Anisha Asadollahi is a 35 year old labour activist, independent researcher, writer, and translator. She has translated texts from Sylvia Federici and Nancy Fraser among others. Previously arrested in 2017 and 2019, she was sentenced in May 2023 alongside her husband on charges of collusion and propaganda against the regime. She began serving her sentence in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison in July 2023, and has regularly engaged in writing and joint activism with other prisoners since then. Her right to receive visits or make phone calls to her family has been largely limited during her incarceration. In June 2024, her sentence was reduced to three years and seven months.
No to execution — an absolute demand in thought, will, and action
In her statement, Anisha Asadollahi writes:
We are fully aware of the necessity of standing firm in defense of the demand for no to execution and its class roots. We consider it our historical duty to wholly defend this progressive right, fully understanding the consequences of this confrontation. We also never forget that socialists have been among the first targets of the state’s execution apparatus.
Asadollahi points out that the demand for #No_to_Execution « has yet to become fully internalized within our society in its entirety, in a way that leaves no room for doubt… Every political force today must first ask itself whether execution is an absolute for them. To what extent are they aware of the legitimacy of this stance? We must question exceptions, Every political force must be held accountable before the masses through questioning. Will tomorrow see the reemergence of these loopholes under a different guise—traitor, terrorist, betrayer, retribution, and so on? Every political force must be asked: If they make exceptions, where do they draw the line ? ».
Anisha Asadollahi was arrested with her husband Keyvan Mohtadi, a member of the Iranian Writers Association, in connection to the first of May 2022, along with two French labour activists Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris who are also held in detention as hostages. Iranian social activists as well as international institutions have demanded the immediate release of Anisha Asadollahi and two French labour activists in Iran. Her husband Keyvan Mohtadi was released in September 2024.
