Eye on Iran's Protests - December 21, 2023

The Woman, Life, Freedom movement has gained new momentum. Videos of Iranians dancing—a direct affront to the Islamic Republic—went viral on X. In an effort to stifle these and other acts of peaceful civil disobedience, the regime has murdered over 500 individuals in connection with the movement in cold blood. Several protesters have been hung from cranes for public display to further the atmosphere of fear.

Iranians posted videos of themselves dancing in public, which the Islamic Republic bans. The outpouring of dancing videos began with one of a middle-aged man named Sadegh Boughi, grooving to clapping and chanting onlookers outside of a fish market in Rasht, Iran.

The European Parliament awarded Mahsa Amini—whose death at the hands of the so-called Morality Police in September 2022 spurred the Woman, Life, Freedom movement—and the brave people of Iran with the Sakharov Prize. However, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barred Amini’s family from traveling to Strasbourg to receive the honor.

Masih Alinejad, an outspoken Iranian-American activist, received the International Journalism Award from the Women's Foreign Policy Group at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. She dedicated the award “to the Iranian women who have either lost their lives or are currently imprisoned for protesting or seeking justice.”

Vahid Beheshti, a British-Iranian activist, has been calling for the government of the United Kingdom (U.K.) to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization throughout 293 days and counting of a sit-in protest outside the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in the U.K.

While 2023 Noble Peace Prize-winner Narges Mohammadi is languishing in the notorious Evin Prison in Iran because of her human rights activism, her children, 17-year-old Ali and Kiana Rahmani, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on their mother’s behalf in Oslo, Norway. Narges Mohammadi faced a third trial on Tuesday in Tehran and refused to appear before the court, describing it as a “slaughterhouse.”

Israeli-Iranian singer Liraz Charhi performed in Berlin with a Woman, Life, Freedom flag.