More than 1,000 death-row inmates at Iran’s Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, near Tehran, have entered the third week of a mass hunger strike protesting the Islamic Republic's executions. Some prisoners have sewn their lips shut as part of the demonstration.

The hunger strike began on July 13, following the transfer of six inmates to solitary confinement ahead of possible executions, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Other Iranian human rights groups reported that the prisoners had been convicted of drug-related offenses.

In a statement released on July 27, the exiled Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison were in "deteriorating physical condition" due to the hunger strike.

This protest echoes a similar event in October 2025, when over 1,500 inmates held a six-day hunger strike at the same prison. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the response to that strike, stating, "These heinous acts included multiple severe beatings of political prisoners engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the increased wave of executions being carried out at the facility."

Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot reported that repression in Iran has intensified, with nearly 50 executions and 6,000 arbitrary detentions in the past three months. Hadi Ghaemi, Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, described the regime's actions as unchecked, making normal life impossible for dissidents.

According to Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 2,159 people in 2025, underscoring international concern over the country's reliance on capital punishment, particularly for drug offenses.

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