Blogs | Iran, 100 days of violence. Tajani to the ambassador: “Italy indignant”

Iran at the end of 2022 has the face of Saha Etebari, 12, killed on Christmas day after regime agents opened fire on the car she was traveling in two days ago in Hormozgan province. She has the firm smile of Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, known as Sarah Khadem, the chess player, female grandmaster, immortalized at the 2022 World Championship in Kazakhstan without wearing the mandatory hijab. Her voice breaks from crying Mohammad Moradia 38-year-old Iranian citizen, who posted a video on Instagram to denounce the violent repression of the Islamic Republic and immediately afterwards committed suicide by jumping into the Rhone River in Lyon, France.

The jar is full. More than 100 days after the death of Mahsa Amini while he was in custody with the morality police for a few locks of hair that had escaped from the veil, in front of the havoc of the young demonstrators hanged in the public square and of the girls raped to death, the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajanicould no longer wait, as he had announced, for the Iranian ambassador-designate in Italy, Mohammad Reza Sabouripresented his credentials to the head of state, Sergio Mattarellaand summoned him to the Farnesina today at 12. “The seriousness of the situation in Iran – explained the ministry in a statement – induced the government to take this step”.

Tajani demonstrated to the ambassador “Italy’s indignation and concern for what is happening in the country”. “I remembered – said the minister on the sidelines – that it is not a matter of public order to kill a 12-year-old girl, a 14-year-old girl or a 17-year-old boy. It has nothing to do with protecting the country’s national security. We hope that Iran responds positively to Italy’s request”.

“For us Italians and for all of us Europeans, the death penalty is a line of no return, especially if used for those who oppose the government and for trivial reasons”Tajani chanted. “Or they are suspended the executions – has continued – or we will continue to strongly condemn what is happening. We defend human rights, freedom of the press and the freedom to demonstrate. We had hoped that with the release of Alessia Piperno there would be a turnaround but unfortunately this was not the case and therefore Italy’s position was officially reported to the ambassador”.

The escalation of the regime

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iranian agency that brings together US-based human rights activists, has published a new report underlining how the number of executions in the country – the first in the world for 43 years for the per capita execution rate – increased by more than 88% in 2022. The NGO Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo, instead updated to 476 protesters have been killed since 16 September, the day of Mahsa Amini’s death. At least 100 protesters are currently at risk of execution and the death penalty, but the number may be underestimated as most families are silenced.

The Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi still showed an iron fist. “No mercy” for those who protest and prove “hostile” to the Islamic Republic, he declared yesterday during a rally in Tehran, accusing “the hypocrites, the monarchists and all the anti-revolutionary currents”.

From Spain to France, Europe moves

Spain had already summoned the ambassador in September, immediately after the protests erupted. Germany and Britain followed suit in early December after the first execution of a protester. The French Parliament passed a resolution to express its full support for the “movement for freedom” and the president Emmanuel Macron received the journalist and activist at the Elysée Masih Alinejaddisliked by the theocratic regime led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The last European Council, on 15 December, in its conclusions strongly condemned the recent executions and called on the Iranian authorities to “End the unjustifiable use of force against peaceful protesters, especially against women” and the practice of capital punishment. “The European Union – reads the text – strongly opposes the use of the death penalty at any time and in any circumstance, as an unacceptable denial of the dignity and integrity of the human being”.

The world of entertainment is mobilized: on January 7, a garrison in Naples

It reached almost 57,000 signatures in just a few days thereon petition launched by Marisa Laurito, Luciano Stella, Tuscany, Edward Bennato, Nino Daniele, Andrea Morniroli, Desiree Klein, Alfredo Guardian, Tiziana Ciavardini, Gianni Pintotogether with a group of artists, intellectuals and civil society volunteers, to ask Khamenei “an immediate end to executions and an end to the regime’s crackdown on the Iranian people. We want all Iranian men and women to be given the opportunity to express their desperation towards the ‘Iranian system’. A regime that for about 44 years has never granted the fundamental right of every human being: freedom“. The appeal also addresses Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister Tajani, urging them to hire one “decisive position“towards the regime, and to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to summon the Iranian ambassador to the act of taking office, declaring him”persona non grata“.

A large demonstration is planned on January 7th at 12 at the Trianon Theater, of which Laurito is the artistic director, in Piazza Calenda in Naples, at the same time as the Officine Pasolini theater in Rome. “What is happening in Iran is horrible: it is not the war between two factions”, Laurito said moved to “Chi l’ha visto” on Rai Tre. “It’s a mess, because they are killing young people who are fighting for a right that we should all have at birth: freedom, respect for one’s opinions. We can’t stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich. We have to fight, we have to protest with them, we have to make them understand that they are not alone. Because these guys are heroes: you have to be with them”.

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