‘We don’t want tweets.’ In wake of Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran, activists call for sanctions not words

A Turkish singer cuts her hair on stage.

A young Afghan girl dances under the Taliban’s flag.

The hashtag of Mahsa Amini’s name has been used more than 100 million times on Twitter in recent days.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini has prompted what some are calling an unprecedented global outpouring of support for Iranians protesting against the country’s hijab mandate and authoritarian rule.

There has been condemnation from sports stars, social media influencers, artists and political leaders around the globe. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden declared his solidarity with “brave Iranian women” in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

But some say those in positions of power must go further to sanction Iran, if meaningful change is to take place.

“We don’t want tweets and social media stories; we want action from the world,” says Canadian-Iranian writer Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and nine-year-old daughter on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, which was shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps on Jan. 8, 2020, killing 176 people.

Esmaeilion, who has family and connections in Iran, says that the world should open its eyes to the “crimes of the Islamic Republic.”

“This time, there is a strong hope for the defeat of the Islamic Republic regime, the protests are unprecedentedly widespread. This unity that has been created has never been experienced before, where all ethnic groups stand together in front of a single enemy.”

“Iranian embassies should be closed and diplomats should be expelled and no agreement should be made. We have been raising our voices for two years to ensure justice for the (Flight PS752 victims) killed by the Iranian regime, but despite the verbal reactions of the world, nothing has changed.”

For despite all the global reaction, the repression and arrests of protesters has continued for almost two weeks. The killing of at least 76 protesters has been confirmed by Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a meeting with his Cuban counterpart that the Islamic Republic of Iran has the “necessary skills” to “deal and confront” with recent protests. He called protests a “disturbance” and “chaos.”

“It is organized actions that take place with the interference of foreign countries. I assure you that there is no big event going on in Iran and the government is not going to change.”

Certainly, events in Iran have drawn international attention.

The United Nations has expressed “concern” about the continued violence against protesters and internet restrictions that were imposed by the government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada will sanction Iranian politicians, including a number of figures related to Iran’s “morality police.”

“We will stop at nothing to ensure this regime is held to account and we will support the families until justice is served.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference with his Indian counterpart that “Iranian women have the right to choose what to wear and they have the right to be free from violence and harassment.”

“We have imposed sanctions on certain people in Iran’s ‘morality police’ and in order to support the people of Iran, we will certainly look for ways to facilitate internet technology services being made accessible to people in Iran,” Blinken said.

Blinken noted that the new general licence “authorizes companies to provide things like cloud services, privacy technology, security technology, hardware and software to enable the Iranians to better communicate among themselves and also with the rest of the world.

“Individual companies can come to us, to (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) in this case, to determine whether their technology fits under the licence,” he added.

Blinken declined to say if the U.S. would work with companies to physically get hardware into Iran.

Shima Babaei is a 27-year-old exiled in Belgium, and a well-known campaigner against compulsory hijab who was a political prisoner in 2018 accused by Iran of “disrupting order and security.”

“Indeed, these sanctions make the regime weaker financially,” Babaei said, speaking by WhatsApp, “and will decrease the effects of the Islamic Republic regime politically and militarily. Effective sanctions should target those organizations which are directly involved in the oppression of the people as well as supporting militia outside Iran’s borders.”

Babaei, who claims that for nine months her father, who wanted to escape from the country, has been in an Iranian prison — she doesn’t know his condition — adds: “It is obvious that any agreement with the Iranian regime will threaten the Middle East and the whole world.”

Iran signed a deal in 2015 with several world powers to restrict its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018, claiming it failed to curtail Iran’s missile program and regional influence. Iran began ignoring limitations on its nuclear program a year later. Recent talks have attempted to revive the deal.

At the same time, the EU has called the violent suppression of protesters “unjustifiable.”

France, a member of the UN Security Council, has called Mahsa Amini’s death “deeply shocking” and demanded “clear investigations.” Germany and Spain have also condemned the use of violence against the demonstrators, and the foreign ministries of these countries have summoned Iranian ambassadors.

Kamran Matin, an associate professor of international relations at Sussex University of U.K. who specializes in Iranian and Kurdish politics and history, believes that the more protesters feel that they are supported by international public opinion and democratic governments, the less they feel alone in their struggle for basic rights and dignity.

The experience of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa or against the Communist dictatorship in Poland during the 1980s shows that international support and solidarity can significantly help democratic social movements.

“The pressure is growing, but it is not enough,” Matin said. “One particularly impactful action would be for western governments to shut down Iranian embassies and expel their diplomats. The Iranian regime’s embassies which, enjoying diplomatic protection, have been assassinating Iranian dissidents and members of the opposition.” (Canada closed Iran’s embassy in Ottawa in 2012.)

Matin referred to several incidents, including in February 2021, where a diplomat named Assadollah Assadi, who worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, was convicted of a plot to bomb a French rally held by an exiled opposition group of the Iranian regime.

“This time around, the situation seems different and we are witnessing more determined support being given to the Iranian people in their struggle for achieving basic democratic rights,” Matin says.

Mahya Ostovar, a social movement studies expert who lives in Ireland and runs the “No2Hijab” campaign, says that the people of Iran welcome the reaction of the international community, and it shows solidarity with no expectations. She believes that the amount of support from the international community is unprecedented.

“In the past, the world did not see or hear the people of Iran, but now it is encouraging. But we shouldn’t forget that although the world has shown more attention to the internal situation of Iran this time, the Islamic Republic also uses any means to suppress protests,” she said via WhatsApp.

Ostovar says that the international community should pressure the regime by imposing more sanctions, stopping talks about nuclear programs and not issuing visas to Iranian politicians. Only collective pressure will force an authoritarian regime to comply with the demands of its people.

“With all these challenges, the days of freedom are near and this dark night is coming to an end.”

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