Petition for Pakshan Azizi sentenced to death in Iran
International outrage is growing over the Iranian government's death sentence against Kurdish journalist and activist Pakshan Azizi.
International outrage is growing over the Iranian government's death sentence against Kurdish journalist and activist Pakshan Azizi.
Several people from Eastern Kurdistan and the diaspora have launched a petition calling for the death sentence handed down to Pakshan Azizi to be overturned.
The organizers of the campaign emphasized that Azizi’s life is in serious danger and called on all segments of society, institutions, and individuals to support the campaign.
The petition calling for action for Azizi reads as follows:
“Let's not forget Pakhshan Azizi. The risk of execution is serious.
Azizi, a journalist and women's rights activist from Mahabad and a graduate of social work from Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran, was arrested and sentenced to death for her voluntary and humanitarian activities among the refugees of the ISIS war.
Following the statements of her lawyers regarding the hasty proceedings in the Supreme Court, the risk of execution is serious for her.
We, the signatories of this petition, want the immediate cancellation of her death sentence and we ask everyone to join us to save the life of Pakshan Azizi.
By signing this statement, 187 women, workers, teachers, petitioners, pensioners and freedom-loving people have requested the cancellation of the death sentence of Pakshan Azizi.
Please join the online petition against the death sentence of Pakshan Azizi.”
Pakshan Azizi
Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Pakshan Azizi to death on 23 July, 2024. She was convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) solely in relation to her peaceful human rights and humanitarian activities. For instance, between 2014 and 2022, she was involved in providing humanitarian support to women and children displaced following attacks by the Islamic State (IS) and sheltering in camps in northeast Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. On 8 January, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld her conviction and death sentence. Her request for judicial review was subsequently rejected by Branch Nine of the Supreme Court.
On 4 August 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Pakhshan Azizi in Tehran and transferred her to section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, and held her in prolonged solitary confinement for five months without access to a lawyer and her family. According to informed sources, during this time Pakhshan Azizi was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations. Agents repeatedly told her that she had no right to live and threatened to execute her. They also subjected her to gender-based violence in order to compel her to make forced “confessions” of having ties to Kurdish opposition groups, which she repeatedly denied. In early December 2023, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin prison, where she has been held since.
In an appeal on 7 February, Amnesty International said, ““The international community must immediately urge the Iranian authorities to halt the execution of arbitrarily detained humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, who was sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court last year.”
“Pakhshan Azizi was detained solely in relation to her peaceful human rights and humanitarian activities, including providing humanitarian support to women and children in northeast Syria who were displaced following attacks by the Islamic State armed group. Instead of facing imminent execution, she should be immediately and unconditionally released,” stated Amnesty International, pointing out that the Iranian authorities remain adamantly resolved to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the population.
“The death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstances; but imposing it after a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court, in which Pakhshan Azizi’s allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, including gender-based violence, have gone uninvestigated, renders its use arbitrary and illustrates yet again the Iranian authorities’ shameless disregard for the right to life. Governments worldwide must speak out loudly now against this injustice to halt Pakhshan Azizi’s execution before it is too late.”