@MontrehTavakkoli

Urgent Call To Action: Help Those Affected by the Flood in Iran

Heavy floods have taken over Sistan-Baluchistan, one of the most impoverished regions in Iran.

The flooding, caused by heavy rainfall, is a result of climate change, and is exacerbated by a regime that has no interest dealing with or preventing the impacts of the climate crisis on the Iranian people.

The flooding has affected >387 villages, leaving more than 110,000 people displaced and without basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter. (IranWire)

While the Islamic Republic managed to deliver voting ballots to these flood-stricken areas, they have failed to provide aid to those affected by the flooding. (IranWire)

The people of Sistan-Baluchistan need our support now more than ever.

Please donate here (bit.ly/HelpSistanBaluchistan1) to provide vital food, clean drinking water and supplies (including diapers) to those affected by the current flooding.

Feel free to reach out to @Action_For_Iran, @Azadeh.Afsahi or @MontrehTavakkoli with questions about this campaign.

Thank you in advance. Your contribution will make a significant difference in the lives of many who have no one else to rely on.

Woman. Life. Freedom.

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The Islamic Republic is on an execution spree. It is the number one executioner in the world per capita. It executed 834 Iranians in 2023 and is currently executing, on average, 3 Iranians per day — the majority of whom are of Kurdish and Baloch ethnic minorities. 23-year-old, #MohammadGhobadlou, was the most recent Woman Life Freedom protestor to be executed by the regime; his lawyers/family were only informed of his execution 12 hours prior to his execution. 5 Kurdish-Iranians, #MohsenMazloum #MohammadFaramarzi #VafaAzarbar #PejmanFatehi #FarhadSalimi, were also among those who were most recently executed — some after serving 14 year prison sentences.

Iranians have risen in protest all throughout the world, including 61 of Iran’s political prisoners who have gone on hunger strike in Evin Prison, Iran.

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The Islamic Republic in Iran is increasing its amputation sentences. Under the Islamic Republic’s law, those convicted with certain types of theft are subject to having “four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so that only the palm of their hands and their thumbs are left”.

Light is being shed on this as 37-year-old Amir Shahbazi ended his life on January 17, 2024 for being sentenced to amputation for theft; he died in solitary confinement after 7 years of imprisonment. The Islamic Republic’s amputations of prisoners is gaining pace. Two prisoners recently had their fingers amputated in the city of Qom, Iran. The Chief Justice of Qom recently stated that three more Iranians are facing amputation sentences.

The increasing pace of amputation sentences is occurring in the setting of the Islamic Republic’s ongoing execution spree. The Islamic Republic has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world. The rates of executions have significantly increased since the Woman Life Freedom protests. As of December 2023, the regime was executing an equivalent of over 1 Iranian every 6 hours.

In 2023, the Islamic Republic executed 823 Iranians and issued 568 death sentences.

In the initial 16 days of 2024, the regime executed 30 Iranians.

Within the course of 4 days (1/13/24-1/17/24), the regime executed 10 Iranians.

As of January 17, 2024, the regime’s judicial system ordered the massacre of 50 prisoners at Qezel Hesar Prison.

Notably, the Islamic Republic’s crimes include ethnic cleansing, with Kurds, constituting only 10% of Iran’s population, making up 66.6% of those executed. Other religious and ethnic minorities, such as Baloch and Baha'is, are also at highest risk of execution. In 2022, despite representing only 2% of Iran’s population, 19% of those executed were of Baloch ethnicity.

According to Amnesty International, at least 20 Woman Life Freedom protestors are at risk of execution, with #RezaRasaei and #MojahedKourkour being at imminent risk of execution since they have been transferred to the “Islamic Revolutionary Justice Center” to execute their death sentences.

Reza Rasaei, one of Iran’s 34-year-old Kurdish and Yarn ethnic and religious minorities, was tortured into making false confessions for his involvement in the Woman Life Freedom protests. He endured electric shocks, suffocation with a plastic bag over his head, and severe beatings resulting in broken toes and ribs, among other forms of torment.

Mojahed Kourkour: 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak was killed by the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic is pinning the blame on an innocent man, Mojahed Kourkour. Kian’s family has repeatedly spoken against the arrest of Mojahed Kourkour, stating that they saw the regime forces who killed their son with their own eyes.

Other Iranians at high risk of execution include: Mohsen Mazloum, Pezhman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, Hazhir Faramarzi, Farshid Hassan Zahi, Mansour Dehmarde, Ali Akbar Roz, Mahan Sadrat, Saman Seydi (Saman Yassin), Jamshid Sharmahd, Pejman Fatehi, Wafa Azarbar, Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Anwar Khezri, Kamran Sheikheh, Khosrow Basharat, and Farhad Salimi.

A recap of 2023:
-829 Iranians executed
-568 Iranians received the death sentence
-34 Iranians died in prison
-332 kolbars were killed by the Islamic Republic
-122 femicides were documented

As described by the U.S. State Department, Iran is home to a proud and ancient culture whose ideals of freedom and democracy under Cyrus the Great helped form some of the foundations of the U.S. Constitution, while Iran itself has struggled to achieve a democracy. The Iranian people are largely pro-Western, but are brutally subjugated by an anti-Western religious theocracy.

Iran in the 1970s - Click here

Iran under the Islamic Republic - Click here

How Iranians want to live - Click here

Why you should be concerned - Click here

Video: Iran 101 (recommend watching until the very end)

Documentary: A Dying King: The Shah of Iran

The following provides only a glimpse of the Islamic Republic’s global influence. It barely scratches the surface.

The Islamic Republic’s Role in Africa:

Leaders of the Islamic Republic have been meeting with leaders in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, among others, in efforts to expand “Iran’s strategic depth” on the African continent. According to Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei, “The Islamic Movement is expanding in Africa, Europe and North America.” Zakzaky, known as Nigeria’s Ayatollah, leads the Islamic Movement in Nigeria - a movement inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran that rejects Nigerian government authority. Zakzaky has been imprisoned for a range of charges including murder, culpable homicide and unlawful assembly. “I hope you will be able to continue your fight,” said Khamenei, who backs Zakzaky's campaign to expand Shiite Islam in Nigeria where while around 50 percent of the country is Muslim. The Islamic Republic’s President’s tour of three African countries in October 2023 is hailed by Tehran as a "new beginning" in relations with the continent. Khamenei believes in jihad as a way of paying debt to the Prophet Muhammad.

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The Islamic Republic’s Role in Latin America:

• The Islamic Republic’s President, Raisi visited Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in June 2023, mobilizing support for the Islamic Republic in Latin America.

• “We [Venezuela and the Islamic Republic] are on the right side of history and together we will be invincible.” - President Maduro of Venezuela, Associated Press

• “Iran is putting down markers in Colombia.” In 2022, Marlon Cantillo Borrero ran for senate in Colombia. He is a graduate of the Islamic Republic’s Al Mustafa International University in Qom, Iran. Al Mustafa University is “one of Iran’s main vectors to export its revolutionary brand of Shiite Islam.” - Wall Street Journal, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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Izobel Young’s profound journalism exposes the truth about the Islamic Republic. In these clips, you will observe the country’s clerics supporting the regime and both clerics and leaders of the Islamic Republic denying the brutal crackdown of the Woman Life Freedom protestors; they claim that narratives depicting the regime's brutality are merely products of Western propaganda, dismissing substantial evidence of the regime’s oppression. In these clips, you will also witness members of the Islamic Republic brainwashing young children with their ideologies. Please note: I deliberately refrained from sharing the complete clip below, as an interview was inadvertently conducted with a clerical reformist. This is a component of the Islamic Republic’s propaganda machine, as the Islamic Republic is attempting to promote reform as an alternative to people’s call to overthrow the regime.

Video 1: The Truth About Journalism in Iran

Video 2: The Minister of Women’s Affairs Exposed.

Video 3: The Islamic Republic’s Clerics Exposed.

“If we kill them, we will go to paradise; if they kill us, we will go to paradise again” - Founder of the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini

The following offer insight into the ideologies of the Islamic Republic.

-Click here to learn about the Islamic Republic’s primary objective of spreading radical Islam throughout the world.

-The following are examples of the Islamic Republic:

1. Actively eliminating Iran’s history, culture and identity,

2. Raping virgins prior to their execution to ensure that they do not go to heaven,

3. Urging Muslims to assassinate Westerners,

4. Abusing women to enforce the hijab (e.g. lashes for refusal to wear the hijab, rape to enforce women’s modesty),

5. Promoting pedophilia,

6. Using sexual positions to determine the fate of gay men’s lives,

7. Abusing animals, and

8. Using the most barbaric forms of execution to kill people.

General:

• The Islamic Republic kills girls for wearing no or ‘inappropriate’ hijab (e.g. Mahsa Jina Amini, Armita Geravand).

• Iranians are severely tortured into giving false confessions. (E.g. by hanging them by their hands and feet while beaten, using hammers to fracture their fingers, rape, etc.)

• Adultery, homosexuality and drug charges are punished via execution by hanging. Of note: the Islamic Republic uses barbaric forms of executions that inflict the greatest amount of pain.

• Speaking up against the Islamic Republic (freedom of speech) is considered “corruption on Earth” and “waging a war against God”, both of which are punishable by execution by hanging.

• It is illegal for Iranians to dance in public. (Javad Rouhi is an example of an Iranian imprisoned and beaten to death for dancing in the streets).

• Girls are picked on for wearing ‘inappropriate hijab’ at random. ‘Picked on’ = forcibly thrown into vans and given lashes.

• It is illegal for women and men to show public displays of affection.

• It is illegal for women to sit in a car with a man who is not her father or husband.

• Joy and happiness are intentionally suppressed by the Islamic Republic. “They asked why we were sitting around (boys and girls, mixed) eating ice cream and laughing. All of a sudden, the military surrounded us with their guns.” - a teenager in Iran).

• It is illegal for men to wear shorts.

Gender apartheid:

• Woman are considered worth half that of a man.

• Women are not allowed ride a motorcycle.

• Women are not allowed to ride a bicycle.

• Women are not allowed to attend stadiums.

• Women do not have the right to divorce.

• Women do not have the right to their children.

• Women cannot leave the country unless permitted by their husband.

• Women are not allowed to sing or dance in public.

• Women are forced into child marriages and are forced to endure domestic violence.

Animal rights:

• Iranians are arrested for walking dogs and for carrying them in their cars. In addition to being arrested, their dogs are, at times, shot right before their eyes.

• Dog prisons have existed in the Islamic Republic. “We heard loads of horror stories from that place.”

• Instead of euthanizing dogs, the Islamic Republic employs inhuman methods of killing dogs, including beating them to death, injecting them with acid, poisoning and shooting them. The Islamic Republic has also proposed gathering and abandoning dogs in the desert to die from starvation and thirst and of using corporal punishment against dog owners.

• The Islamic Republic intermittently commits the mass killings of dogs. For example, in 2022, the Islamic Republic raided a shelter and killed over 1700 stray dogs under the care of dedicated volunteers. During the raid, authorities locked the shelter’s manager in a room while carrying out the mass killings.

The following articles provide insight into some of the methods utilized by the Islamic Republic to silence dissent and protests. Not included are specific methods of physical torture, psychological torture, methods of overdosing protestors prior to their release from prison and referring to these deaths as ‘suicides’ and disposing protestors by tying their hands and feet and drowning them in bodies of water, among other forms of brutality.

1. Iranian schoolgirls are forced to watch porn and videos of bestiality to dissuade protests.

2. “They used our hijab to gag us”.

3. Chemical attacks on schoolgirls.

4. Religious trauma.

5. “Security forces use rape and other sexual violence to crush ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising with impunity”

6. “How Iran used a network of secret torture centers to crush an uprising”

7. Shooting the faces & genitals of female protestors.

8. Intentionally blinding protestors.

9. “Stalked, tortured, disappeared: Iranian authorities have a playbook for silencing dissent, and they’re using it”

10. “15 minutes to defend yourself against the death penalty”

11. Violence against Iranian protestors (CNN video).

Click here: Queer Iranian Coalition

Podcast: Understanding The Woman Life Freedom Revolution - Click here

This podcast is from early 2023, but continues to hold relevance. A significant development post-podcast involves negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic. Noteworthy negotiations include:

(1) Informal negotiations of the JCPOA/Nuclear Deal that likely took place in February-March 2023.

(2) The “prisoner swap” that was intended to release $6 billion in unfrozen assets to the Islamic Republic.

(3) The additional $10 billion in frozen assets that were to be released to the Islamic Republic through Iraq.

(4) The Biden administrations’ lifted sanctions that have amounted to >$50 billion in continuous revenue to the Islamic Republic.

Sources:

1. Informal nuclear negotiations:

Source 1 - The Islamic Republic was removing cameras, installing cascades and centrifuges, accumulated uranium enriched at 60% until February 2023, then suddenly pledged to cooperate with a U.N. probe into traces of uranium at 3 undeclared sites and promised to reinstall monitoring equipment including cameras that had been removed from the nuclear facilities on March 4, 2023, with the IAEA beginning to reinstall cameras at the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites in May 2023.

Source 2 - Click here

2. TIME Magazine on the $6 billion ‘prisoner swap’ as a stepping stone in the Biden administration’s nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic

3. WSJ on billions released to the Islamic Republic by throttling back on the enforcement of oil sanctions.

4. Fox News on >$50 billion released to the Islamic Republic by the Biden administration

5. WSJ on “$10 Billion More for Iran”