Weekly Action - 9 January 2023 - Iran Executions
Protestors executed in Iran
Last Saturday 7 January, Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini were tragically executed in Iran for protesting against the ruling regime. Two other young protestors: Majidreza Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari, were similarly executed in December. All four men were tortured into making false confessions, and were not allowed to chose their own lawyers or see the evidence against them. They were subjected to rapid closed-door sham trials that have been internationally condemned, then swiftly sentenced to death and hung. At least 517 protestors have been killed and over 19,200 people arrested by the regime in Iran since the protests began in September. Activists believe at least 16 other protestors have been sentenced to death.
Iran Protests
Protests have been taking place for months across Iran. The protests were triggered by the tragic death in custody of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on Friday 16 September 2022. She was arrested three days earlier in Tehran by Iran’s notorious morality police, for allegedly wearing her hijab headscarf too loosely. The Iranian authorities claimed a heart attack was responsible, but denied her family access to her body. Witnesses reported seeing her being severely beaten by police in a patrol car following her arrest.
The protests that followed her tragic death have been led by young women, even school-girls. They have been defiant in protesting against the brutal police treatment of Iranian women, and in opposing the forced wearing of the hijab and Iran’s other strict morality laws. The protests have spread to draw in women and men from all parts of society, and from across the country, and have expanded into wider protests against Iran’s oppressive conservative Islamic regime. Iranian expat communities have been staging similar protests in cities around the world. Although the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, the Iranian authorities have responded with brutality, using teargas, beating protestors with batons, and firing indiscriminately into crowds.
The regime in Iran came to power in the 1979 popular Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the last shah, whose repressive western-backed rule was deeply loathed in Iran. However, the ultra-conservative and repressive form of Shiite Islam that the revolutionary government has since imposed on its population has also become increasingly unpopular, especially with younger generations wanting to enjoy a freer society with much greater human rights.
Reform Movements
One of the key areas that a major report from Arise, The Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is what works best for dramatically improving democracy, human rights and good governance in countries. It finds that overwhelmingly the most successful way of doing this is through just such mass, popular, peaceful, bottom-up uprisings, like the one we are currently witnessing in Iran. We see this in the lessons from the Bible (The Arise Manifesto, pg 86 – 88), where prophets like Isaiah challenged the rulers of their day, “stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isa 1: 16 – 17).
We also see it when we look at the lessons from history (The Arise Manifesto, pg 108 – 119). In recent decades peaceful reform movements have had dramatic success in Serbia, Madagascar, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Nepal, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Slovenia, Mali, Bolivia, the Philippines, Zambia, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Malawi, Thailand, Bulgaria, Hungary, Nigeria, and many other countries. Of course such movements require great courage and perseverance from those involved. They are not guaranteed to succeed every time. But overwhelmingly the power of ordinary people peacefully refusing to submit is remarkable, and has continually proved the most successful way to improve democracy, human rights and good governance in nations around the world.
Christians at the heart of Reform Movements
Throughout history, Christians and churches have played a hugely important central role in such reform movements in nations all around the world (The Arise Manifesto, pg 283 – 303). They have worked well alongside journalists, academics, activists, students, trade unions and others in the movement. In Iran of course, Christians are severely restricted. Christians make up less than 0.7% of the population. They are subject to harassment, discrimination, intimidation, arrests, interrogation, pressures to convert to Islam, and all conversion from Islam is forbidden and punishable by death. Nevertheless, despite all this, the small Christian population of Iran is very much playing its part and protesting alongside young women and girls (as indeed are the other minority communities), both inside Iran, and in cities around the world.
Globally the international community, the church, and all of us as individual Christians should do all we can to support the people of Iran as they demand their freedom. Supporting such bottom-up Reform Movements in countries around the world (and the Christians that are so often at the heart of them) is one of three key focus campaigns for Arise.
Will you take action as part of Arise’s Reform Movements campaign this week, to support the courageous young protestors in Iran?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Apply crucial international pressure by writing to the head of the Iranian judiciary care of the Iranian embassy in your own words and:
1. Express your concern over the appalling abuse of human rights
2. Ask him to quash all convictions and death sentences, and immediately release all those detained for no reason other than exercising their basic human rights to free peaceful protest
The contact details are:
Pray
Pray for the immediate release for all protestors who have been arrested in Iran, especially those under a death sentence. Pray for the families of young protestors who have been killed, that they will experience God’s love in the midst of grief. Pray for protection and peace for those who continue to bravely demand human rights, greater freedom, democracy and change, day after day. Pray for the Christians amongst them who are playing their part. Pray for change and reform in Iran, for a government that is truly democratic and respects all human rights.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like Barnabas Fund, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors or Release International that are supporting Christian minorities around the world in practical ways, and to secular groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch who are doing crucial work protecting human rights globally.
Practical Action
Reach out to friends and neighbours from an Iranian background in your local community, express your concern about what is happening in Iran, and ask how you can support them personally.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more in the Arise Manifesto, Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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