Eye on Iran's Protests - September 14, 2023

September 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of Iran. Masha Amini was detained by the “morality police” for allegedly violating mandatory hijab rules, and she suffered severe beatings that led to her falling into a coma. Her subsequent death sparked the nation-wide Woman, Life, Freedom movement to which the regime has responded with a brutal crackdown. Over 500 dissidents have been killed and 20,000 have been arrested in connection with the movement.

This map shows the location of documented protests, strikes, and civil disobedience in Iran over the past week.

Women in Iran who took part in Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations spoke to France 24.

Regime forces opened fire on protesters in Marivan on September 14, 2023.

Safa Aeli, the uncle of Mahsa Amini, was arrested on September 12, 2023 in Iran.

U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney visited an emotional photo exhibit in Washington D.C. honoring the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini's tragic passing.

In a piece for Haaretz, journalist Jonathan Harounoff looked at what has changed for women in Iran since the Woman, Life, Freedom movement began one year ago.

UANI Policy Director and Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute Jason Brodsky wrote for the Atlantic Council that the U.S. must ensure any nuclear strategy it implements does not empower, legitimize, and resource a fundamentally illegitimate regime in Iran.

In an interview with France 24, exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said that “we are entering a new phase of resistance in Iran.”

Regime security forces summoned Mahsa Amini’s father for “questioning,” a euphemism for intimidation.

Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Holly Dagres told AFP “Two events, Tehran arming Russia with armed drones for its war in Ukraine and the ongoing anti-establishment protests after the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini, have made the topic of Iran politically toxic” for engagement.

Military forces and police officers deployed to Tehran and other cities.

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, delivered remarks on the House Floor supporting U.S. Representative Jim Banks’s bipartisan MAHSA Act. Only three members of the House voted against the act, which would require the president to sanction the supreme leader of Iran and the president of Iran under human rights and terrorist authorities.

The Islamic Republic’s agents killed Hamed Bagheri in Karaj, Alborz.

Iranian regime forces killed Hamed Bagheri in Golshahr, and recently released his deceased body to his family on the condition that they publicly state his death was not connected to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.

Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security hosted a panel discussion about the history of women's rights in Iran, the current movement, and the regime's totalitarianism.

Carnegie Endowment Senior Fellow Karim Sadjadpour wrote an essay in TIME magazine about the decaying Islamist regime in Iran.

Iranian human rights activist and diaspora community leader, Nazanin Boniadi, published an essay in TIME magazine, noting that today millions of Iranian university students, worker’s unions, dissidents, ethnic, religious, sexual and other minority groups recognize that the status of women and girls is inextricably bound to the inclusive democracy they seek.

Amnesty International has documented the regime’s commission of serious human rights abuses, including murder, torture, detainment, and arbitrary execution—crimes for which the regime’s leaders have not paid a price.

“We're dealing with a diabolical and evil [Iranian] regime,” U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney said in a meeting with Iranian activist Masih Alinejad.

Under a new law, women in Iran will face up to 10 years in prison if they defy the compulsory hijab. Businesses also face closure for serving women who violate the harsh dress code. UN experts say the stricter dress code amounts to “gender apartheid.”