Showing posts with label Masih Alinejad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masih Alinejad. Show all posts

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Iranians in Miami, and around the world hold freedom rallies and call for Mullahs to be sanctioned. Meanwhile, Biden Administration lifts sanctions on Iran and Russia.

“It’s not important if you are monarchist, republican or religious, raise your hands if you are a victim of the Islamic Republic and unite.” - Masih Alinejad, February 11, 2023

Iranians in Miami hold a freedom rally for Iran, and for Mullahs to be sanctioned.

On February 11, 2023, Iranians around the world protested the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Regime taking power in Iran. In the United States, Iranian activists circulated petitions for the U.S. Congress to pass the Mahsa Act that would impose sanctions on the Iranian regime, and the Mullahs that run it.

Less than 24 hours earlier, on February 10, 2023, the Biden administration informed Congress that it was waiving nonproliferation sanctions on Iran so that Rosatom - Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corporation - could profit without being subject U.S. sanctions.

The waivers roll back the Trump Administration’s sanctions on the Islamic Republic and allow Iran to cooperate with Russia at Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.  This will speed up Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons.

This is madness.

Russia dramatically escalated its invasion of Ukraine on February 22, 2022 and a bloody war has raged on the European continent over the past year with hundreds of thousands dead.  The Biden Administration failed to heed calls to preemptively sanction Russia before Putin widened the war, but imposed them afterwards.

The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to sponsor terrorism, and since nationwide protests erupted in Iran on September 17, 2022 over over 500 nonviolent protesters were killed, and over 19,700 arrested.

Iranian terrorism has also reached the U.S. mainland.

Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad was targeted by the Iranian Intelligence Services in a plot to kidnap her for rendition to Iran, revealed the FBI on July 13, 2021. A little over a year later on July 31, 2022 Khalid Mehdiyev, age 23, was found outside her home with an AK-47, a high-capacity magazine and more than $1,000 in cash. Mehdiyev is from Azerbaijan, and according to Jason Brodsky at the United Against Nuclear Iran nonprofit the dictatorship in Iran has been known to contract "Azeri hitmen to target Israelis in Cyprus."  

In the United States on August 12, 2022 novelist Salman Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed, and nearly died. In 1989,  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's murder and set a $3 million bounty.  Iranian state media celebrated the 2022 attack. Friends of free speech organized readings of Salman Rushdie's work around the world in protest.

 

On an equally ominous front the Iranian Mullahs' foreign minister last week conducted a tour of Latin American dictatorships beginning with Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega openly defended Tehran's right to have nuclear weapons, followed by a visit to Venezuela to meet with dictator Nicolas Maduro, and concluded the tour of despots visiting Miguel Diaz-Canel in Cuba. 

Both Havana and Caracas were on the UN Human Rights Council last year, and sought to cover up the Islamic Regime of Iran's gross and systematic human rights violations in key votes.  Venezuela ran for re-election to the Council, but was voted off.  There is a petition underway to remove Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council, and here is where you can sign it.

Now is not the time to lift sanctions on Russia or Iran, and their respective allies, but to tighten them in response to their illegal actions.  The Iranian opposition is united, and through six months of sustained nationwide protests with hundreds dead, and thousands jailed the Iranian people have demonstrated their rejection of the Islamist regime in Iran. 

Why is the Biden Administration lifting sanctions that will benefit both Russia, and Iran in their nuclear programs?

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Saturday, February 4, 2023

Protests for a Free Iran continue, while the Mullahs respond with brutal repression: a call for solidarity

#WomenLifeFreedom

Nationwide protests in Iran following the killing of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022 have continued to the present day. The Iranian regime continues to respond with extreme brutality. 527 protesters have been killed, and over 19,000 arrested. 

Protests for freedom in Iran continue to take place around the world. A March for Iran will take place in Washington DC on Saturday, February 4th at 2:00pm at Freedom Plaza.

Next week, on February 11th, Iranians will hold a Freedom Rally at the Torch of Friendship in Miami, FL.

Please continue to follow Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih on Twitter and amplify her voice, and that of other Iranian women such as:  Nazanin Nour @NazaninNour, Roya Hakakian @RoyaTheWriter, Nazanin Boniadi @NazaninBoniadi, Nazenin Ansari @NazeninA, Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay @NazaninAJ, and Mariam Memarsadeghi @memarsadeghi.

These Iranian women are connected to what is happening in their homeland, they are providing up to date information on what is going on in Iran, campaigning for international solidarity from governments, organizations, people of good will and they are making history. 

Freedom House, a human rights organization founded in the United States in 1941, is circulating a petition calling for solidarity with Iran.

Martyred Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas on December 17, 2002 in an address to the European Parliament explained the importance of prioritizing human rights and solidarity in the age of globalization. 

"The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized. If there is no solidarity between people we will be unable to preserve a fair world in which it is possible to continue living as human beings. I therefore humbly believe that rather than new models, both for societies and for relations between countries, what we need is a new spirit. 

 This new spirit, which should find expression in solidarity, cooperation, and justice in the relations between countries, will not impede development, because if policies and models are made secondary to personal realization and the establishment of justice and democracy, and if policies are humanized, we will bridge the gulfs that divide peoples and will become a true human family."

The time for solidarity continues. The world is watching. The Iranian people are not alone. We are with you both in spirit and on the streets.

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Saturday, October 15, 2022

Update on the national nonviolent uprising in Iran: #MahsaAmini #ZhinaAmini #WomenLifeFreedom #IranRevolution #IranProtests

Young Iranian women defy hijab law and write "Women, life, freedom"


Update 10/15/22 at 6:15pm 

Evin prison in Tehran that houses prisoners of conscience is on fire. There are reports of explosions and gunfire. This is developing. Please share.

 

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested in Iran by the Morality police on September 13, 2022. They beat her badly, left her in a coma, and she died on September 16th. She was beaten to death for not properly wearing her hijab. A little bit of her hair was visible. 

News of her extrajudicial killing at the hand of agents of the Islamist regime in Iran sparked nationwide protests. Iranians are writing a new chapter in the history of their country. 

On October 7th Sevda Alizadeh, an Iranian-Dutch singer known professionally as Sevdaliza, released the song video "Women, Life, Freedom."

This is the fourth entry on the 2022 Iranian freedom uprising. The first was a call to solidarity on September 23rd, the second was on September 24th focusing on some Iranian voices to follow, and the third on October 8th was an update on the nonviolent uprising.

Tomorrow, October 16th will mark one month since Mahsa's death and the nationwide nonviolent uprising shows no signs of slowing down. Iranian security forces are going into schools and arresting school children, reports The Guardian.

Sadly, repressive forces have shot, tortured, and murdered more young women and men for protesting her killing. This has sparked greater outrage and resolve among Iranians.

Nika Shakarami (age 16) killed by Iranian security forces

On September 20, 2022, 16-year-old Nika Shakarami went missing in Tehran during protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. Ten days later regime officials informed Nika's family of her death.  Mother says she was killed by Iranian security forces.


Hadis Najafi (age 22) was shot and killed by Iranian security forces during protests on September 21, 2022. 

Sarina Esmaeilzadeh (age 16) beaten in the head to death with batons

On September 22, 2022 16-year-old Sarina Esmaeilzadeh joined protests sweeping Iran and was beaten to death by Iranian security forces, reported The Washington Post. She “died after being severely beaten in the head with batons,” according to Amnesty International. At least 23 children have been killed by the Mullah's security forces in Iran over the past month, reports Amnesty International.

PBS News Hour reported, "at least 233 protesters have been killed since demonstrations swept Iran on Sept. 17, according to U.S.-based rights monitor HRANA. The group said 32 among the dead were below the age of 18." 

Regime response to Iranians outrage has been doubling down to shell cities in Iran, and fire indiscriminately on Iranians. This is the beginning of the end of the Islamist regime in Tehran. Workers at oil refineries "in Asaluyeh, some 925 kilometers (575 miles) south of Tehran, on the Persian Gulf" on October 10th protested chanting “shameless” and “death to the dictator,” reports the Associated Press.

There is a revolution underway in Iran and its rallying cry is "Women, Life, Freedom." Let us continue to listen to Iranians, and take actions in solidarity with the Iranian freedom movement. 

Earlier today Firing Line posted the full episode with exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad.

Last night on CNN Nazanin Boniadi spoke about her own experiences with Iran's morality police when she was a 12 year old girl.

Video below from Iran posted earlier today by Masih Alinejad. 

The Mullahs in Iran are captured on a video saying the quiet part out loud, and are exposed by Nazanin Afshin-Jam on October 14th.

 This video posted on October 13th shows courageous girls walking together to protest against gender apartheid. The girls could be killed by Islamic regime agents for walking unveiled.

Voices in Western democracies began to try to compare the fight against "patriarchy" with what is going on in Iran and Mariam Memarsadeghi called them out on it on October 11, 2022.

On October 11th Iran democracy activist and artist Mariam Memarsadeghi shares the testimony of Iranian journalist and talkshow host Sima Sabet before the European Parliament. Her demands are ones that Cuban democrats understand and share in the struggle against the dictatorship in Havana

On October 10th Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad posted video of a  young woman and her sister both hit by shotgun pellets fired by Islamist regime agents. Alinejad said that although "reports say 185 Iranians have been killed, including 19 children, in protests over the murder of Mahsa Amini" that she believes the number killed is much higher.

On October 10th Iranian actress Nazanin Nour posted a video explaining the evolving movement in Iran, and why it is not Islamophobic to support Iranian women burning hijabs. 

On October 9th Navid Mohebbi of NUFDI, a non-partisan, non-profit organization representing the Iranian-American community, shared images of some of the Iranians murdered by the Islamist regime in Tehran.

 

On October 9th in Azad university students engaged in a nonviolent protest against violence and the students wrote only one sentence: “Be our voice”.

Despite the ongoing killings young Iranian women are risking all for freedom.

When a regime has to wage city-wide military assaults on their own citizens it is on its way out.

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Saturday, October 8, 2022

Update on the national nonviolent uprising in Iran

Change is underway in Iran.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested in Iran by the Morality police on September 13, 2022. They beat her badly, left her in a coma, and she died on September 16th. She was beaten to death for not properly wearing her hijab. A little bit of her hair was visible. 

News of her extrajudicial killing at the hand of agents of the Islamist regime in Iran sparked nationwide protests. Iranians are writing a new chapter in the history of their country. Let us listen, and take actions in solidarity with this freedom movement

There are nationwide strikes underway that are spreading. Official communications are being hacked into. There is a real chance that the Islamist regime in Iran is coming to an end.

On September 23rd and 24th this blog posted two entries on events unfolding in Iran and called for solidarity with Iranian protesters, and to listen to Iranian women, who have been at the forefront of the protests.

What follows are Tweets that we have amplified in solidarity. Sharing them here to provide this blog's audience an idea of what is happening in Iran, and solidarity from the Cuban diaspora.

The Tweets speak for themselves.

Let us listen, share, and amplify. Make sure that our Iranian sisters and brothers seeking freedom know that they are not alone, and that the world is watching.

The Cuban government echoed the conspiracy theories of their allies in Tehran denying the agency of the Iranian people, and we called them out on it.

We listened to the Iranian protesters, and heard statements by them that resonated with the experiences of many Cubans.

Signs are emerging that change is coming. Many Iranians are paying with their lives to defy the dictatorship.

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