Tehran Regime Marks Persian New Year With Public Hangings

Iranians’ greatest fear is not the bombs exploding around them, but the hangman’s noose wielded by their own rulers.

Not content with the mass slaughter of some 40,000 unarmed Iranians during the January wave of protests, the regime’s judiciary branded the protesters as “terrorist elements,”  declaring on March 23 that “no leniency will be applied.”

It is not surprising that the Islamic Republic, which leads the world in executions per capita, continues killing its own people. What stands out, however, is that nothing alters its behavior; war, negotiations, and appeasement alike have failed to shift a system that consistently prioritizes eliminating dissidents to preserve its hold on power.

For the people of Iran, the only way out of this living nightmare is to end the system behind it.

Public Hangings: The Regime’s Domestic Terror Weapon

Just one day before Nowruz (Persian new year), authorities publicly hanged three young men, Saleh Mohammadi, Saeed Davoudi, and Mehdi Ghasemi, in the city of Qom on March 19. All three were arrested after the January protest wave and charged with moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” a commonly used charge to execute political prisoners. Mohammadi, a well-known wrestler who turned 19 in prison on March 11, told the court his “confessions” had been extracted under torture, with reports indicating that his arms were broken during interrogations.

Regime media reported in 2025 that roughly 90 public hangings were carried out between 2011 and 2023, often in major provincial centers, using a rope tied to a crane as crowds that included children watched the gruesome spectacle.

Over 2,657 executions were carried out in Iran’s prisons over the last Persian calendar year (March 2025-March 2026), including minors, more than doubling the 1,159 recorded the prior year, and marking the highest level in three decades.

Over 1,000 Arrested Under Wartime Crackdown

Iranian state media reported on March 24 that police arrested 466 people accused of online activities aimed at undermining national security, including “spreading propaganda in favor of the enemy.” A day earlier, police said they had arrested 68 people for allegedly sharing war footage with Iranian diaspora media outlets. The police claimed that most of the detainees were affiliated with “monarchists.” In the previous two weeks, regime outlets had similarly announced that 75 people were arrested on suspicion of ties with “terrorists” and “monarchists,” while also stating that 500 people accused of sharing information with the “enemy” had been arrested, of whom around half had engaged in serious offenses, such as providing targeting data and conspiring with anti-regime groups.

Anti-Regime Momentum Persists Among Iranians

Iranian protesters who survived the January massacre said on March 21 that the public remains on standby, awaiting direction from opposition leader Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to return to the streets. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, stated on March 23 that Washington would send “a clear signal” for Iranians to mobilize, reinforcing similar remarks made by President Donald Trump on February 28.

Nightly rooftop chants against the regime and in support of Pahlavi have echoed across Iranian cities throughout the war, with many voicing support for attacks on regime targets.

The wave of strikes targeting the regime’s repression apparatus has resonated with ordinary Iranians, with Israeli operations reportedly leveraging citizens’ social media posts identifying checkpoint locations to enable precise, hyperlocal attacks across the country.

Battlefield Success Must Be Matched by Political Transformation

While there is no doubt the ongoing conflict has significantly degraded Iran’s military and security agencies, the true breakthrough, comparable to the fall of the Berlin Wall, would be a political one.

Weakening the regime while allowing it to survive removes capabilities but leaves intent intact, meaning that it is only a matter of time before the threat reemerges. Ending the conflict prematurely risks forfeiting a transformative moment to ensure Tehran is governed by a system aligned with the West that reflects Iranian national interests rather than Islamist ideology.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. For more analysis from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.