Iran International
A letter expressing solidarity with Iran’s political prisoners has ignited an extraordinary ideological backlash, raising concerns among human rights advocates about how political narratives and disinformation can shape perceptions of repression in Iran.
Published in The Guardian on August 20, the open letter addressed political prisoners facing imprisonment, torture and execution under the Islamic Republic while also condemning US and Israeli military action against Iran.
“We write in solidarity with Iran’s political prisoners, who are trapped between two blades of a scissors,” the letter said, describing one blade as the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian rule and the other as the US-Israeli military assault.
The letter called for an end to executions and the release of political prisoners, arguing that opposing foreign military intervention should not mean remaining silent about repression inside Iran.
What followed was a fierce argument, particularly among figures on the political left.
Several people initially listed as signatories withdrew their names. Historian Robin D.G. Kelley said the published version was not exactly what he had initially seen.
University of Toronto professor Nisrin Elamin said she disagreed with the content and the process through which her name was added, arguing that the letter created a “false and harmful equivalency” between Iran and Israel.
Academics Rashid Khalidi and Nadia Abu El-Haj also removed their names. Other critics went further, characterizing the letter as contributing to efforts to manufacture consent for war.
Human rights lawyer Gissou Nia said the intensity of the reaction surprised her because she regarded the original statement of solidarity as “the bare minimum.”
For Nia, the dispute is about more than a single letter. She worries that ideology and disinformation can distort how international audiences understand repression inside Iran.
“There’s been a massive problem in terms of how narratives have been constructed since January of this year,” Nia told Iran International’s English language podcast Eye for Iran.
She pointed to internet shutdowns, restrictions on independent reporting and competing accounts of the January crackdown. Nia accused some commentators outside Iran of amplifying narratives that shifted responsibility for the killings away from the Islamic Republic despite evidence implicating its forces, describing some of the rhetoric as “mass atrocity denial.”
The stakes are particularly high amid a dramatic rise in executions.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran documented over 900 executions in the first seven months of 2026, including 56 on political or national-security charges. Its database now lists 967 reported executions this year.
Political prisoners welcome attention, with reservations
Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said some former political prisoners she works with were pleasantly surprised to see prominent figures in Western academia and on the left publicly acknowledge their plight.
But the response was not without criticism.
Some felt politics weighed too heavily in the letter and questioned comparisons between their experiences under the Islamic Republic and injustices in Western countries. Others asked why China and Russia were absent if the principle was solidarity with prisoners more broadly.
Still, Boroumand said support for Iranian political prisoners should be welcomed rather than subjected to an ideological test.
“You can't criticize people for doing the right thing because the victims they are talking about are not the right victims in your politics,” she said.
Boroumand said political imprisonment can follow Iranians long after they leave a cell. Prisoners may endure physical and psychological torture and lose jobs, educational opportunities and their health. After their release, they may remain under state surveillance, while their relatives can also face pressure over their activities.
Even exile does not necessarily end it. Former prisoners can receive calls from interrogators and see relatives inside Iran summoned over social media posts made abroad.
“You have to face the people who say you don't exist or you don't matter,” Boroumand said.
Why Iran becomes an ideological argument
Journalist and author Jay Solomon said the backlash should also be understood through the ideological legacy of Iran’s 1979 revolution.
For parts of the anti-imperialist left, he said, the revolution came to symbolize a historic defeat for US power. The Islamic Republic later cast itself as a leading opponent of the United States and Israel, creating a political framework in which criticism of Tehran can be seen as weakening that broader struggle.
Solomon said he was struck by the “callousness” of some responses, which he interpreted as effectively asking political prisoners to accept their suffering for the sake of a broader geopolitical cause.
He also pointed to a political purity test in which criticism of the Islamic Republic can quickly generate accusations that critics are serving Western or Israeli interests. Solomon compared the dynamic with other ideological movements that became increasingly intolerant of internal criticism.
That rhetoric is particularly significant in Iran, where authorities themselves have long portrayed dissidents as agents of foreign powers.
For Iran’s political prisoners, the debate is anything but theoretical. They are living through an escalating campaign of executions and repression while arguments continue abroad over how their suffering should fit into competing political narratives.
“Solidarity is really being in solidarity with people and their plight,” Nia said, “regardless of the politics.”
The German Foreign Ministry, responding to questions from Iran International, said Bank Melli and its Hamburg branch were already covered by wide-ranging EU restrictions.
“Bank Melli Iran is already subject to far-reaching sanctions at EU level, and this of course also applies to Bank Melli's branch in Germany,” the ministry said.
The ministry did not say whether Germany was considering closing the Hamburg branch or whether Washington had formally asked Berlin to do so.
US pressure
The questions follow US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's launch earlier this week of “Operation Economic Outcast,” a campaign aimed at cutting Iran's financial and commercial links abroad.
Bessent specifically targeted Bank Melli, saying “every Bank Melli branch must be shuttered.”
The German Foreign Ministry said Berlin had taken note of Bessent's announcement and remained in talks with Washington and other partners.
“The federal government has taken note of US Treasury Secretary Bessent's announcement and is in constant contact with the US as well as other partners in the EU and in the region regarding further measures against Iran,” it told Iran International.
Berlin gave no indication in its response that a decision had been made on the future of the Hamburg branch.
EU sanctions
The European Union reimposed nuclear-related sanctions against Iran in September last year after France, Germany and Britain triggered the snapback mechanism the previous month.
The measures restored asset freezes on listed Iranian entities and broader restrictions on trade and financial activity.
Bank Melli is explicitly listed under the EU measures along with all its branches and subsidiaries.
EU documents describe Bank Melli as Iran's largest bank, owned and controlled by the Iranian government, and say it provides services to the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.
Under the sanctions, funds and economic resources belonging to or controlled by listed entities must be frozen, and funds or economic resources generally cannot be made available to them directly or indirectly.
EU rules also restrict transfers involving Iranian banks and their branches, while providing exemptions and procedures under which competent authorities can authorize certain transactions.
German oversight
The German Foreign Ministry said the Bundesbank was responsible for implementing EU and UN financial sanctions under Germany's foreign trade framework and referred questions about banking supervision to BaFin.
The Bundesbank says its Financial Sanctions Service Center is Germany's authority for implementing restrictions on capital and payments.
BaFin declined to comment to Iran International on possible measures involving Bank Melli, citing legal confidentiality requirements concerning individual financial institutions.
The regulator told Iran International that Bank Melli remained in its official database and said any final measure that could legally be made public would be published on its website.
BaFin has previously acted against the Hamburg branch.
The regulator said in October 2021 that it had imposed a credit ban on the branch on September 7 of that year after finding that it had breached the four-eyes principle required under German banking rules.
Iran International has also asked the Bundesbank how the restored EU sanctions are being implemented in relation to Bank Melli's Hamburg branch. The central bank had not responded by the time of publication.
For now, Germany has confirmed that EU sanctions apply to the branch but has not said it plans to close it, even as Washington presses foreign governments to shut Bank Melli operations abroad.
