Iran’s regime continues to ramp up violent punishment

The atrocities of the Iranian regime against Iran’s women have become so disgraceful that even the regime’s own media and analysts are becoming worried about their consequences.

On January 13, the state-run Setareye Sobh Daily ran a piece titled, “Harsh punishments will cause discontent,” in which it warned about the social consequences of punishments such as flogging and wrote, “Flogging is a violent punishment and today, the society will not tolerate it.” On the same day, the state-run Etemad daily wrote, “[Such punishments] do more harm than good for the punished and society.”

Previously, on January 9, in a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) condemned the continued wave of executions in Iran and the regime’s use of the inhumane punishment of severing the hands of two individuals for theft. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the NCRI said that “the inhumane and anti-Islamic punishment of hand amputation, by a regime that has destroyed Iran and looted its wealth, is indicative of the regime’s failure in the face of the people’s desire to overthrow it. If there is to be any amputation, it should be the hands of the usurping regime of the mullahs, and the hands of Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and other criminals and large-scale thieves, cut off from the lives and property of the people.”

Mrs. Rajavi also stressed that case of a regime that enforces the most heinous medieval punishments in the 21st century should be referred to the United Nations Security Council, and its leaders should be held accountable for justice. “Indifference and inaction in the face of such a regime encourage the continuation and intensification of crimes against humanity,” she warned.

And in a statement on January 7, the NCRI’s Women’s Committee condemned the barbaric flogging sentence carried out against Roya Heshmati on charges of violating the regime’s fundamentalist hijab rules. Roya Heshmati, 33, was sentenced to 74 lashes and fined 12.5 million rials. In the same statement, the NCRI’s Women’s Committee condemned the 24-month prison term handed to Farzaneh Barzekar, the mother of one of the protesters murdered by regime security forces in the 2022 nationwide uprising. Barzekar was charged with “insulting” regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and disseminating “propaganda against the state” simply because she refused to remain silent on the murder of her son.

The regime’s only achievement in the past four decades is barbaric acts such as cutting off hands and feet, gouging eyes, stoning people to death, throwing prisoners off cliffs, and other brutal punishments. Current regime president Ebrahim Raisi, who was the prosecutor of Hamedan in the 1980s, sentenced a defenseless prisoner to being thrown off a cliff. The implementation of the sentence was reported in local newspapers at the time.

According to former political prisoners, during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, Raisi, who was one of the members of the Death Commission, did not even show mercy to prisoners suffering from epilepsy and paralysis.

On October 26, 2010, the state-run Aftab newspaper ran a news report titled, “Raisi: Hand amputation sentences are our pride,” in which it showed the true face of Raisi and the backward dictatorship of the mullahs. According to a December 2020 report by Amnesty International, “from 1 January 2000 to 1 November 2020, the Iranian authorities sentenced at least 264 men to amputation and amputated the fingers of at least 129 men.” The regime uses a guillotine machine to cut off the fingers of people who have been charged with theft. Meanwhile, the real thieves, which are regime officials and the Revolutionary Guards, roam freely across the country after embezzling billions of dollars’ worth of funds and assets.

Two years ago, regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei appointed Raisi as the president in an effort to consolidate power within his own faction and unify his regime against the growing waves of nationwide unrest. During Raisi’s tenure, the rate of executions has increased considerably in tandem with repressive measures against people in the streets. Moreover, the regime has resorted to carrying out punishments in public in hopes of causing fear in the public and prevent future protests. On July 27 and August 1, 2022, the regime amputated the hands of two persons charged with theft. “These amputations are particularly harrowing displays of the Iranian authorities’ contempt for human rights and dignity,” Diana Eltahawy, the Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa of Amnesty International said at the time and called on UN member states to condemn and do everything in their power to pressure the Iranian authorities to immediately abolish corporal punishments. “We further urge all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to criminally investigate and prosecute Iranian officials suspected of criminal responsibility for such crimes under international law,” Eltahawy added.

This is just a glimpse of the true face of Iran’s regime. The reality is that the regime’s uptick in violence is further proof of its shaky hold on power. Khamenei and his regime know that it is only a matter of time before another nationwide uprising erupts. The embers of that fire can already be seen in every corner of the country as rebellious youth target regime centers and angry protesters take to streets to make their voices heard. No amount of violence will save the regime from its inevitable fate, which is overthrow at the hands of the people of Iran and their resistance movement.

Source: NCRI, Staff, January 15, 2024

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