Protests, Government Attack On Schoolgirls, Mark Friday In Iran

In a statement after a G7 meeting in Berlin on Friday, German Women’s Minister Lisa Paus and her G7 counterparts appealed to the Islamic Republic to put an end to violence and the suppression of protests in the country, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police. 

“We call on the Iranian government to listen to the concerns of its own people, to respect their rights and to immediately put an end to the ongoing brutal repression of peaceful protests, which stands in contradiction to Iran's obligations under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),” they said. “We applaud the courage of the Iranian women and girls who are peacefully protesting together with their fellow citizens.”

Adopted by the UN General Assembly, the ICCPR – of which Iran is a member -- commits states parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. 

Urging the Iranian government to “put an end to all forms of persecution and violence against all Iranians, especially against Iranian women and girls," they reminded Iran that “Women's rights are human rights, and the Iranian authorities are “obligated under international law to guarantee the equal and full enjoyment of all human rights by all women and girls.”

In a tweet on Friday, the top EU diplomat said he spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, conveying to him “EU's clear and united position: people in Iran have the right to peaceful protest and to defend fundamental rights.”

"Violent repression must stop immediately. Protesters must be released. Internet access and accountability are needed," he added.

According to unconfirmed reports, the EU is set to sanction four entities and 11 high-ranking Iranian military and security officials for their roles in the repression of the uprising, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

Also on Friday, a senior EU official said the EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia, noting that the ministers will not take any decisions on additional Iran sanctions but could reach a political agreement on future sanctions linked to a transfer of drones. 

Despite numerous reports by the Ukrainian military about the use of the Iranian drones by the Russian forces, the 27-nation bloc is still trying to find independent evidence for the use of Tehran-supplied drones in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the official added. 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 10, Russia had used Iran-made drones to attack dozens of civilian targets in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military claimed on October 8 that Russia has sent Iranian military drones to Belarus for possible attacks in western or central parts of Ukraine.

During the meeting on Friday, Blinken said, "We work to support the Iranians who are standing for their fundamental freedoms with extraordinary courage despite the efforts of the regime to deny them the ability to assemble, to speak freely, to communicate with each other."

Iranian-British activist Nazanin Boniadi was among the participants of the meeting. Boniadi is also scheduled to hold another meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris later in the day. Iranian-American writer Roya Hakakian and Iranian-American activist Sherry Hakimi were also present in the meeting, which was also attended by US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

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Blinken mentioned the recent sanctions on the so-called morality police for its “incredibly abusive practices” and efforts to “license technology” so that the Iranians can communicate with one another and the outside world as measures to back the uprising in Iran, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

He said, “the Iranian regime will try to paint this and other expressions of solidarity with those standing up for their freedoms as evidence that these protests are somehow made outside of Iran and the work of others,” noting that the Islamic Republic’s authorities “fundamentally do not understand their own people,” and “the struggle of the people of Iran for the fundamental freedoms that have long been denied them.” “And the sooner the regime understands that and acts on that. The better everyone will be.”

The National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) sent a letter to Blinken October 11, asking the Administration “to reassess its prevailing policy toward Iran and the team of diplomats tasked to implement it.”

His brother Hassan Ronaghi wrote in a tweet on Friday that "the Islamic Republic intends to kill my brother Hossein." 

“They kept him in prison without treatment and medicine, with a broken leg and a sick body, while he is vomiting blood,” he said, emphasizing that his life is in danger.

The dissident blogger and freedom activist was arrested over his support for protests late in September, and prison guards broke his leg in detention. 

He was arrested several times in the past decade and has staged hunger strikes in prison. Ronaghi was first arrested, along with his brother Hassan, in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections in 2009 for helping journalists and political activists to circumvent internet censorship. He was also charged with insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in his blog posts.

In an interview with Germany's Bild published on January 28, Ronaghi spoke about losing his kidney while in Evin Prison. "I'm still suffering from the effects of the torture, but the good thing is that I'm still alive and can continue," he said.

While many top officials in Iran are adamant that the current uprising – sparked after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in hijab police custody -- must be crushed violently, some regime insiders are beginning to explore peaceful alternatives, as protesters take to the streets daily. 

In a letter Thursday, she also submitted 13 recommendations for the Biden administration to reorient US policy towards listening to the demands of the Iranian people, not their oppressive government.

“Decades of repression under reformist, pragmatic, and conservative presidents have made life there unbearable,” she said, adding that “The problems of the regime stem from its revolutionary ideology, ossified leadership, antisemitism, and a structural anti-woman mindset.”

Describing the Islamic Republic as “a radical cause, not an ordinary country," she said, “Iran’s Supreme Leader has consistently prioritized the welfare of his terror proxies over his own people.”

She also called on the US government and its allies in the E3 (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) to halt nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic while it is suppressing protests and throttling the internet.

Alinejad also urged the US to introduce human rights as a condition of continuing nuclear negotiations, emphasizing that Washington should refuse to greenlight release of Tehran’s frozen funds in foreign banks, “conditioning doing so on tangible improvement of the human rights situation.”

She called for the establishment of an independent UN investigative mechanism to hold Iranian leaders and security forces accountable, noting that the Islamic Republic “is incapable of mounting independent investigations on its own" as it has been the case for the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 in 2020.