Mahsa Amini’s death set off protests in dozens of cities across the country of 80 million people, with young women marching in the streets and publicly exposing and cutting off their hair
September 16, 2023 11:08 am | Updated 11:59 am IST – WASHINGTON
A photo of Mahsa Amini is pictured at a condolence meeting. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
President Joe Biden announced new U.S. sanctions on Friday on “some of Iran’s most egregious human rights abusers” as he marked the anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by the country’s morality police.
Amini had been detained for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely in violation of laws that require women in public to wear the Islamic headscarf. She died three days later in police custody.
Her death set off protests in dozens of cities across the country of 80 million people, with young women marching in the streets and publicly exposing and cutting off their hair. The government responded with a fierce crackdown, blaming the protests on foreign interference.
Amini remains a potent symbol in protests that have posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement protests drew millions to the streets.
Mr. Biden said Friday that the U.S. reaffirms its “commitment to the courageous people of Iran who are carrying on her mission.”
“They are inspiring the world with their resilience and resolve. And together with our allies and partners, we stand with them,” he said.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Friday listed 29 people and organizations in connection with Amini’s death, including members of the government’s security forces and the head of Iran’s Prisons Organization. It also sanctioned the semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and state television’s English-language arm Press TV.
In Frames | Iran protests: Bare heads, steely hearts
Rising high: Thousands making their way towards the Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini’s home town in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, to mark 40 days since her death, defying heightened security measures as part of a crackdown on women-led protests.
Burning issue: People light a fire during a protest against moral policing in Tehran.
Locks off: Nasibe Samsaei, an Iranian woman living in Turkey, cuts her hair during a protest outside the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.
Taking a stand: A demonstration outside Iran’s Consulate in London.
In solidarity: People holding placards at the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, Greece.
Loud and clear: A woman raising slogans in front of the Iranian Embassy in Madrid, Spain.
In one voice: A protester in the German capital Berlin gives a clarion call for freedom.
In memory: Syrian Kurdish women taking part in a demonstration in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakeh.
Support for regime: Iranians taking part in a pro-hijab rally in the Tajrish Square, north of Tehran.
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The Iranian semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian dismissed the sanctions as a joke. “The sanctions that the Americans are imposing against Iran these days are more like a joke; Sometimes we see that the names of some people who died a few years ago are mentioned in these lists,” Amirabdollahian said.
Tasnim, reporting on the sanctions, called them “repetitive actions [that] are not considered a new issue for the bodies that protect the country’s security.”
In addition, the State Department imposed visa restrictions on 13 Iranian officials and others for their involvement in killing or detaining peaceful protesters or censoring them via a country-wide internet shutdown in Iran.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. would designate 25 Iranian people, three state-backed media outlets, and an internet research firm in connection with the Iranian regime’s suppression of nationwide protests. Taken in coordination with the U.K., Canada, Australia, and other nations, this is the United States’ 13th round of sanctions designations in response to Iran’s crackdown on protests.
“We will continue to take appropriate action, alongside our international partners, to hold accountable those who suppress Iranians’ exercise of human rights,” Mr. Blinken said.
In Brussels, the European Union announced that it had slapped asset freezes and travel bans on four officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to mark the anniversary.
The 27-nation bloc also imposed asset freezes on four prisons and the Tasnim news agency. EU citizens are banned from providing funds or economic resources to the prisons and people listed.
“The European Union expresses its support for the fundamental aspiration of the people of Iran for a future where their universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, protected, and fulfilled,” a statement said.
Iranian authorities said Amini had a heart attack. Her family has disputed that.
The U.S. has already sanctioned over 70 Iranian people and entities “responsible for supporting the regime’s oppression of its people,” Biden said.
