When Americans think of Iran—if they do so at all—it is usually because of Iran’s support for terrorist movements around the world and its efforts to build its own nuclear arsenal. But despite successful U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program inside Iran, the killing of many of Iran’s proxies in Hezbollah and Hamas, and the removal of the Iranian regime in Syria, 92 million Iranians remain hostage to a murderous dictatorship. Many of them face execution—a sober reminder as we commemorate World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Iran executes more people than any other nation. In 2024 alone, Iran hanged over 1,000 prisoners. In the first 9 months of 2025, the regime has already exceeded that number. These were not violent criminals—but political prisoners whose major crime was speaking out against human rights abuses in Iran. But not all the thousands of political prisoners will die by hanging—many will die by medical neglect.
One person who faces that threat is Maryam Akbari Monfared. The mother of three daughters, Maryam has spent 16 years behind bars in Iran’s notorious prisons. Her “crime?” Demanding answers about the extrajudicial killing of her three brothers and a sister in the 1980s. Rather than burying their memory, Maryam demanded answers, filing a formal complaint with the judiciary and asking why her brothers and sister had been killed.
After being incarcerated in 2009, Maryam secretly sent a complaint to the UN urging an inquiry into the fate of her sister and brothers. This infuriated the authorities, who responded with vengeance, increasing her sentence to 15 years. When that sentence neared its end, officials fabricated new charges to keep her locked away for two more years—a tactic commonly used to indefinitely detain political prisoners whose release might inspire others. In all the years she’s been imprisoned, Maryam has not had one single day of furlough.
Now, almost 50 years-old, Maryam suffers from chronic health conditions including severe spinal cord injury and a herniated disc, yet she has been denied access to proper medical care. This medical neglect is not because of lack of resources but is used as a deliberate strategy to pressure victims, slowly extinguishing the lives of prisoners whose only crime is speaking out.
Maryam’s story is about resistance, and the price of truth. In the 1980s, three of her brothers and one sister, charged with “enmity against God,” were murdered for their affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a leading pro-democracy Iranian opposition group. In the summer of 1988, the regime massacred 30,000 political prisoners, most of them PMOI/MEK members, in what UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman described in his 2024 report “Atrocity Crimes In Iran” as a crime against humanity and genocide.
And the threat continues. Today, at least 17 political prisoners affiliated with the MEK are on death row, facing the same charge of—“enmity against God”—that condemned Maryam’s sister and brothers. They are activists, students, and ordinary citizens who dared to speak out and are willing to pay the ultimate price to bring an end to tyranny in Iran.
The growing number of political prisoners on death row is not just a tragedy—it is a testament to the rising tide of resistance inside Iran. Every new death sentence handed down to a dissident is a measure of the regime’s fear of its own people. The spike in executions is not a sign of strength, but of desperation—a decaying regime terrified by the courage and defiance of those it cannot silence.
Maryam’s story is not just about Iran and Iranians. It is universal. It is the story of every woman who has stood up to tyranny, every mother who has fought for her children, every sister who has refused to forget. It is the story of human dignity in the face of state violence.
And it is a story that demands our attention.
As we mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the global community must raise its voice—not just for Maryam, but for the thousands of political prisoners who languish in prisons across Iran. Western governments must predicate diplomatic engagement with Iran on respect for human rights. Moreover, international organizations should investigate the 1988 massacre and the regime’s ongoing crimes. Every person of conscience must stand with Iran’s dissidents—not as victims, but as heroes.
Maryam Akbari Monfared has sacrificed everything for the hope of a democratic Iran. Her courage is a challenge to all of us: Will we stand with her, or will we look away?
The regime in Tehran has spent 46 years trying to silence dissent. It has executed more than 100,000, tortured countless more, and turned prisons into graveyards. But it has failed to kill the spirit of resistance. That spirit lives in Maryam. It lives in the streets of Iran, where women and men continue to risk everything for freedom.
Let us honor that spirit today. Let us make this day not just a commemoration, but a commitment.
Because the fight against executions in Iran is not just about ending death—it is about affirming life for a great nation. And Maryam Akbari Monfared is proof that even in the darkest cell, life can still shine.
Linda Chavez is a former White House Director of Public Liaison and US Expert to the United Nations Human Rights Subcommittee on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
