A Call to Action: Speak out for Kurdish political prisoners in Iran

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As reported last week by the Kurdish Human Rights Project: Some 200 Kurdish prisoners of conscience in Iran are undertaking a hunger strike to protest against use of the death penalty and the prevalence of torture in detention centres throughout the country. Take Action Now – Sign the petition

Kurdish prisoners have been on hunger strike for more than 30 days, but the International Community has not taken any serious action nor issued any statements against Iran.

Farzad Kamangar, a teacher, is currently on death row for his work in human rights activism.

Kurdish students including Kawa Jwanmard, Ysir Guly, Hidayet Gazali, Sabah Nasri, Masoud Kurdpur, Ronak Safarzadeh, Kamran Alaiy, Arash Alaiy, are all being held without charges and their fates are yet to be determined.

Ms. Hanna Abdi, Ms. Zaynab Baiazidy, and Ms. Fatima Eftary all face lengthy prison terms and have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Iranian authorities.

Others have been imprisoned for 15 to 20 years simply because of their beliefs including Mehdi Ghasemzadeh, Abdollah Ghasemzadeh, Sahand Ali Mohammadi, Baksh Ali Mohammadi, and Yunes Aghajan.

These prisoners are now calling for help through protest. Do not allow their hunger strike turn out to be in vain.

Please do your part by signing this petition, http://www.petitiononline.com/emruz53/petition.html, that was created by an Iranian human rights activist, Sayeh Hassan, on behalf of the Kurdish political prisoners.

You can also send a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary General:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ms Louise Arbour
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland

Secretary-General United Nations
The Honorable Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Headquarters
Room S-3800
New York, NY 10017