This article is published in the Jerusalem Post, 12 December 2022
On September 13, 2022
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman from a Kurdish family, was with her
brother in Tehran when she was arrested by Iran’s infamous morality police. Her nominal offense was that she was wearing
her hijab “improperly”. Mahsa, who also went by the Kurdish name
Jhina, was taken to the Vozara Detention Centre, where she
collapsed. Three days later she died. According to media reports,
her head had been banged against a vehicle and she had been beaten on the head
with a baton. The authorities stated that she died of natural causes.
Inspired by their young
women, the Iranian nation erupted in protest. Thousands took to the streets in
cities across the country. Very soon the
demonstrations had spread to all 31 of the country's provinces. At first they were directed against the
severe dress code imposed on women and enforced by the morality police. But soon the protesters began targeting the
regime itself and the Supreme Leader, and posters with the slogan “Death to the
Dictator” began appearing. Security forces responded with pellet guns and tear
gas, and finally live ammunition.
Soon it became
impossible to conceal the fact that people were being shot dead on the
streets. On December 3 the state
security council of the Iranian interior ministry issued a statement, giving
the total number of people killed as 200.
It described those shot as members of the security forces, people involved
in terrorist acts, those killed by foreign-affiliated groups but falsely
described as having been killed by the state, rioters and “armed
anti-revolutionary elements who were members of secessionist groups”.
Iran’s establishment,
hitherto watertight on state security issues, started to fracture. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a top general in the
IRGC, went public to say that more than 300 people had been “martyred and
killed” during the unrest. A number of foreign-based
rights organizations declared that his figure was an under-estimate, and put
the death toll at more than 400. On December 8 the BBC quoted a Human Rights
Activists' News Agency (HRANA) assessment of those so far killed by the
security forces as 475.
December 8 was also the
day of Iran’s first execution of a citizen for participating in the current
unrest. Mohsen Shekari was hanged, after being found guilty by a Revolutionary
Court of fighting and drawing a weapon. Death sentences have been handed down
to at least 10 other people, arrested during the protests.
"I'm absolutely
horrified, shocked, and outraged at Mohsen Shekari's execution," said Javaid
Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur in a radio broadcast, adding that there was
evidence that Shekari had been tortured, and that he had been denied access to
a lawyer. “A show trial without any due
process,” was how one activist put it.
The extent of the
frustration experienced by huge swaths of the Iranian people has been brought
home to Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a particularly personal way.
His niece, Farideh
Moradkhani, a well-known rights activist opposed to the Iranian regime, was
arrested on November 23. Two days later,
in a video statement shared by her brother, she called on people around the
world to urge their governments to cut ties with the Iranian regime.
“Be with us,” she urged, “and tell your
governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime…Now, in
this critical moment in history, all humanity is observing that the Iranian
people, with empty hands, with exemplary courage and bravery are fighting the
evil forces.”
Then on December 6, Badri Hosseini Khamenei, the Supreme Leader’s sister, published an open letter castigating her brother’s actions.
“The regime of the
Islamic Republic,” she wrote, “…has brought nothing but suffering and
oppression to Iran and Iranians. I hope
to see the victory of the people and the overthrow of this tyranny ruling Iran
soon…I oppose my brother’s actions,” she continued, “and I express my sympathy
with all mothers mourning the crimes of the regime, from the time of Khomeini
to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei.”
Badri Khamenei included
criticism of the way her daughter had been arrested. If this was the way Khamenei’s police treated
his own niece, “it is clear that they will inflict thousands of times more
violence on the oppressed sons and daughters of others."
With members of his own
family denouncing his leadership and his regime, Khamenei must be feeling both
anger and humiliation. There was
widespread speculation last week that the regime was offering the public the
considerable concession of disbanding the notorious morality police. The
Iranian attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, appeared to imply that the
country's morality police might be a thing of the past. He said enigmatically: "The morality
police had nothing to do with the judiciary and have been shut down from where
they were set up." Iran watchers
are still scratching their heads about his exact meaning.
Meanwhile Iran remains a seething cauldron of opposition to the regime, which is being met by increasing levels of suppression. Will the anger and resentment eventually boil over into outright revolution? Many believe the regime is sufficiently grounded to contain and outlive the current wave of protest. Others hope that this is the beginning of the end for Iran’s Islamic republic.
Published in the Jerusalem Post, 12 December 2022:https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-724611
No comments:
Post a Comment