'My friends have been executed in Iran for writing slogans'
An Iranian female resistance fighter has said that despite the Ayatollah regime executing her friends for simply writing anti-government slogans, she will 'not stop until this bloodthirsty regime is overthrown'.Fattaneh, 38, told the Daily Mail that, as a woman, she has no choice but to fight back against the regime in Iran, which has clung to power since 1979, even if it aggressively cracks down on dissident action.She said: 'From the moment we choose to stand up to the regime, we face many dangers, because the regime opposes any form of resistance against it - from writing anti-regime slogans to distributing leaflets.'I have had many friends who were arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and even executed just for writing slogans, and who were executed for their steadfastness and commitment. 'But despite all these dangers, I have chosen this struggle, and I will not stop until the inevitable overthrow of this bloodthirsty regime.'Fattaneh, who is based in Iran's capital city, added: 'When you live in a society where, as a woman, you're not even allowed to choose your own clothes, job, or field of study; when you can't travel or work without your father's, husband's, or guardian's permission - you can understand how I feel living in this society. Fattaneh (pictured) told the Daily Mail that, as a woman, she has no choice but to fight back against the regime in Iran, even if it aggressively cracks down on dissident action. Last year, Iran's hardline parliament passed new laws that introduced severe penalties for women caught 'promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing' A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Republic's morality police during a demonstration on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul on September 20, 2022 A demonstrator raises his arms and makes the victory sign during a protest for Mahsa Amini, in Tehran on September 19, 2022'As a woman, I always have two choices: either surrender and be oppressed, or choose to fight. 'I tell myself that surrendering means facing death every moment. So, it's better to strive for a real life, which is to be free.'1979 was the year that saw the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty during the Iranian Revolution, which then ushered in the ultra-conservative rule of the clerical regime, led by Ruhollah Khomeini.Since then, women have had more and more of their rights stripped away. Last year, Iran's hardline parliament passed new laws that introduced severe penalties for women caught 'promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing'.If the Iranian authorities find the offence has amounted to 'corruption on earth' the defendant could be sentenced to death under article 296 of Iran's Islamic penal code.Dr. Ela Zabihi, a lecturer at City St George's, University of London, and committee member of Women For A Free Iran, told the Mail: 'It has become quite evident that the clerical regime ruling Iran has been the primary force behind terrorism, hostage-taking, warmongering, and the obstruction of peace over the past decades. Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran on September 21, 2022 during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody An Iranian protester holds a photograph of Mahsa Amini during the demonstration calling for justice.'The Iranian regime that has brought repression at home and fuelled instability abroad must be held accountable and ultimately withdrawn by the Iranian people.'I believe a free Iran will become a place of beauty, and a country that the world can visit, learn from, and admire.'This choking repression has pushed the Tehran-based resistance fighter into working to the bone to do anything she can to topple the regime.But she said the current Iranian government, shepherded by supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, will crack down hard on 'any effort against them'.'[This] includes everything from writing slogans to protesting and chanting against the clerics, or even blocking a street in protest, and the punishment for all these activities is execution', she told the Mail.Read More How Iran became world's WORST executioner of women Iran is the worst executor of women in the world, a problem that has been growing since at least 2022. That year, the state executed 15 women. But in the first nine months of 2025, 38 have so far been killed, according to the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI).Between July 30 and September 30 this year, the regime executed 14 women - equivalent to one every four days.Hossein Abedini, deputy director of the NCRI, told the Daily Mail: 'Executions in Iran under the mullahs, have always been a political tool to keep the ruling dictatorship in power. The regime's use of the death penalty is not about justice—it is a tool of terror, wielded to silence dissent and intimidate society.'The resistance fighter said that despite the terror of the regime, she is hopeful that it will soon fall: 'The clerical regime has never been as weak as it is today. The main battle in Iran has always been between the people and the resistance on one side, and the regime on the other. The people don't want this regime, and the regime has tried to maintain its rule at any cost through executions and repression.''The religious dictatorship has only increased the suffering and misery of the Iranian people, responding to every cry for freedom with repression and execution.'There is no freedom for the Iranian people. Nearly 80% of people in a country sitting on oil and gas live below the poverty line, and on top of all this, there are water shortages, power outages, and the destruction of all vital resources and the environment. The people of Iran are tired of this regime.'It is this economic instability that Fattaneh hopes will allow the people of Iran to rise up against their oppressors.She said: 'The next uprising will happen any moment, and all our efforts as Resistance Units are aimed at organizing protests and breaking the atmosphere of fear and terror that the regime tries to maintain through executions and repression, to bring this uprising closer.'Even regime leaders constantly warn on state TV that people's patience with all this corruption, plundering, incompetence, and repression has run out, and they are waiting for the spark of an uprising. The people of Iran have nothing left to lose, and their main demand is to change this regime and build a free Iran.'
