MEPs urge support for Iranian civil society three years after Mahsa Amini's death

MEPs are calling for continued support for Iranian civil society three years after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for wearing her mandatory headscarf improperly.

The death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman led to large-scale demonstrations that were violently repressed by the government.

"The persecution of activists continues," said Shahin Milani, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre (IHRDC), which collects evidence of human rights violations in Iran to combat the regime's impunity.

"Discrimination against women continues. Several women are on death row. Many of them are in prison. They are in this prison called Qarchak, which is a horrible situation," he told Euronews.

Civil society groups accuse the Iranian government of systematically destroying evidence in order to conceal its abuses and thwart any possibility of seeking justice. In August, the authorities destroyed part of the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran where thousands of political prisoners executed in the 1980s are buried.

The Iranian authorities are also using "transnational digital repression" to try to intimidate and silence dissidents beyond its borders, warned Marcus Michaelsen, a researcher at Citizen Lab. Tehran, for example, runs phishing campaigns and smear campaigns on social networks to discredit opponents exiled abroad.

In the face of repression, Noushin Keshavarznia, a women's rights activist, is calling on the international community to support Iranian civil society and the independent media, "not just in times of crisis".

Return of sanctions

With the imminent return of UN sanctions against Iran looming, German MEP Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA) is calling on the EU to step up pressure on the Iranian regime while supporting human rights defenders.

"It is important that we increase the pressure on this brutal regime that represses its own people, that also brings terror to the region and with transnational repression, even to Europe," Neumann told Euronews.

"But at the same time, we have to make sure that the sanctions are very targeted, that they are against the regime, that they make their lives difficult, but also that we strengthen those inside Iran who are fighting for democracy, who are fighting for freedom, civil society, activists and others," she added.

Faced with the impasse in negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme, the European troika (EU3), comprising Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, reactivated the "snapback" mechanism at the end of August, which aims to reimpose sanctions against Iran within 30 days.

On Friday, the UN Security Council gave the go-ahead for sanctions to be reimposed. Yet diplomatic negotiations are ongoing and could still result in a last-minute agreement.

For his part, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi called on the UN to "choose diplomacy over confrontation" and said he had proposed an action plan to the EU3 "to avoid an unnecessary and avoidable crisis", in a post on X last Thursday.

Back in August, he also accused Berlin, Paris and London of acting "on behalf of Israel and the United States" and "continuing to put pressure on the Iranian people", adding that activating the snapback mechanism is "immoral, unjustified and illegal".

Tehran has increased its reserves of enriched uranium to 60%, a level close to the 90% threshold needed to produce nuclear weapons. The 2015 nuclear agreement limits enrichment to 3.67%.

Before the 12-day conflict against Israel in June, Iran's reserves of 60% enriched uranium totalled 440.9 kilogrammes, according to a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In the absence of a compromise, economic sanctions are due to be reinstated on 28 September.

Iran executed more than 900 people in 2024, according to the United Nations. Last month, Tehran announced that it had arrested more than 21,000 people it accused of spying for Israel during the 12-day conflict.