Two months have passed since the death of young Mahsa Amini by the hands of the morality police, marking both a turning point in the history of Iran, and a catalyst for a people whose lives have been left interrupted by the brutality of a system which claims its legitimacy to be holy.
The carrier and representatives of an ideology rooted in radicalism and Terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran has turned its ire inwards so that it could silence dissent and evidently reassert its authority over the communities it claims authority over. Over 10,000 men, women, and children have been arrested since mid-September.
A week after parliamentarians met to decide on protesters and prisoners’ fate, advocating for harsher methods of repression against the audacity of their demands: “Life, Women, Freedom” the Judiciary confirmed that all acts of dissent against the Leadership – namely Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be labelled as an act of enmity against God, a crime passable of death.
Several rights groups have warned that an estimated 20 people have already been put on death row, awaiting execution by hanging and/or crucifixion. The Iranian Penal Code prescribes several execution methods, including hanging, firing squads, crucifixion, and stoning. Hanging in the public square has been the main method of execution and the only method used between 2008 and 2020.
Intent on exacting maximum harm against protesters so that others would be dissuaded from acting out their calls for regime change, Tehran has given its security apparatus ‘carte blanche’ – a move which will undoubtedly lead to further human rights violations.
Women most of all face abject violence. Under the rules instituted by Ayatollah Khomeini following his rise to power, women facing the death sentence must be systematically raped to prevent them from ever entering Heaven on the basis that sexual relations outside wedlock are a cardinal sin.