{"id":675,"date":"2022-10-05T20:18:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T03:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/?p=675"},"modified":"2022-10-05T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T03:21:10","slug":"u-s-sanctions-respond-to-iranian-violence-against-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/u-s-sanctions-respond-to-iranian-violence-against-women\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Sanctions Respond to Iranian Violence Against Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Yuki Taylor<\/strong><\/em>
Law Student Editor<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Protests Against Misogynistic Violence<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

On September 14, in Iran, a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini from the Kurdish minority in Kurdistan Province was arrested during a family trip to Tehran, by the nation\u2019s Morality Police for the crime of wearing her hijab (head-scarf) improperly.\u00a0 During police custody in a re-education center, Ms. Amini collapsed, fell into a coma, and was pronounced dead two days later at a nearby hospital on September 16.\u00a0<\/p>

The police claimed that the cause of Ms. Amini\u2019s death was a heart attack<\/a>, against several eyewitness accounts and a social media statement issued by the hospital, indicating that Mahsa, whose Kurdish name was Jhina, was beaten repeatedly on the head inside a police van.\u00a0 On September 19, the London-based news outlet \u201cIran International\u201d published Ms. Amini\u2019s medical records, including CT scans of her skull and chest, which were sent from a hacktivist group (activist hackers).\u00a0 The medical images show a fractured skull<\/a>, hemorrhage and brain edema as well as acute respiratory distress syndrome due to brain trauma, corroborating the witnesses\u2019 accounts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Ms. Amini\u2019s death spurred large-scale protests throughout the nation for women\u2019s rights against the strict hijab rules and aggressive enforcement, and against the Islamic clerical rule.\u00a0 According to the Norwegian human rights organization \u201cIran Human Rights,\u201d the death toll from the nationwide protests has risen to 133<\/a> including women and children at the time of this post, including 41 victims in a single day when protestors were gunned down by the Iranian security forces on September 30.\u00a0 The Friday rallies were also to protest the rape of 15-year-old girl<\/a> of the Sunni minority by a local police chief.\u00a0 The security forces have reportedly been using live ammunition, pellet guns and teargas against protesters.\u00a0<\/p>

On September 20, in the wake of Ms. Amini\u2019s death by alleged police brutality and amidst the violent response by the nation\u2019s security forces against anti-government protests since her funeral on September 17, the UN\u2019s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights Office) released a statement urging that \u201cMahsa Amini\u2019s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

The UN Human Rights Office notes that it has received numerous, and verified, videos of violent treatment of women<\/a>, including slapping women across the face, beating them with batons and throwing them into police vans, as the Morality Police have expanded street patrols in a campaign to crackdown on \u201cloose hijab.\u201d\u00a0 The UN Human Rights Office also condemned the unnecessary or disproportionate use of force against protesters, and called on Iran to respect the right to peacefully exercise freedom of expression, assembly and association as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>

New Targeted U.S. Economic and Trade Sanctions<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

Following President Biden\u2019s speech in the UN General Assembly<\/a> on September 21 regarding the police brutality against women in Iran and the subsequent anti-government protests, in which he states: \u201c[W]e stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran, who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights,\u201d the Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) immediately adopted two measures, one against the Iranian government and the other in support of the Iranian people.<\/p>

On September 22, pursuant to Executive Order 13553<\/a> of President Barack Obama, OFAC designated Iran\u2019s Morality Police<\/a> a human rights-abusing organization for the murder of Ms. Amini and its abuse and violence against Iranian women more generally, as well as the violation of the human rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.\u00a0 Seven senior leaders of the nation\u2019s security forces were designated as well, based on their routine use of unnecessary and excessive violence against peaceful protesters, civil and women rights activists, political dissidents and members of minority groups.<\/p>

OFAC maintains the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN).\u00a0 With the SDN designation, all property and property interests of subject parties located in the United States or possessed or controlled by any U.S. persons must be blocked and prohibited for all dealings via any U.S. persons or U.S transactions.\u00a0 Any entities that engage in financial transactions with the designated parties are penalized with a secondary designation.\u00a0 Further, any foreign financial institutions that facilitate a significant transaction or provides significant financial services to the designated parties could be subject to U.S. correspondent or payable-through account sanctions (the \u201cCAPTA List<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>

Following the economic sanctions against Iran\u2019s security forces, on September 23, OFAC issued Iran General License (GL) D-2<\/a>, in response to the Iranian government\u2019s Internet shutdown to suppress the nationwide anti-government protests, preventing most of its 80 million citizens from accessing the Internet.\u00a0 OFAC\u2019s general licenses authorize activities that would otherwise be prohibited pursuant to various U.S. sanction programs.\u00a0 General licenses<\/a> allow all US persons to engage in the activity described in the general license without needing to apply for a specific license.\u00a0<\/p>

GL D-2 effectively provides exemption from the prohibitions of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations<\/a> with regard to communication software, hardware and services.\u00a0 GL D-2 is a replacement of the former Iran General License D-1<\/a> issued in March 2014.\u00a0 GL D-2 was intended to offer the Iranian people more options of secure outside platforms and services for Internet access and authorized a more expansive set<\/a> of internet communication-related activities, including cloud-based software and services.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>

In the digital age, with help from social media, protests over the death of Ms. Amini quickly spread outside Iran.\u00a0 On October 1, rallies were held in 150 cities worldwide in solidary with Iranians<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yuki TaylorLaw Student Editor Protests Against Misogynistic Violence On September 14, in Iran, a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini from the Kurdish minority in Kurdistan Province was arrested during a family trip to Tehran, by the nation\u2019s Morality Police for the crime of wearing her hijab (head-scarf) improperly.\u00a0 During police custody in a re-education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[138,45,136,137,92],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ibt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}