Tehran is “murderer and exterminator of children”. With these words Farideh Moradkhani, nephew of the Iranian supreme guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounces and condemns the Islamic Republic under Shiite leadership. Farideh has been known as a human rights activist for years. 10 weeks after the start of the anti-government uprising in the name of Mahsa Amini, your words resonate more than ever.
His appeal was launched so that foreign governments cut all ties with Tehran. An appeal contained in a video posted online two days after her arrest last Wednesday in Tehran “after going to the prosecutor’s office following a summons,” said Brother Mahmoud, who lives in France and uploaded the video to YouTube .
The video comes while also Unicef condemns and calls for an immediate halt to “the violence against children that caused the death of over 50 children and the wounding of many others during the street riots in Iran”. The United Nations organization is “also deeply concerned by the continuous raids and searches carried out in the schools which instead must be safe places for children” and states that he has “directly communicated his concern to the Iranian authorities”.
The count of the massacre also comes from the NGO Human Rights Activists according to which the number of children killed, little more than minors, reaches almost 60. In particular, 45 boys and 12 girls under 18 years of age. The thought goes to the little one Kian Pirfalak died aged 9 in the crossfire of the pasdaran while he was in the car with his parents. His story moved the whole country, sharpening anger and frustration with the regime.
In the video Farideh Moradkhani, an engineer by profession, condemns the “clear and obvious oppression” to which the Iranians are subjected and criticizes the inertia of the international community. “This regime is not faithful to any of its religious principles and does not know any law or rule except the force and maintenance of its power at any cost,” he complains, adding that the sanctions imposed are “ridiculous” and the Iranians have been left “alone” in their struggle for freedom.
Kian Pirfalak
Then there is another appeal launched by thousands, about 6,000, Iranian artists who ask for an international boycott of the cultural institutions managed by the Islamic Republic. Artists, writers, filmmakers and academics living inside and outside the country are calling for respect for human rights in the management of the protest for Mahsa Amini.
The artists condemn the “increasingly brutal, violent and deadly state crackdown” against anti-government protesters, women, students, men, in which over 400 people are estimated to have been killed and 18,000 arrested. A conspicuous group of 223 parliamentarians has asked the judiciary to start targeted trials which highlight for the rebels the crime of “to wage war against God” and to be considered “enemy of God” crimes that can also carry the death penalty. There are already 6 official death sentences, among these there is the one against the well-known Rapper Tomaj Salehi: “We are the dead who don’t want to die,” he sang, siding against the government in favor of protest. On his official Instagram account, the appeal to draw attention to a trial that took place behind closed doors.
Things went better for Hengameh Ghaziani. The famous 52-year-old actress was arrested on November 20 for having supported the protest movement in the country. According to official agencies, the Iranian authorities released her on bail. Ghanziani had posted on her Instagram a video shot on a Tehran street in which she shows herself bareheaded, in front of the camera without speaking; after a few seconds she turns around and makes a ponytail in her hair, like the other women do, before going to demonstrate. Kurdish soccer star former national team player also released Voria Ghafouri, arrested on Thursday for “propaganda against the state”.
Actress Hengameh Ghaziani
According to the government, the “riots are encouraged by Iran’s enemies” such as the United States and Israel. Tehran today summoned the German ambassador to the capital after Germany initiated a resolution of United Nations Human Rights Council establishing an international commission of inquiry into the repression of protests, a council defined as “politicized” by the Iranian Foreign Ministry which “will not cooperate with any mechanism defined on the basis of this resolution”.
