By CHARLES HARRISON
Fri, Mar 10, 2023
EXCLUSIVE – Over six months since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, what started as protests at restrictive laws on women’s clothing has turned into an “uprising unlike any other”.
A major protest is erupting on a weekly basis in Iran in a direct challenge to the brutal regime’s threats. Iranian police often appear at the protest in Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan and Baluchestan province in the south of the country, and reportedly resort to violence to try and shut it down. However, the protest goes ahead regardless, putting “the utter weakness of the regime on display on a weekly basis.”
Dr Ramesh Sepehrrad, Iranian human rights researcher and Vice President at Comcast, the largest TV conglomerate in the US, explained the importance of the Zahedan protest.
She told Express.co.uk: “Every week, there is a very clear announcement that they are going to have a major rally, and that major rally takes place despite regimes preparation to crack down, intimidate, arrest and even fire at people. It puts the utter weakness of the regime on display on a weekly basis.”
As the Iranian uprising continues to rage, a US resolution seeks to codify support for an entirely new system of government in the country, representing a real existential threat to the current regime.
Dr Sepehhrad highlighted the incredible resilience of the protests, and said that where before the Iranian people lived in fear, now the regime is doing the same. The human rights researcher, whose parents and sister were arrested by Iran’s fundamentalist regime in the 1980s for publishing pro-democracy literature, said: “What’s fascinating about this, what makes this uprising unlike any other uprising, is first of all, the six months of endurance. Then there is the fact that the fear has shifted from the public to the regime.”
Her words were echoed by Yasmin, a young woman who has taken part in the protests and whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity.
Yasmin told Express.co.uk: “There is no way back this time. It’s unstoppable. This time, people are angrier than ever. And it’s like finally, we believe that we can change it, and we don’t stop anymore. We won’t get silenced or shut down anymore and now all are united together.”
The Iranian government’s brutal crackdown on protesters has been condemned by the international community, with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly yesterday announcing sanctions aimed at human rights violators.
The package, according to the government’s report, sanctions the Headquarters for Enjoining Rights and Forbidding Evil in Iran, and its head official Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani. The report states they have been “responsible for the enforcement of mandatory dress codes for women with unreasonable force”
Joe Biden’s administration similarly announced fresh action against Iranian leaders yesterday, in the tenth round of financial sanctions from the US since the protests first kicked off.
But the international condemnation needs to be more consistent, Dr Majid Sadeghpour, political director for the Organisation of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), said.
