More than 20 academics, authors, political activists, and former political prisoners have published an open letter expressing solidarity with political detainees in Iran and calling for an immediate end to executions and the release of all political prisoners.
The open letter, published in The Guardian on Thursday, August 20, is addressed to activists, students, scholars, workers, artists, and other prisoners of conscience held in detention facilities and prisons across Iran.
The signatories, including prominent scholars from U.S. and UK universities alongside prominent left-wing figures, highlighted the widespread use of torture, systematic deprivation, the suppression of dissent, unfair trials, and state executions under the Islamic Republic. They affirmed that despite strict censorship and internet restrictions, international observers continue to closely monitor the plight of Iranian prisoners.
The letter characterizes the situation of Iran’s political prisoners as being trapped “between two blades of a pair of scissors,” with the Islamic Republic on one side and U.S. and Israeli military strikes on the other.
Describing the Islamic Republic as a regime that has enforced ideologically driven social and political control through imprisonment, torture, and executions since its inception, the authors simultaneously condemned U.S. and Israeli policies toward Iran. They pointed to the Israeli strike on Evin Prison on June 23, 2025, noting that the attack hit facilities including the prison hospital, the ward housing transgender prisoners, and the family visitation building.
