Iran issues first death sentence linked to anti-hijab protests, 60 days after Mahsa Amini was killed

The anti-hijab protests in Iran are taking the shape of a nationwide movement. So much so that the Iranian regime, which wants the world to see the protests as nothing but a small agitation, has issued its first death sentence linked to the anti-hijab protests. 

What: Death penalty has been awarded to an unidentified protester for allegedly setting ablaze a government building. 

#BREAKING Iran issues first death sentence after 'riots': judiciary pic.twitter.com/RjlmBInl8l

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 13, 2022

• The decision follows a parliament vote of 272 out of 270 lawmakers in Iran to implement execution for serious crimes against the state.
• Fears are mounting that a young Kurdish rapper in Iran, Saman Yasin, arrested and charged with waging war against God for supporting the protests, could also face the death penalty.
• Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, last week, warned that death penalties would be given to "key perpetrators" to deter others from protesting. 
• "Rioters" can be charged with "moharebeh" (enmity against God), "efsad fil-arz" (corruption on Earth) and "baghy" (armed rebellion), which carry death sentences under the country's Sharia law.

Death penalty in Iran: Iran is known for carrying out the most number of executions only after China. 

• In 2021 alone, Amnesty International estimated that the hardline Iranian regime executed some 314 people.
• While death sentences are issued for political prisoners in Iran, they can be commuted to life imprisonment at times. 

The protests in Iran: Iran has been rocked by nearly 2-month long ongoing nationwide anti-hijab protests that sparked after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the moral police. 

• Amini was arrested by the so-called morality police in Iran for wearing her headscarf "inappropriately". 
• She died shortly after her arrest in police custody. Protesters accuse the morality police of torturing and beating Amini to death, while Iran has denied the claims. 

• Apart from the state-sanctioned death penalty, over 326 protesters have died in clashes with the Iranian authorities including celebrity chef Mehrshad Shahidi.
• Currently, over 15,000 protesters have been jailed and fears are rising that the death penalty may be awarded to the rest of the jailed protesters too. 
• However, some reports saying that Iran is planning the mass execution of 15,000 protesters remain unverified.
• Prominent Iranian celebrities and athletes are also showing their solidarity with the anti-hijab protesters in various ways.  
• Iran has called the protests "riots" instigated by foreign powers. 

What the world is doing: The European Union announced a fresh wave of sanctions against 29 Iranian individuals over the regime's crackdown on anti-hijab protests.

• EU has sanctioned 29 Iranians and three entities with travel bans and asset freezes. People in the bloc also cannot send money to the sanctioned individuals.
• Among those sanctioned include Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi and the head of the Iranian Cyber Police Vahid Mohammad Naser Majid.

History of the veil in Iran: The current anti-hijab "protests" seem like a revolution in the making in Iran, something that French President Emmanuel Macron also acknowledged calling the protesters "children of revolution carrying out their own revolution". 

• During the 1979 Iranian revolution, wearing the veil became the symbol of resistance against the Pahlavi monarchy which had banned women's veils in public in a bid to "modernise".
• Fast forward several decades, the removal of women's veil has become the symbol of resistance against the regime that imposes mandatory veiling in public. 
• The lesson here is perhaps governments should stop telling people, and especially women, on how to dress and what to do.