Six hundred and fifty: more or less 160 per month. This is the number of executions carried out in Iran since the beginning of the year. The public ones, in the square, with the people watching and applauding, shouting to the great Allah. The “accidental” ones, or the secret ones in the sadly notorious prisons of Evin, cannot be counted.
They are almost all the kids, guilty of having demonstrated when they were under the illusion that the West, Americans in the lead, could help them overthrow a regime that oppresses all freedom, which forces ignorance and poverty. Many have been convicted of “enmity against God”, or “corruption on earth”, vague and shocking charges, unacceptable to our reason. Without a lawyer and without trial, even if it is conceivable in any dictatorship to have the right to a fair trial. Before the hangings, prison and physical and psychological torture. After the hangings, the disappearance of the bodies, which are not handed over to the families.
Since the war broke out, which was supposed to be resolved in a few days according to the grotesque intentions of the US president, capital executions have increased, in the silence of world public opinion. In addition to the victims of the bombings, in addition to the devastating consequences in the global economy, in addition to the hatred that hinders any possible real pacification, there is the solitary and neglected martyrdom of the activists, of the courageous people who dared to go for broke, their lives in exchange for the freedom to express themselves.
It is truly true that everything is lost with the war. And it is also true that capital executions, moreover used as a political weapon to repress dissent, are common in many countries with which we maintain solid diplomatic relations. In addition to countries where even less dramatic and more hasty methods are practiced, polonium, an unexpected fall from a terrace, forced labor for life, journalists cut to pieces, churches set on fire with Christians praying inside. They call it realpolitik. However, realism and tiredness for a war that weighs on our daily lives, but does not affect us directly, cannot make us forget the tragedy of a people who have no future: with yet another agreement, perhaps the straits will be opened, the crude oil will move, but women will still be forced to wear the veil, to be monitored by the moral police, communications spied on or denied, torture and hangings are a given.
Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2023, detained for years and again since last December, is in hospital with very serious heart problems. She’s a fighter, but decades of fighting wear you out and the beatings and non-existent care have shattered her tenacity. She spent her life for women’s rights, against the death penalty, torture. If you are Iranian and a dissident, not even the Nobel is enough to save your life. Let’s not forget her. Let us not forget – in the demonstrations against the invasions, occupations and bombs of some – that the others remain criminals, supported and supported by autocrats who we cannot pretend not to recognize or, worse, justify.
