The United States, Canada and Australia on Wednesday sanctioned a group of Iranian officials for their role in suppressing protests and detaining people in connection with the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police two years ago for improperly wearing a mandatory headscarf.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022, in a hospital after being detained for not wearing the mandatory veil, or hijab, as authorities liked. Her death sparked nationwide protests against hijab laws and the ruling theocracy.
Wednesday’s sanctions include a dozen officials accused of killing and detaining protesters, suppressing protests in 2019 and 2022, and arresting journalists.
The country’s new reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, campaigned on a promise to end harassment of women by the moral police. However, since Amini’s death, videos have emerged of women and girls being abused by officers.
In 2023, an Iranian teenager was injured in a mysterious incident on the Tehran metro while not wearing a hijab and later died in hospital. In July, activists claim that police opened fire on a woman fleeing a checkpoint in an attempt to prevent her car from being impounded for not wearing a hijab.
U.S. Treasury official Bradley T. Smith said: “Despite peaceful calls for reform from the Iranian people, Iran’s leaders have doubled down on the regime’s well-worn tactics of violence and coercion.”
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The United States and its allies “will continue to take action to expose and hold accountable those responsible for carrying out the Iranian regime’s cruel agenda,” Smith said.
The sanctions, which block access to American property and bank accounts and prevent the affected individuals and companies from doing business with the United States, are largely symbolic since many of the individuals do not interact with the United States.
In March, a United Nations fact-finding mission found Iran responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death. It also concluded that the Islamic Republic used “unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force” to suppress protests that erupted after Amini’s death and that Iranian security forces sexually assaulted detainees.
It is becoming more common to see women on the streets of Iranian cities without wearing the obligatory headscarf.
Canada on Wednesday also announced new sanctions against Hamas and what the government called extremist Israeli settlers who have perpetrated violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
