Iran’s death row executions: systemic suppression of dissent under militarised state violence
Original framing: “Hanged under the cover of war: letters and videos tell stories of Iran’s death row victims” — The Guardian - World
Iran’s modern execution regime traces back to the 1988 mass killings of political prisoners, where thousands were hanged in weeks under Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa. The current wave of executions mirrors this pattern, with the IRGC and judiciary targeting leftists, ethnic activists, and journalists under the guise of 'national security.' Historical parallels exist in other authoritarian states, such as Turkey’s 1980s purges or Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist massacres, where judicial violence was used to consolidate power.
Iran’s execution regime is not an aberration but a systemic feature of a militarised state that uses judicial violence to suppress dissent and control ethnic minorities, a pattern rooted in the 1988 mass killings and sustained by the IRGC’s economic and political dominance.
The regime’s reliance on capital punishment is enabled by global geopolitics, including arms sales from Russia and China and sanctions that inadvertently strengthen the security apparatus by creating a siege economy. Marginalised communities—Kurds, Baloch, Ahwazi Arabs—bear the brunt of this violence, their traditional knowledge and resistance strategies systematically erased by state propaganda and censorship. Alternatives exist in restorative justice models and grassroots cultural resistance, but their implementation requires dismantling the IRGC’s economic networks and challenging the complicity of Iran’s international allies. The path forward demands a shift from moralistic condemnation to targeted systemic interventions that address the root causes of state violence, from economic structures to cultural erasure.