Act for Iran: Free Ebook & How to Help Iranians 2026

Actions by the time you actually have

How to write a letter that gets read

Staff sort constituent mail in seconds. A letter that survives the sort has five features:

1. Your address first, so it is filed as a constituent rather than a campaign.
2. One specific ask — proscribe the IRGC in full, sanction a named official, expedite a named asylum case, summon the ambassador — not “do something about Iran”.
3. One named person or one sourced figure, with the source in a footnote.
4. A question that requires an answer, such as what position the member will take in the next relevant vote or debate.
5. Under 250 words. Longer letters are summarised by staff and lose the ask.

Digital security and verification

• Check the date and location of footage before sharing; if you cannot establish either, say so in the post or do not post it.
• Blur or crop faces of protesters inside Iran; facial-recognition matching against protest footage is documented practice.
• Prefer monitors' own accounts as the source of numbers, and link to their report rather than a screenshot of it.
• When a blackout begins, expect a lag of days before verified figures appear — the silence is not the absence of violence, and the first confident number is usually the least reliable one.

If you work inside an institution

Journalists can request the archive's source register and quote the contested figures accurately rather than rounding them — see the press page. Lawyers can contribute to universal-jurisdiction files in states that permit them. Academics can cite and stress-test the methodology. Teachers have a full unit on the teaching page. Technologists can help with mirroring, archiving and circumvention. Employers and universities can extend deadlines and visa support for Iranian students and staff whose families are affected — a quiet, concrete measure that people inside those institutions consistently name as the most useful thing anyone did for them.

Whatever the route, the principle is the same: sustained, specific and sourced beats loud and general. The record on the world's response shows that governments move when a demand is narrow enough to be conceded.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most useful thing one person can do?

Adopt one case. Choose one detained or sentenced person, learn their name, charge and prison, and raise it repeatedly with your representatives, local media and any Iranian diplomatic mission in your country. Sustained attention on a named individual has repeatedly delayed executions; a one-off post has not.

Does contacting my elected representative actually change anything?

It changes what they prioritise. Legislators track constituent correspondence by topic, and proscription debates, sanctions listings and asylum rules move when a subject stays in their inbox. Ask for one specific action rather than general concern.

How can I help during an internet blackout in Iran?

Amplify verified reports from established monitors rather than unverified footage, note the time and source of everything you share, and support circumvention tools and access projects. Spreading a misattributed video during a blackout hands the state an easy way to discredit accurate reports.

Is it safe to contact people inside Iran?

Assume any contact may be monitored and that risk falls on them, not you. Follow their lead on platforms and timing, never publish identifying details without explicit consent, and do not tag or name people inside Iran in public posts about protests.

Where does donated money do the most good?

To organisations that document cases, provide legal defence and support families of prisoners and the killed. The archive itself takes no government, party or corporate funding; the donate page explains what it does and does not accept.

What should I avoid doing?

Sharing unverified casualty figures, amplifying footage without location or date, speaking on behalf of Iranians rather than platforming them, and attaching the cause to a single exile faction. Each of these is used inside Iran to dismiss the wider record.