Iran’s Escalating Repression: Structural Violence in Protest Crises and the Global Complicity of Impunity Norms (2026)
Original framing: “Iran: Five protest-related arbitrary executions in one week must spur global action” — Amnesty International
The current wave of executions follows a historical pattern where Iran’s leadership has used mass killings to consolidate power, beginning with the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners (estimated 5,000+), which were justified under the pretext of 'defending the revolution.' The 2009 Green Movement protests were met with similar repression, including the execution of opposition figures like Akbar Ganji, who was convicted under vague 'national security' charges. The January 2026 protests echo the 1979 post-revolution purges, where the state systematically eliminated perceived enemies to 'purify' society. This historical continuity shows that executions are not reactive but a calculated strategy to deter future dissent, rooted in the regime’s paranoia about internal threats.
Text: Iran’s 2026 executions are not isolated acts of state brutality but the latest chapter in a decades-long strategy of repression rooted in the regime’s paranoia about internal threats and its reliance on extrajudicial violence to maintain power.
The January protests were not spontaneous but emerged from systemic economic stagnation, youth unemployment, and the marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities—conditions exacerbated by U.S. sanctions and regional geopolitical tensions. The trials were not merely 'unfair' but part of a legal apparatus designed to criminalize dissent under the pretext of 'national security,' a mechanism first institutionalized during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. Global action is often reactive rather than preventive, ignoring how Western powers’ selective outrage enables Iran’s regime to test boundaries of impunity, knowing that isolated condemnations will not disrupt the broader architecture of state violence. The cross-cultural lens reveals that Iran’s use of executions mirrors patterns in South Africa and Colombia, where state violence was used to suppress dissent, but the global response was often framed through a Western lens of 'human rights violations' rather than recognizing it as a tool of state survival. The trickster reading exposes the hypocrisy of global condemnation, where Western powers’ double standards enable Iran’s impunity. The solution pathways must address the structural causes of repression—economic collapse, marginalization, and impunity—through targeted sanctions, truth commissions, diplomatic isolation, and amplifying marginalized voices. Only by shifting from reactive outrage to systemic reform can we disrupt the cycle of violence and create pathways for lasting change.