According to the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, 27 Kurds have been arrested since Jan. 22. Two other activists were summoned and interrogated in relation to the strike. 

The general strike on Wednesday came after six political groups — the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), the Kurdistan Freedom Party, the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran — issued a joint statement on Jan. 20 calling for the action. 

The purpose of the strike, according to the statement, was to “prevent the death penalty and to save the lives of people whose only ‘crime’ was their love for the people and their struggle for freedom and equality,” referring to the death sentences handed last year to Pakhshan Azizi and Verisheh Moradi.