Produced in collaboration with SBS Persian
TRANSCRIPT
There has been a resurgence of violence on the streets of Iran, with videos surfacing on social media of Morality Police renewing their crackdown on women.
They are heeding the order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in April, that flouting hijab is religiously and politically ‘haram’ - forbidden.
This is Nikita White, International Issues Campaigner for Amnesty International Australia.
“What we have documented in recent months … is an increase in the surveillance of women on a mass scale, particularly that women have been surveilled while driving.”
It comes almost two years since the start of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement -
Which led to the arrest of at least 19,000 protesters, several facing death sentences.
Experts like Sara Kowal, vice president of the Capital Punishment Justice Project, are concerned a rise in capital punishment comes as the world’s attention is turned elsewhere.
“Global politics including the conflict in the Middle East is really distracting global focus on what is happening and this really dramatic increase in state sanctioned killing in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
According to Amnesty International, last year Iran executed at least 853 people, the highest number recorded since 2015.
It marks a 48 per cent increase from 2022, and a 172 per cent increase from 2021.
The trend has continued this year.
According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran, there have been at least 233 reported executions.
This is Nikita White, again:
“This really shows how the Iranian authorities are using the death penalty and executions as a tool to repress dissent but also to strike fear in people. People who have been executed include protesters, people who are expressing their rights to freedom of expression and exercising their rights to freedom of assembly - but they also include hundreds of people who have been executed for drug related offenses, they include members of ethnic minority groups in Iran - and alot of what we see in Iran, is examples of unfair trials and torture in detention.”
Sara Kowal, again:
“Iran is a signatory to the international covenant for civil and political rights. Article 6 really limits the use of the death penalty to most serious offenses and it’s very clear in international law that drug offending or political protest do not reach that threshold at all.”
Mohammad Hashemi knows all too well the brutality of the Iranian authorities.
His cousin Majid Kazemi along with Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi were executed by the regime last year, arrested during a Woman, Life, Freedom protest.
“I was exactly sitting on this couch here, I was checking my phone and keep refreshing and it was three pictures, Majid, Saeed and Saleh and I just saw the word 'execution' and that was the hardest moment of my life.”
On the one-year anniversary of his cousin’s death - he is calling for change-
Protests are planned for Sydney and more than 20 cities around the world tomorrow - raising awareness of those waiting on death row - including Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi - a vocal government critic.
“He was our voice. So we need to be their voice. We should cut the rope and stop this process once forever.There won't, there shouldn't be any more execution in Iran.”
In memory of Majid, Saleh and Saeed, the protest is called ‘Don’t let them kill us’ -
The words handwritten on the last note they smuggled out of prison - just before their execution.
SBS approached the Iranian embassy for comment but did not receive a response.
