DEATH SENTENCE TO FIRST PROTESTER
Iranian authorities claim that a judge has punished the nation’s first protester with a definitive death sentence, according to official television.
A Revolutionary Court in Tehran apparently found an unidentified prisoner guilty of “enmity against God” and setting fire to a public institution. A different court used the public safety and national security justifications to sentence five individuals to prison terms ranging from five to ten years.
Iran had been in a deep internal crisis following the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested by morality police for allegedly violating the strict hijab requirements and protests against Iran’s religious establishment erupted two months ago.
These protests were threatening, violent, and righteous and saw the highest number of Iranian women participating in decades. They are said to have multiplied to 140 cities and towns and grown into the Islamic Republic’s biggest threat in more than a decade. But Iran’s response to these protests have been undermining the people and calling them “mere riots” and instead of enforcing change they seem to have begun a brutal crackdown on these civilians that has been nothing short of Orwellian, in a pathetic attempt to curb down what Iranian activist Masih Alinejad rightly called “the beginning of a revolution.”
Iran Human Rights claims that 326 protestors, including 43 children and 25 women, had died as a result of security forces’ brutal crackdown. Another news source operating outside the nation, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), has reported that 341 people have died and 15,800 demonstrators have been imprisoned. Additionally, 39 security staff deaths have been reported.
There is almost no hope that detained protesters, onlookers, and writers of the insurrection will receive fair justice. Iran’s security forces control the judiciary, which is biased against the accused. Rights organisations caution that these trials are bogus and that inmates are frequently coerced or tortured into making false confessions based on fabricated evidence.
The most concerning fact is the violence against children. Teenage boys and girls have been at the forefront of protests and altercations with security personnel in public spaces, on college campuses, and in high schools. The average age of demonstrators, according to Iranian officials, is 15.
The lives of countless students have been upended as a result of authorities raiding schools in an effort to quell opposition. Some have been beaten and jailed, others have been shot and killed on the streets, or have been beaten while in the custody of security forces.
Young People of Iran affected most
Another extremely concerning and violative fact of the matter is how virgin women are to be raped before execution to “prevent them from entering heaven”, reports say. This is clearly a grave crime against humanity, and the amount of young girls who will be forced to endure this trauma right before death increases daily as Iran continues to be on it’s 8th week of crackdown.
“Living in Iran as of now, it is a fate worse than death” said one unnamed girl who was detained for the protests.
According to interviews with two dozen people, including lawyers in Iran working in cases and rights advocates, as well as parents, relatives, and teens living in, authorities are targeting thousands of youngsters, under the age of 18, for taking part in the protests. The UN issued a report and statement regarding the same, “Iran protests: Reports of child deaths, detentions are deeply worrying on 18 October 2022” urging Iran to stop this atrocity however things continue to have gotten worse with the latest death sentence.
Several demonstrators are facing charges that might result in the death penalty. They include Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, the two female Iranian journalists who assisted in breaking the story of Amini, as well as Toomaj Salehi, a rapper who was detained after taking part in the demonstrations and releasing songs that backed their cause. Authorities have falsely claimed that the two are CIA agents. Since late September, they have been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison complex, which is infamous for alleged extensive human rights violations.
Activist Hossein Ronaghi’s family said on Sunday that they had lost communication with him after he was moved to a hospital in the Evin jail and that his life was in danger.
Ronaghi is on a hunger strike in opposition to his September 24 arrest. According to Ronaghi’s relatives, he has kidney disease and both of his legs were fractured while he was inside.
The Islamaic Republic has received international criticism and worldwide outcry so far with EU set to pile more sanctions on Iran over violent crackdown on protesters, and The UK stating they “stand with the people of Iran as they demand fundamental freedoms” at UN General Assembly Third Committee Interactive Dialogue on human rights in Iran, and French President Macron calling Iran protests a ‘revolution’, vowing to impose more sanctions and stating that these “crackdowns harms nuclear deal chances” thereby attempting to convince Iranian nationals to stop these outright human rights violations.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has seen protests before. But not like this.
No matter how much the authorities still try to dismiss and discredit them as “rioters influenced by foreigners” the truth of the matter remains, that the young people are disillusioned by the government and will continue to demand and fight for their fundamental right to life, religion, to speech and most importantly to freedom.
With spectacular images of women of all ages strolling bareheaded in public places and adolescent schoolgirls defying social expectations, it’s difficult to imagine Iran going back to the time when so-called morality police could regulate women’s attire the way they have for decades. More than just what women wear is now at issue. And though to protect the Islamic Republic, the authorities will take any necessary measures but the Iranian demonstrators, particularly a younger generation of women and men, appear to be prepared to go to any lengths to improve their lot in life as well as other’s. What the people of the nation need right now is a voice, a global support.
Read More: https://tdznkwjt9mxt6p1p8657.cleaver.live/russia-accuses-west-of-militarizing-southeast-asia/: Iran issues 1st death sentence, receives international criticism for “brutal crackdown”
