Iran faces new UK sanctions amid increased crackdown on protests

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Iranian security forces intensified their crackdown on anti-government protests in several cities in the Kurdistan region this Monday (10), showing photos and videos on social media, further increasing pressure against the demonstrations that have swept the country for almost one month. At the same time, the country’s authorities became a new target for the United Kingdom, which banned travel and promised to freeze Iranian officials’ assets in British territory.

Spread across Iran, the women-led acts began after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl who had been arrested for not properly wearing the “hijab”, the Islamic headscarf. The demonstrations are one of the biggest obstacles the regime has faced since its founding in 1979.

Tensions are especially high between the authorities and the Kurdish minority, which has long been oppressed, according to human rights groups — the government denies the accusation. Kurdistan is an autonomous region located partially within Iran, with around 10 million inhabitants, 12% of the country’s population.

On Monday, there is a strong presence of armed police in the Kurdish cities of Saqez and Divandareh, according to the human rights group Hengaw. In Saqez province, the birthplace of Amini, protesters and police clashed, and several explosions were heard in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province, according to videos shared on Twitter.

Despite the harsh crackdown, protesters across Iran burned photos of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for the regime’s downfall and chanted “death to the dictator”. Hundreds of high school girls and university students joined protests across the country, facing tear gas, batons and, in many cases, live ammunition used by security forces. Tehran denied that live ammunition was used.

“Hey world, listen to me: I want a revolution. I want to live freely and I’m ready to die for it,” said a 17-year-old protester in a city in the central region of the country, whose name and location cannot be revealed by safety. “Instead of dying every minute under the repression of this regime, I prefer to die with their bullets (from the security forces) in protests for freedom.”

At least five Kurds have been killed and more than 150 injured in the protests since Saturday, the human rights group Hengaw said. At least 185 have died since the protests began, hundreds were injured and thousands were arrested by police, human rights groups said. The government reports the death of 20 police officers so far.

This Monday, the United Kingdom applied sanctions against high-ranking Iranian security officials and also against the entire force of the moral police – responsible for the arrest of Amini -, saying that the force uses threats of detention and violence to control what women do. dress and how they behave in public.

“These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian authorities – we will hold them accountable for their repression of women and girls and the shocking violence they have inflicted on their own people,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. Last week, the ministry had already summoned Iran’s most important diplomat in the UK to deal with the repression of the protests.

The sanctions were made using British laws designed to encourage Iran to comply with respect for human rights. They mean that nominated individuals cannot travel to the UK and any of their assets held there will be frozen. Among others, the punishments target the head of the moral police, Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and the head of the Tehran division, Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.

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