The Iranian regime is multiplying all-out stratagems to try to stifle the protest movement which has been shaking the country for several months, not hesitating, in particular, to sanction with heavy prison sentences any action perceived as a gesture of support , even symbolic, to protest.
Agence France-Presse and the BBC reported on Tuesday that a couple of influencers who filmed themselves in the fall dancing in front of the Azadi (Freedom) tower in Tehran have just been sentenced to ten years of detention.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiancé Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early twenties, were apprehended in November shortly after they uploaded the video to their popular Instagram accounts.
The young woman was not wearing a veil, ignoring the dress restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic on women, who are also not allowed to dance in public with a man.
The court found the couple guilty of “encouraging corruption and prostitution” while seeking to “disrupt national security”.
The court decision was denounced online by numerous human rights defenders, including Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejab, who lives in New York.
“They don’t deserve this brutality,” said Ms.me Alinejab, who finds herself under strong pressure from the Iranian authorities.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a few days ago that law enforcement had arrested three people linked to a plot to assassinate Mr.me Alinejab.
In July, one of the men in question was apprehended near the residence of Mme Alinejab in Brooklyn with an automatic weapon and lots of ammo.
Mr. Garland noted that Tehran had already tried to kidnap her in 2021 and continued to target her with a view to silencing her.
“The Islamic Republic is a criminal organization that kills innocent protesters,” she reacted in an interview with CNN.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has meanwhile sounded the alarm in recent days over the suspicious deaths of several protesters recently released from jail that Iranian authorities describe as “suicides”.
The organization notably noted the case of a 37-year-old woman who was found dead in her apartment a few days after being reported missing. A family member said his body bore signs of torture and could not undergo an independent autopsy due to pressure from law enforcement.
“The Iranian authorities’ response to the ongoing protests has been to kill, carry out mass arrests and executions; efforts to try to cover up further killings or state-induced ‘suicides’ would be part of the same approach of violent repression,” CHRI Director Hadi Ghaemi said.
Iranian nuclear program
Ongoing protests in Iran began in September after the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by police for failing to properly cover her hair.
The protest movement quickly spread to the whole country, prompting a strong response from the regime, which must contend at the same time with a major crisis linked to concerns raised by its nuclear program.
Sami Aoun, a Middle East specialist attached to the University of Sherbrooke, said on Tuesday that the indignation aroused by the ongoing repression in Iran made any effort to restore the multilateral agreement governing the program in question even more difficult.
The United States, which withdrew from the deal during Donald Trump’s presidency, continues to say it is open to seeking a diplomatic solution, but the situation does not look favorable for a settlement.
“The military option is more and more on the table”, says Aoun, who points to the fact that the United States and Israel held joint military exercises recently to simulate an attack against Iran. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly indicated that his country would not hesitate to intervene to prevent Iran’s nuclear program from progressing beyond a critical threshold.
A drone strike that occurred over the weekend in Isfahan, Iran, where the country has strategic infrastructure, was attributed by several American media to Israel.
“The style of attack, the drones used reflect operations they have carried out in the past”, underlines in the same vein Farzin Nadimi, an analyst from the Washington Institute.
He expects this type of operation to multiply if the impasse over the restoration of the nuclear agreement continues.
Tehran maintains that its program is civilian in nature and does not aim to develop a nuclear weapon.