What to Do with Iran’s Child-killing Regime?

Written by
Farid Mahoutchi

Since the immoral inquisition apparatus called “morality police” claimed its latest victim on September 16, millions of hearts and minds changed in Iran. During the last 100 days, thousands of women, men, and children risked their lives across the country to call for freedom, democracy, and equality.

According to the reports by the nationwide network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from inside Iran, more than 750 people have been murdered, and thousands of others were injured by security forces. Various accounts tally that more than 30,000 people were arrested and subjected to rape, harassment, and torture. With little to almost no insight into the fate of those who vanished from the streets, the account is expected to rise as more reports turn evident.

As the uprising has attracted all age groups, consequently, the crackdown has been indiscriminate and left a large number of minors ending up killed or disappearing in the regime’s “safe houses” or dungeons.

A report by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is based on information from the MEK network inside the country, shows that at least 65 children between the ages of two and 17 have been killed.

The report gives the name and age of each victim, as well as the location in which they were murdered. It finds:

Thirteen of the victims were girls, and 52 were boys.
Five victims were under the age of 10, and 60 were between 10 and 17 years young.
The victims were from 33 cities across Iran.
The largest number of juvenile victims was reported in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province (15) in the southeastern part of the country, followed by Tehran (9) and Piranshahr in Kurdistan Province (4).
Most of these children were killed by gunshots, but some of them, including Sarina Ismailzadeh, Nika Shakrami, Mohammad Hossein Kamandalo, and Maedeh Hashemi, were diagnosed with suffering from cerebral hemorrhage or other forms of internal bleeding. The latter was an indication of fatal hits to their heads and other vital areas of their vulnerable bodies by the security forces.
Some were injured due to severe blows and injuries and died after some time. One example is Armika Ghaem Maghami, who was in a coma fighting for her life for ten days before finally succumbing to her injuries.
Strong emphasis should be laid upon the fact that the report only includes confirmed cases and that the actual number of child victims is certainly higher, with some families being afraid to reveal victims’ names due to continuous threats by the regime.

The tragedy has also been evident in protesters’ slogans, which have been shouted throughout Iran as well as by Iranians abroad: “We don’t want a child-killing regime”!

 

Yet again, as it is typical of every tyrannical rule, the clerical regime resorted to sheer lies to deny its role in the deaths of children to avoid global scrutiny.

Historical background

Enjoying systemic impunity, the regime’s 44-year rule has shown no scruples in killing children. Juveniles were among the victims of mass executions in the 1980s, and the MEK has published the names of about 800 of them so far. Furthermore, among the 30,000 political prisoners who were murdered during the genocide of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, some had been in prison since the early 1980s when they were only 13-14 years young.

On June 21, 1981, Iranian authorities brutally suppressed a peaceful demonstration of half a million people that had been organized by the MEK in Tehran. Five days later, state-run newspapers published photos of 12 female students who had been executed. The Prosecutor’s Office used those outlets to ask their families to come forward to identify them, signaling that the regime had executed them immediately after their arrest without even verifying their identities.

Children killed by Iran’s regime during nationwide protests
While the execution of individuals under the age of 18 is plainly banned by international law, it is ingrained in the legal and judicial system of the Iranian regime. Authorities do not consider a girl over the age of 9 lunar years or a boy over 15 lunar years to be a child. In fact, the Iranian regime is the only executioner of children in the world.

Observation

In the last three months, by resorting to a brutal crackdown, the regime has tried to stymie the Iranian people’s uprising, which has united people from all generations and from all over Iran in demanding the regime’s overthrow. On December 8, the Judiciary carried out the first execution of a protester in Tehran, followed by hanging a second from a crane in public only four days later in Mashhad.

As many human rights organizations and activists have expressed concerns, the regime is expected to carry out more executions in the coming days, particularly while most of the international community is engaged in Christmas festivities.

Nevertheless, absent the slightest genuine efforts to improve the lives of the people, and while the long line of dissent is growing rapidly and unprecedentedly, the popular uprising has no other option but to outlast the dictatorship as well as the global inaction.

As the regime has boldly proven that it fails the capability and the slightest will for a change of approach, there is no other way other than regime change. The time has come for the international community to stand with the people of Iran, accept their will, and recognize their right to resist and defend themselves.

This policy change must be clearly demonstrated by closing the regime’s embassies and designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. Tehran must understand that its officials no longer have impunity from persecution.

Article 6 of the United Nations Charter states that “a member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council.”

The time has come to refer the dossier of the mullahs’ crimes to the United Nations Security Council and to take steps toward expelling this murderous regime from the UN.

Names and pictures of 65 children killed by the Iranian regime published here:

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