, serve to weaken advocacy efforts for the right to life in Iran.
Despite the orchestrated smear campaign, the hunger strike continues. Reports from inside Ghezel Hesar confirm that dozens of prisoners have refused to end their protest despite threats and intimidation by prison authorities. Some have reportedly been transferred to solitary confinement as punishment. On the fifth day of the strike, prisoners stated that security forces entered the ward to transfer those whose images had circulated in the media, but fellow inmates resisted and prevented their removal. Prisoners later reported an escalation in harassment and coercion inside the facility.
Hengaw Organization for Human Rights emphasizes that this propaganda campaign is part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s systematic effort to normalize executions, discredit civil resistance, and silence the growing “No to Execution” movement from within the prisons. The organization warns that the coordinated use of state-affiliated media to attack protesting prisoners constitutes a clear example of organized psychological warfare against detainees and human rights defenders.
Hengaw further warns that the Islamic Republic’s continued use of executions as a tool of governance and repression marks a deepening departure from fundamental human principles and international law. The silence of the international community in the face of this ongoing atrocity amounts to complicity in the machinery of state violence. The international community must act urgently—before the rising number of victims becomes yet another statistic lost to silence.
