A prominent group of Iranians in exile, human rights activists and families of dual-national political prisoners has called on the west to do more to help Iranians’ demands for freedom. The EU, US and UK have imposed largely symbolic travel bans and asset freezes on a dozen security officials linked to a crackdown on people protesting in Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The west has not broken off talks with the Iranian regime over the 2015 nuclear deal or downgraded diplomatic relations. An open letter, signed by 77 people, accuses the regime of attacking its citizens from within, in the same way as Russia is attacking Ukraine from the outside. Its signatories include Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian academic and former political prisoner; Elika Ashoori, the daughter of the freed British political prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori; and Kazem Moussavi, the German Green party spokesperson on Iran. The letter is striking partly because it has brought together the often divided and dispersed Iranian opposition movement. The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has acknowledged that the west may need to do more to punish Iran, but has been reluctant to link the fate of political prisoners to the future of the nuclear deal. Many European capitals sympathise with the protests, but assess that the repression will win out. The letter says: “These young Iranians are bold and brave and not willing to give into the ruthlessness of the regime any longer. They are fighting for their life and they are fighting with their lives. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is antagonising their own population by imprisoning, torturing and killing. And it is antagonising the ‘free world’ with a cruel game of chess, with a hostage-taking policy using dual citizens or non-Iranian citizens as pawns. Torturing them in solitary confinement, denying them basic human rights, destroying their lives and those of their families. It continues: “Democratic countries have a responsibility to speak out and have a choice to make: will we side with the oppressor or with the ones screaming for freedom and justice? While Ukrainians are battling an outside invader, Iranians are fighting an inside enemy – the regime. The ‘free world’ has proven that it is capable of supporting the fight for freedom of Ukraine, sanctions have been decided within days, clear actions have been taken. “Now is the time to take action and to support the Iranian people in their struggle against a dictatorship.” The signatories argue the protests are not just about the death of Amini, but based on the consequences of four decades of oppression. People in Iran, the letter says, just want “to be able to laugh and live, to love and dance, to study and work, to have an opinion and to be allowed to express it, to have a choice and to be allowed to make a decision, to be free”.