A woman with her face painted - in protest against assault, rape, and killing of women in Iran - during a rally in central Rome. Photo / Gregorio Borgia, AP, File
A woman with her face painted - in protest against assault, rape, and killing of women in Iran - during a rally in central Rome. Photo / Gregorio Borgia, AP, File
Opinion by Samira Taghavi
OPINION
My Iranian compatriots have been protesting against the brutal Iranian regime for some two months.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern however, now freed from the purported excuse of protecting “social-media-influencers”, has yet to do anything meaningful in the face of serial rape, torture, and murder in Iran.
Iranian soccer fans hold up signs reading Woman Life Freedom and Freedom For Iran, prior to the World Cup football match between England and Iran in Doha. Photo / Alessandra Tarantino, AP
Ardernmust immediately take bold steps for the Iranian crisis.
First, her Government must add the murderous Iranian Revolutionary Guard, (its members and as a group, dependent relatives of members) to our “terrorist entities list”. At least we can follow Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in this.
Notably, our Government this year added “The Proud Boys” to the terrorist list, a group which is apparently minor in size and effect, compared to the Revolutionary Guard – a group responsible for countless deaths.
Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police last month, in Tehran. Photo / Middle East Images, AP, File
Secondly, our government must quickly pass an Iranian sanctions bill - a move that would likely have broad cross-party support.
Additionally, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta should summon Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials to account for their advice so far. We should hear why sensible ideas such as those listed above, are not being pursued.
A clear explanation also needs to replace one recent dissimulation, in particular.
Ardern has dodged questions on whether funds changed hands to assist in the hostages’ release. This invites the reasonable suspicion that payment was made since she could otherwise quickly deny it.
We Iranians know that any money that might have ended up in the pockets of Iranian state actors can only make them stronger. That usually means more harm to ordinary Iranians and now with the export of Iranian “kamikaze” drones, potentially some more harm to Ukrainians, as well.
Ardern’s ‘strongest’ move thus far – to stop “dialoguing” with the Iranian government - is valueless.
Though this “action” was played up in a recent Beehive-podium performance as substantive, the Islamic regime has been living without honest dialogue for 43 years. During the same press conference, she spoke of her so-called “hate speech legislation” proposal.
Insultingly, such legislation that controls speech was one of the reasons many of us left Iran.
Samira Taghavi. Photo / Dean Purcell
Instead of making New Zealand look more like a country where comments about religion or politics get people arrested, Ardern needs to show assertion in protecting such freedoms everywhere.
Furthermore, in not announcing a strict new Iran policy, she also missed the opportunity to cite and vilify examples of Iranian government brutality.
The first example she might have mentioned is that Iran’s regime reportedly gives bonuses to its thugs for individual beatings. The greater number of skulls fractured, arms broken and brain injuries inflicted, the more earned in bonuses.
Secondly jailed female students, tend to consistently ask their parents to bring them one thing in jail – contraceptive pills. That’s because rape, at the hands of their jailers, is their daily nightmare.
Why is Ardern so silent?
The Iranian diaspora intends to show that there can be no more inaction against a regime that tortures and rapes our girls, no more hiding from a regime that kills children in the Middle East and now in Europe and that there can be no more delay in putting this country on the principled side of history - a history that at the moment, does not paint our Prime Minister kindly.
Samira Taghavi is an Iranian New Zealander, criminal defence lawyer and human rights advocate.
