The father of the young Kurdish Mahsa Amini, whose death a year ago sparked a wave of protests against the Iranian regime, was reportedly detained by local police and pressured to no longer encourage protests, a group of activists said this Saturday (16). to the Reuters agency.
According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network —Mahsa Amini was Kurdish—, Amjad was detained and later released during acts marking the young woman’s death while in police custody in Tehran for allegedly not wearing the Islamic veil in the manner considered correct.
The network also states that threats against Mahsa Amini’s father have become frequent. In a note on its official website, it says that Amjad was summoned and interrogated by the Ministry of Intelligence in Saqqez, Kurdistan province, four times over the past two weeks. According to the report, he would have been pressured to discourage protest plans one year after his daughter’s death.
Previously, he and his wife had shared a message on social media stating that they would gather the family at their daughter’s grave on the anniversary of “her martyrdom” for traditional and religious ceremonies.
Also according to the activist network, the theocratic regime said it could detain the couple’s other son, Ashkan, Mahsa’s brother, if these plans were put into practice.
The death of Mahsa Amini on September 15, 2022 was the trigger for one of the biggest waves of protests in Iran in recent decades. The acts challenged the regime presided over by Ebrahim Raisi and led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who responded with repression.
The UN criticized the official response, and independent experts said that the regime used the episode as an excuse to officially commit violence against women. The regime, in turn, blamed what it calls vandals for the protests and said the dissatisfaction was a response to international sanctions.
The international response continues a year after the death. The UK government, for example, announced this Friday (15) sanctions against several Iranian authorities described as “responsible for planning and enforcing the law on the mandatory use of the hijab”.
The action was coordinated with the United States, Canada and Australia and affects figures such as the Iranian Minister of Culture, Mohamad Mehdi Esmaili, and his deputy, Mohamad Hashemi, as well as the mayor of the capital Tehran, Alireza Zakani, and police spokesman Saed Montazer Al Mahdi.
In a statement, British Chancellor James Clevery said that the sanctions “send a clear message that London and its partners continue to support Iranian women.” He also hailed “the bravery of Iranian women fighting for fundamental freedoms.”
In response, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the actions “illegal, undiplomatic, ridiculous and hypocritical”, stating that the sanctions are a way of intervening in domestic politics and that, in doing so, Western diplomacy shows “behavior” unconstructive.”
US President Joe Biden said Iranian protesters are protesting for “democracy and basic human dignity” and that his government “will continue to provide tools to support Iranians’ ability to defend their own future.”
In the protests that followed Amini’s death, more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands were arrested, according to human rights groups. Iran carried out seven executions in connection with the acts.
In a report published last month, the NGO Amnesty International said Iranian authorities “have subjected victims’ families to arbitrary arrests and detention, imposed cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at gravesites, and destroyed victims’ tombstones.”
