The Israeli air strike on Evin Prison – a historic symbol of political repression in the Islamic Republic – set off fires and internal riots and wrecked medical facilities. Built in the 1970s by the Pahlavi regime’s secret police, SAVAK, Evin saw its repressive role grow under the Islamic Republic. For more than 40 years, thousands of political prisoners, journalists, human-rights activists and regime opponents have been held there.

In the 1980s thousands were sentenced to death in summary trials. Repression peaked in the summer of 1988 when, on Ayatollah Khomeini’s direct order, thousands of already-convicted prisoners were quietly executed in Evin and Gohardasht. Among them were dozens of Kurdish political detainees tied to opposition parties such as Komala and the PDKI, killed even though they had served part of their terms.

One was Farzad Kamangar, who became a symbol of Kurdish resistance and systemic injustice. A teacher, poet and advocate of free education, he was arrested in 2006 and, after months of........

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