About This Project
Because Silence
Is Complicity
NameByName.org is a living digital archive dedicated to documenting the political prisoners of Iran — their names, their stories, their humanity. In a system designed to erase dissent, we refuse to let anyone be forgotten.
Why We Started
For decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has systematically imprisoned, tortured, and silenced those who dare to speak against injustice. Journalists, activists, students, lawyers, artists, workers, women's rights defenders, ethnic and religious minorities — no one is exempt from the regime's machinery of repression.
During the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of 2022, the world watched as thousands were arrested in the streets for demanding basic human dignity. Many disappeared into the prison system. Families were left without answers. International media eventually moved on — but the prisoners remained.
We started NameByName because we believe that documentation is resistance. When a government denies the existence of political prisoners, the act of recording their names becomes a revolutionary act. Every entry in this database is a declaration: we see you, we know your name, and we will not forget.
What Happens to Prisoners
The Islamic Republic of Iran operates one of the most extensive political imprisonment systems in the world. Arrests are often carried out without warrants, in the middle of the night, by plainclothes agents of the Intelligence Ministry or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Families are frequently denied information about the whereabouts or charges against their loved ones for weeks or even months.
Once inside the system, prisoners face a grim reality. Forced confessions are extracted under torture — physical, psychological, and sexual. Solitary confinement for prolonged periods is standard. Access to legal representation is routinely denied, and trials in Revolutionary Courts are closed, lasting sometimes only minutes, with verdicts pre-determined.
Prisoners are charged under deliberately vague national security laws: "propaganda against the state," "acting against national security," "enmity against God" (moharebeh) — a charge that carries the death penalty. These broad labels allow the judiciary to criminalize peaceful protest, journalism, social media posts, and even private conversations.
Why People Are Arrested
In the Islamic Republic, the line between citizen and criminal is paper-thin. People are arrested for acts that would be considered fundamental rights in any democratic society:
Peaceful Protest
Attending or organizing demonstrations, signing petitions, or participating in strikes.
Journalism & Expression
Reporting on human rights abuses, publishing independent media, or posting on social media.
Legal Advocacy
Lawyers defending political prisoners often become prisoners themselves.
Women's Rights
Removing the compulsory hijab, campaigning for gender equality, or defending women's bodily autonomy.
Minority Identity
Practicing Bahá'í faith, advocating for Kurdish or Baloch rights, or belonging to persecuted ethnic groups.
Labor Organizing
Teachers, bus drivers, and factory workers arrested for forming independent unions or demanding fair wages.
Every Day Behind Bars
For political prisoners in Iran, every single day is a battle for survival — physically, psychologically, and spiritually. The dangers they face are not hypothetical; they are documented, recurring, and deliberate:
- Medical neglect: Prisoners with serious conditions — cancer, heart disease, injuries from torture — are routinely denied medical treatment as a form of punishment. Several prisoners have died in custody from treatable illnesses.
- Torture & abuse: Physical beatings, stress positions, mock executions, sleep deprivation, and threats against family members are standard interrogation techniques.
- Solitary confinement: Prisoners are held in isolation for weeks or months, deprived of sunlight, human contact, and any sense of time — designed to break their will.
- Execution risk: Iran executes more people per capita than almost any country on earth. Political prisoners, especially those charged with moharebeh, live under the constant shadow of the gallows.
- Family punishment: Families of prisoners face harassment, surveillance, job loss, travel bans, and arrest themselves. The regime punishes not just the individual but everyone connected to them.
- Erasure: Perhaps the cruelest tool: the regime attempts to erase prisoners from public memory. Deaths in custody are covered up. Graves are unmarked. Families are forced into silence.
What NameByName Is
NameByName.org is a searchable, bilingual (English/Farsi) database of Iran's political prisoners. It is designed to serve as:
A Living Archive
Continuously updated with new cases, status changes, and verified information from human rights organizations and firsthand sources.
A Research Tool
Filterable by city, prison, gender, and status — enabling journalists, researchers, and advocates to find and cross-reference cases.
A Memorial
For those who have been executed, died in custody, or remain disappeared — their names live here when the regime wants them forgotten.
An Act of Solidarity
Every visit, every search, every share is a message to prisoners and their families: the world has not looked away.
This project is non-partisan and independent. We do not represent any political faction. Our sole mission is the documentation of truth and the defense of human dignity.
How You Can Help
Share this database. Say their names. Write to your representatives. Support organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center that work tirelessly to document these cases. Silence protects the oppressor — never the victim.
Explore the Database