The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zina Amini at the hands of the 'morality police' was fuel for the protests, but an already aggrieved populace have long been used to widespread human rights violations
Opinion: To understand the awe-inspiring bravery roaring out of Iran right now, you need to look at the graffiti around Iranian cities which speak of the realities of life under the Islamic Republic. One reads, “you cannot kill me because I am already dead”. For ‘life’ under the Islamic Republic is one of restrictions and brutal repression, arbitrary violence, and an absence of the rule of law.
For three months, the streets of Iran have witnessed tens of thousands of protestors risking their lives to demand justice and freedom, mass nationwide strikes of businesses, including oil and steel factories, and boycotts of schools and universities. Each act has been unprecedented, and every step taken trailblazing.
What is not new, however, is how these acts have been met by the Islamic Republic and its security forces. At the time of writing, more than 469 protestors have been killed (including 63 children and 32 women), more than 18,200 have been unlawfully detained and tortured, and at least 39 protestors are at risk of execution or death penalty sentences.
As hundreds of protestors undergo ‘sham and show’ trials – no access to lawyers, no collection of evidence – ‘harsh penalties’ are being handed down and two executions of protestors have already been carried out. Authorities hanged Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard from cranes in public killings days after their ‘trials’ in the revolutionary court, each lasting a few minutes, with trumped-up charges including “waging war against God”. They were 23.
As distressing and disturbing as these numbers are, human rights groups place the numbers much higher. For those familiar with the Islamic Republic, these numbers are heartbreaking but they are not surprising. They are reflections of 43 long years of egregious human rights violations.
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It is imperative that people who do not live in Iran and have not lived under the Islamic Republic better understand the seriousness of these violations taking place. The Islamic Republic cares about international perceptions of the regime because it leads to actions that can destabilise its economic and political standing. Over the past month alone, the international community has taken unprecedented, historic steps towards holding the Islamic Republic to account for its human rights violations.
On 24 November 2022, the United Nations' (UN) highest human rights body, the Human Rights Council, passed a resolution to set up an independent, international fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations taking place and to gather evidence to hold perpetrators to account. It was the first of its kind related to Iran and was passed by a majority of member states (25 in favour, six against, 16 abstaining).
Heightened international pressure also resulted in the Islamic Republic being removed as a member of the highest global body on women’s rights, the UN Commission on the Status of Women – the first of its kind in UN history. Given Iran is ranked 150 out of 156 countries in the Global Gender Gap index, did it ever have any place on the highest international body on women’s rights? Reconsidering the Islamic Republic as a member was one more step towards aligning international human rights mechanisms and processes with the realities and needs of domestic and local human rights breaches and violations.
Let there be no doubt these two historic moments were only made possible by the persistent and committed advocacy of individuals and groups around the world, including from within Iran, who have worked tirelessly to bring to light the realities of life (and death) under the Islamic Republic, and for the people around the world watching, reading, and listening, to channel their sentiments into action too. Civil society organisations, governments, and the wider public had campaigned and mobilised for months to push for these unprecedented resolutions to pass. These two efforts serve as another reminder of the power of collective empathy in action.
For people in Iran, protesting, striking, and boycotting is worth the risk of death because they have nothing left to lose
For the roughly 60 percent of Iran’s population under 30, draconian and repressive practices in the country mean restrictions on freedom of movement, freedom of belief, and freedom of speech and association, among numerous other human rights violations, including all too often, the right to life, liberty and security.
These young people have grown up in a country they never asked for. A country where women and girls are considered second-class citizens unable to dress how they wish, forbidden to enter football stadiums, unable to dance in public or ride a bike, and where adultery is punishable by stoning; where religious and ethnic minorities such as Bahá'ís, Baloch, and Kurds are not fully recognised by the law, their rights to education, work and safety curtailed or denied, and where arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings have been commonplace; a country where journalists, political dissidents, and artists are regularly silenced, imprisoned and tortured.
For people in Iran, protesting, striking, and boycotting is worth the risk of death because they have nothing left to lose. As one protest sign at the University of Tehran reads, “hope will not be executed”. While the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zina Amini by the “morality police” was a spark that lit these protests, it was more fuel to an aggrieved populace that had been pouring for decades.
Widespread human rights violations and brutalities committed by the regime have long been deepening in an environment swelling with religious authoritarianism, entrenched social and economic inequalities, and civil and political repression. There is not one Iranian who does not know someone who has been denied their fundamental human rights, including the right to life. In a context of injustice and inequality, change has been an inevitable, ferocious cry.
So as the youth and people of Iran continue to exercise their rights on the streets, as international athletes, film directors, artists and actresses enter public spaces without their mandatory hijab or make videos in solidarity, and as detainees are tortured and face execution, the world’s attention should be steady and focused. While Iranians are all too familiar with the atrocities, this time we are asking that the world becomes familiar with them too.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is watching for our reaction. Don’t look away.
