Zeynab Jalalian, a Kurdish political prisoner who has spent 17 years behind bars in Yazd Prison, has written a letter in two parts—one addressing the rulers, officials, and judges of the Iranian Islamic courts, and the other directed to Warisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi. While denouncing the death penalty, she urges women worldwide, all free people, and human rights organisations not to stay silent in the face of these executions in Iran.
Text of the letters:
To the rulers, officials, and judges of Iran’s courts:
How could you turn a blind eye to maternal love, paternal love, and love for your fellow human beings?
For what gain? What price did you place on your conscience and humanity? At what cost did you barter away another’s right to live and breathe?
At what price do you shatter all these dreams? How can you so easily sacrifice the youth of your own homeland? Your selfishness has reached such depths that nothing but the death sentences of others can satisfy you.
You, whose hands are stained with the blood of others, must know that no one—not even you—has the right to strip a human being of their right to life. How could you, with a stroke of your pen, condemn Pakhshan Azizi, Warisheh Moradi, and our brothers to death? Has human life become so trivial in your eyes? By what fault? By what crime? By what human rights?
You send us to execution with a half-thick rope woven from the severed hair of grieving mothers. What force has drawn you into this abyss? I grieve for you—for you who have violated every human principle and severed all paths of return. You, the torturer and the unjust judge!
Yet despite all the injustices you have inflicted upon us, know this—I do not seek revenge. I will forgive you. That is the difference between you and me.
To Warisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi:
Dearest Warisheh, dearest Pakhshan, my heart aches…
I am devastated to hear that yesterday, you took up your pens to denounce the execution of me and my comrades, yet today, you yourselves have been sentenced to death. I mourn for a city where the price of humanity is either humiliation or death at the decree of the rulers.
I grieve for a territory that denies its people the right to freedom, the right to think, and the right to live. My heart breaks when we call our mothers late at night and hear their voices tremble in disbelief: “Role [My dear kid], is that you?” Because the grim spectre of execution has cast its shadow over our city and our homeland.
With all my heart, I condemn the death penalty. I call upon all women of the world, all free people, human rights organisations, and anyone who can act—do not withhold your support for those sentenced to death. Do not remain silent in the face of the execution of your fellow human beings!
