27 July 1988: Iranian prisoners massacred

On 27 July 1988, the massacre of prisoners in Iranian jails most likely began (although the exact date is unknown). Initially prisoners who supported the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran were targeted, but in late August, communist and left-wing prisoners began to be murdered. Leftists were questioned about their religious beliefs, and as most of them were atheists they were designated as "apostates". Many left-wing women were spared, as most of them were not deemed to have enough autonomy to be considered "apostates", although many were brutally whipped if they refused to pray. One woman, Baradaran, later stated that some of her friends killed themselves by drinking cleaning products to escape the horrors. Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, one of the leaders of the 1979 revolution and who was the designated successor to the supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, estimated that there were 500 leftist prisoners at the time, many of whom were killed, in addition to up to 3,800 Mojahedin. Soon after the massacre, Montazeri split with Khomeini over what he believed were to be fundamental violations of human rights.