JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Next week will bring the two-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran's morality police. She was detained for failing to properly wear her hijab - or Islamic headscarf. Her death triggered protests across the country. The brutal crackdown that followed continues today. Artists, journalists and activists are being targeted by Iran's hard-line government, NPR's Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: In late May, Iranian writer and activist Hossein Shanbehzadeh replied to a post on the social platform X by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Shanbehzadeh's reply was a single punctuation mark, a period, which received substantially more likes than Khamenei's post. Some thought Shanbehzadeh, who's also an editor, was correcting the Iranian leader's grammar.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Khamenei's account shared a post that did not have a period at the end of the sentence. Hossein punctuated the sentence with a period.
NORTHAM: This close friend of Shanbehzadeh, who asked that we not use his name out of fear of retribution, says many Iranians felt the single period was more symbolic.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) A period is the sign of an end. The end of the Islamic Republic is approaching. That meaning was loaded on such a short and simple comment and caused Hossein so much trouble.
NORTHAM: Shortly after that post, Shanbehzadeh was arrested. And in late August, he was handed a 12-year prison sentence for, among other things, being an Israeli spy and spreading misinformation and anti-regime propaganda. Holly Dagres, an Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council, says Shanbehzadeh is just the latest high-profile activist to be caught up in the hard-line government's crackdown over the past two years.
HOLLY DAGRES: The regime sees these celebrities as national security threats because they're the ones that are in the eyes of the public. And so they're trying to make sure that these celebrities, athletes and artists are kept in line.
NORTHAM: Among those recently targeted is Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was handed the death sentence for his anti-government videos. It was later overturned. Artist Atena Farghadani was given a six-year prison term for trying to hang a political cartoon in Tehran. Even the not-so-famous are being swept up.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ZARA ESMAEILI: (Singing) I died a hundred times.
NORTHAM: In early August, a young woman named Zara Esmaeili was arrested after posting herself on Instagram singing a song in public without wearing a mandatory hijab. She's not been seen or heard from since. Bahar Ghandehari, a spokesperson for New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, says the regime has been targeting people from across society.
BAHAR GHANDEHARI: Right now, nurses are striking across the country because of their working conditions. And they're getting arrested, but also students, even teachers, labor activists and workers who are getting arrested because the government is so scared of another uprising that will shake them again to the core.
NORTHAM: Ominously, executions have increased in Iran. The U.N. recently issued a press release saying there had been 400 known executions this year so far. Ghandehari again.
GHANDEHARI: In August, we saw 33 individuals who were unlawfully executed in just 24 hours. And the surge in executions really reflect the government's attempt to quash dissent.
NORTHAM: But Annie (ph), an activist in Iran who asked that we not use her last name for fear of reprisal, says the government's actions will create a backlash.
ANNIE: (Through interpreter) The reaction inside Iran right now is rage. Rage, rage, rage. Each and every new sentence strengthens the community of activists and reminds us we still need to resist and persist and not allow anything to push us back.
NORTHAM: Without doubt, the Iranian regime will push back.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELMIENE AND BADBADNOTGOOD SONG, "MARKING MY TIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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