“Due to the risk of execution of Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi, urgent and immediate steps must be taken to save them from the gallows. One of these steps is to carry out a general strike in Kurdistan,” a rare joint statement from the groups said.
The groups include the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).
Azizi is awaiting imminent execution for allegedly being a member of Iranian Kurdish groups considered “terrorists” by Tehran such as KDPI and PJAK. She was sentenced to death in June 2024 on charges of “armed rebellion.”
Moradi was handed a death sentence by a Tehran court in November of last year on charges of “armed insurrection” for allegedly being a member of PJAK. She is a member of the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR).
The statement called on “all the struggling masses of Kurdistan to participate in a general strike … against the death sentences of our children, and we also call for all workplaces, markets, and educational centers to be closed.”
The Kurdish parties also called for the strike to be conducted in a “civil and peaceful manner,” reiterating their joint statement during the September 2022 nationwide protests after the death of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of Iran’s so-called morality police.
On Tuesday, the US called on Iran to overturn the death sentence of Azizi and to stop targeting Kurds.
Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), further accused Azizi of joining university protests in Iran after being trained by the Kurdish groups to spread social unrest.
Azizi was also active as an aid worker in refugee camps in northeast Syria (Rojava) and Shingal (Sinjar) where she was helping those affected by Islamic State (ISIS) attacks, according to her lawyer.
