Iranian Activist Alinejad In TIME's Women Of The Year List
Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, the target of terror plots by regime intelligence, has been nominated for the prestigious TIME magazine Women of the Year list.
Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, the target of terror plots by regime intelligence, has been nominated for the prestigious TIME magazine Women of the Year list.
Journalist Alinejad, now a face of the revolution, has lived in exile in the US since 2009 after exposing corruption in Iran. Seen as a profound threat to the regime led by Ayatollah Khamenei, Alinejad said: “Women of Iran are his [Khameini’s] biggest enemy.”
She has refused to stay silent in spite of repeated threats to her life, which resulted in the indictment of four men by the US in 2021, planning to kidnap the vocal activist. She has helped bring the revolution to the global stage during five months of unrest triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested for the inappropriate use of her hijab.
Alinejad is one of 12 women globally who made the list, which highlights leaders who are using their voices to fight for equality. They come from a range of backgrounds from activism and government to sports and the arts.
They include Anielle Franco who turned to politics after her sister Marielle, a city councilor in Rio de Janeiro who campaigned against police violence and corruption, was assassinated in 2018. Now, as Minister for Racial Equality in Brazil’s new government, she is channeling her grief into action.
Others include Ukrainian LGBTQI activist Olena Shevchenko, Pakistan's Ayisha Siddiqa, who after witnessing the devastating effects of climate change on her community was inspired to speak up, delivering a powerful speech at November’s UN Climate Conference in Egypt on the urgency of climate justice.
The exchange rate of the dollar touched over 600,000 rials earlier on Sunday but the Iranian currency began to rise to close at about 540,000 against the dollar on Thursday, which is the last weekday in Iran.
Despite the rebound, the rial is still down 100 percent compared to six months ago.
Iranian media is replete with different scenarios for the rebound, but the most plausible explanation still seems to have been the injection of a large amount of foreign currency into the market by the Central Bank of Iran.
Another reason mentioned in Tehran media is a bit far-fetched guesswork that the country's foreign minister's trip to Geneva during the week and the possibility of resuming negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal injected some optimist into the market.
In an article earlier in the week, Jomhouri-e Eslami newspaper argued that fluctuations in the market are out of the hands of the government as the country’s economy is tied to the fate of Iran’s nuclear deal and its relations with the other countries. The paper and other media outlets speculated that foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s trip to attend a United Nations human rights meeting might also re-open the door to nuclear talks resulting in the lifting of US sanctions.
The paper described the extreme rise and fall of the dollar in only a few days as a lesson for the authorities, highlighting that the country can survive the current critical period through reviving the JCPOA and declaration of neutrality in the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as a practical approach to a balanced policy in international relations.
Reports about the imminent visit by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to Iran for high-level meetings, purportedly slated for Friday, was another reason mentioned by the country’s media. The visit comes amid discussions with Tehran on the origin of uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% purity, very close to weapons grade, at its Fordow enrichment plant.
Remarks by CIA Director William Burns about Islamic Republic not pursuing an atomic bomb was also mentioned as being behind the halt in the devaluation of the rial. "We don't believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003," Burns said.
While merchants told Iran International earlier in the week that trading in Tehran markets had largely come to a halt as the rial was near its all-time low, the local media confirmed reports that the Central Bank of Iran intervened in the currency market to stop the freefall of the rial. On Sunday, the bank injected $700 million in UAE dirhams and the rial began to rise from its all-time low of 600,000 against dollar.
The rial’s plunge to 575,000 Saturday, February 25, exacerbated chaos in several of Iran's major markets and brought many businesses to near standstill. The rial fell from 35,000 to more than 600,000 against the US dollar in exactly five years. This led to very high inflation, officially at more than 50 percent, which has impoverished tens of millions of Iranians. An Iranian economist says the role of US sanctions in causing economic chaos in Iran has been significant.
All in all, the Islamic Republic seems incapable of major changes in the market as it is strapped for cash with some reports saying the government does not allow ATM machines to give cash more than the current limit of 2,000,000 rials – about $4, which barely can buy a hamburger today in the capital.
The mandate was adopted in Resolution S35/1 on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Iran, especially with respect to women and children as well as minorities, in relation to the protests that began in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
On November 24, the Human Rights Council decided to establish an independent international fact-finding mission on Iran's deadly repression of protests, which has killed over 500 civilians, until the end of the fifty-fifth session of the Council taking place in March 2024.
The UN mission, in particular, asked for information concerning violent crackdown on peaceful protests by security forces, including alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, excessive use of force, torture and other inhumane treatment and enforced disappearances, as well as the deaths of hundreds of peaceful protesters and thousands of arrests.
The mission is also seeking documentation on physical, psychological and sexual abuse of women and girls for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and children’s rights violations in relation to the protests, including in raids on schools, and the incarceration of children in ‘psychological centers.'
The call also asked for information on violations of civil society and human rights activists, and reports of charges that carry the death penalty being applied to protesters for offences that are less than the most serious crimes as well as “restrictions on communications affecting landline and mobile telephone usage, including Internet shutdowns and the blocking of social media platforms”.
According to the statement issued by the UN Human Rights Council, submissions should be sent as soon as possible, but no later than December 31, 2023, to enable the mission’s Secretariat to process the information, including any follow-up if necessary. Information and documentation can be submitted in English or Persian.
The global outcry against the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on dissent, manifested through a wide array of human rights violations, is getting louder as the opposition forces are uniting and the world seems to be acknowledging the popular uprising. The deteriorating state of human rights in Iran, particularly unlawful executions and chemical attacks on schoolgirls, on the backdrop of worsening economic conditions, workers’ strikes, and devaluation of national currency rial has led to new moves by the international community.
In addition to Europe mulling over designating the Revolutionary Guards – IRGC – as a terrorist organization, US lawmakers are pushing for additional sanctions on Islamic Republic’s parliament. Packed with hardliners, the body provides the legal framework for Tehran’s security forces to murder, torture, and imprison dissidents, US lawmakers say as a bipartisan coalition is pressuring the Biden administration to sanction nearly all of its members amid the government’s crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Pushing for sanctions on 227 out of 290 members of Iran’s parliament, a group of 26 US representatives and senators from both parties said that "the Islamic Republic of Iran lacks democratic legitimacy, and the members of its parliament are not true democratic representatives of the Iranian people."
Led by Representative Claudia Tenney (R, NY) and Senator Marco Rubio (R, Fla), the group sent a letter to the State and Treasury Departments. "We urge you to take further actions—and encourage international partners to join us -- to impose much clearer costs on the Iranian regime for the execution of protesters."
On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price expressed Washington’s unequivocal determination to hold the Islamic Republic authorities accountable for their actions, saying “we are using every authority we have at our disposal to pursue those who are responsible for the atrocious human rights abuses that the Iranian regime has perpetrated against its own people since September of last year.”
