While the world is focused on other parts of the Middle East, the Iranian people are fighting their own battles against a harsh government crackdown on women who unveil, and a ramp up in arrests and use of the death penalty.
As the world's attention focuses on the prospect of a regional war in the Middle East, 31-year-old mother of two, Arezou Badri , lays in a hospital bed in Tehran, seriously wounded.
On April 4, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described unveiling as "a religious and political sin". It set the stage for more stringent laws and powers allowing Iran's authorities to target women who defy the state's orders.Shortly after the speech, the country's general police chief announced the use of city cameras and face-recognition technology to identify women who violate the hijab law.
A demonstrator holds a drawing of Mahsa Jina Amini, who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic of Iran’s “morality police” in September 2022.Amini died on September 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the country's morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
Iran's parliament is close to passing laws, under the Bill to Support the Culture of Chastity and Hijab, which Amnesty says would expand the powers and capabilities of intelligence and security bodies including Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij force and the police to control and further oppress women and girls.
"They are either not following the mandatory dress code or singing in public. And these acts are truly brave, because they can land you in prison very easily."Loading TikTok content"She's been arrested for weeks now, and we haven't heard any information about her, but this shows another way people are resisting and artists are resisting," Ghandehari says.
Ghandehari says it's surprising the authorities chose to film Badri while she was in a bad health condition, but that's how far the government will go to make sure that a case doesn't spark another protest around the country. Activists say Iran's government targets anyone who speaks out, but especially if they are high profile and have a history of criticising the regime.
There's the case of high-profile Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was first detained in October 2022 and has since been repeatedly arrested on shifting charges that human rights groups say have no basis.The rapper remains in a jail, with many fearing he's health is gravely deteriorating because of the injuries he got during alleged torture his previous incineration.
Mazarin Boniadi at a protest rally in support of the #WomenLifeFreedom movement. She says Iran is a state using "violence, executions, arbitrary detention and unfair trials as a tool of repression"."There is not rational reasoning behind anything they do. This is a regime that uses state violence, executions, arbitrary detention and unfair trials as a tool of repression. It is a system under which impunity reigns. And they do all this to prevent further dissent.
While more than half of the executions carried out last year were for drug offences, the death penalty is used for offences including "armed rebellion", "spreading corruption on earth", and "waging war against God", which UN experts says are vague charges are applied against dissidents of Iran's regime, in clear breach of international standards.
"This is a really unprecedented step and an unprecedented escalation of the crackdown on people's human rights, but also on women's human rights," White says.The Center for Human Rights in Iran recently published a report high numbers of border couriers, primarily from Iran's Kurdish and Baluchi minorities, had been killed in the first eight months of 2024.
"We expressed our concerns when it first came about in 2021," White says noting it will create a 'cocoon of silence' by allowing the regime to track citizens online as well as blocking them from visiting certain websites.
Mahsa Amini Anniversary Women Life Freedom Iran Protests Iran War Iran Uprising Iran Revolution Iran Iran News Regional War Arezou Badri Nazanin Boniadi Roya Boroumand Iran Regime Irgic Iranian Diaspora Ali Khamenei Masoud Pezeshkian Toomaj Salehi Amnesty Internationa Human Rights Human Rights Iran Activists Iranian Iranians Fact Finding Mission United Nations Executions Death Penalty
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