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SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Agents of the Iranian regime arrested and beat
3Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on September
413, 2022, for not fully covering her hair; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The brutal beating reportedly knocked Mahsa Amini
6unconscious, and she remained in a coma for three days; and
 
7    WHEREAS, On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini died from the
8injuries she received from governmental thugs; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The murder of Mahsa Amini ignited a spark,
10inspiring the people of Iran to rise up against their
11oppressors, calling for freedom and human dignity; her death,
12coming after years of oppression, arrests, and executions, set
13off a firestorm, first on social media and then on the streets
14of Iran; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Protests started in Mahsa Amini's home province
16and spread across Iran, uniting disparate ethnic groups, such
17as the Kurds, Persians, Baloch, and Azerbaijanis, against the
18regime; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour composed a song, threading
20together Twitter posts hashtagged MahsaAmini, to explain the

 

 

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1multitude of reasons behind the protests; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour was arrested by the government,
3and the song taken down shortly after he posted it online; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour's song, particularly one phrase,
5women, life, freedom, has been taken up by Iranian protestors
6in defiance of the regime and its totalitarian henchmen; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Social media is replete with videos and images of
8women and schoolgirls baring their heads, burning their
9mandatory head coverings, destroying regime photos of Iran's
10dictator, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and reclaiming their
11schools and public spaces, even if only momentarily, from the
12dictates of the regime's centralized bureaucracy; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Videos show these same women and schoolgirls
14chanting the slogan, women, life, freedom, in defiance of the
15government; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Despite the government's repression, protests
17have continued to spread, often led by women, including Hadis
18Najafi, who, while boldly protesting, was shot six times and
19was tragically killed by the regime, and the teenager Nika
20Shakarami, whose mutilated and abused body was finally
21released by the government to her family days after she

 

 

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1disappeared during a protest; and
 
2    WHEREAS, In Zahedan, Iran, governmental forces attacked
3protestors, killing an unknown number of the local Baloch
4minority who were protesting the death of Mahsa Amina and the
5purported rape of a local 15-year-old girl by a commander in
6the regime's Revolutionary Guard; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The Iranian government has sought to undermine
8the protest movement by cutting access to the internet,
9censuring its opponents, and blaming the unrest on foreign
10agitation and disinformation; and
 
11    WHEREAS, An unknown number of Iranians have been killed in
12the governmental crackdown against the protests, and many more
13protestors have been arrested; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Shortly after the protests began, an Iranian
15missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan killed an American woman and
1612 Kurds while injuring countless others; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Per reports on social media trickling out of the
18country, Iranian citizens in Tehran continued to chant
19anti-governmental slogans and to call for the fall of the
20regime from their windows and balconies at night despite the
21regime's brutal suppression techniques; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The Iranian people have risen time and time again
2against their authoritarian government, only to be repressed
3and terrorized over and over again; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The Iranian regime has ruthlessly snuffed out
5protests in the past, arresting and killing its own citizens,
6such as Navid Afkari, a young Iranian wrestler who was hanged
7on September 12, 2020, on dubious charges and without due
8process; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Iran has the highest number of executions per
10capita of any country in the world; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Iran, under the leadership of Supreme Leader
12Khamenei, a modern-day Yazid, has been the leading state
13sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department;
14and
 
15    WHEREAS, Iran has repeatedly taken U.S. and other allied
16citizens hostage, holding them in deplorable conditions, in
17demand for huge ransoms and other concessions; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Iran played a direct role in the deaths of at
19least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq and an unknown number in
20Afghanistan; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Iran, using the billions of dollars released by
2the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), joined with
3Russia's President Vladimir Putin to brutally repress the
4Syrian revolution, contributing to hundreds of thousands dead,
5millions displaced, and a global refugee crisis; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Iran forced Afghan refugees in Iran to take up
7arms in Syria against the Syrian people; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Iran seized ten U.S. sailors in the Arabian Gulf
9in early 2016, broadcasting photos of their capture and
10captivity prior to releasing them; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Iran has provided and continues to provide arms
12and support to groups hostile to the U.S. and its allies; it
13has supplied warfighting materials to Russian President Putin
14for use in Ukraine; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Iranian governmental revenues and instances of
16international provocation, including attacks on U.S. flagged
17shipping and on U.S. allies, have soared since the beginning
18of 2021; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Iranian-aligned groups have repeatedly sought to
20interfere in U.S. elections, disrupting the democratic

 

 

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1process; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Iran unleashed a massive cyberattack on Albania,
3a NATO ally, in July 2022, causing the country to consider
4invoking Article 5 of the treaty organization; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Iran has recently plotted to assassinate former
6American officials and to kidnap Masih Alinejad, a prominent
7Iranian activist living in New York; and
 
8    WHEREAS, On August 12, 2022, a would-be assassin attacked
9Salman Rushdie in New York; he had been targeted for
10assassination by the Iranian government, and the attacker
11sympathized with the Iranian regime; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Since the beginning of 2021, the Iranian regime
13has made rapid, irreversible strides in developing its nuclear
14program; therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL
16ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we stand with the
17Iranian martyrs to liberty who are currently dying on the
18streets and in the prisons of Iran; and be it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That we join with the Iranian protestors who are
20fearlessly confronting a despotic regime, demanding freedom,

 

 

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1dignity, and a better future, and urge President Biden and the
2members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to eschew any
3further negotiations with or cash releases to the Iranian
4regime while it is murdering its own citizens; and be it
5further
 
6    RESOLVED, That the U.S. use this opportunity to once more
7unfurl America's standard as a bulwark of freedom and liberty
8against the forces of oppression and tyranny in a troubled
9world; and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That we urge President Biden and the members of
11the Illinois Congressional Delegation to use America's
12influence on the world stage to work with the United States'
13international partners to isolate the Iranian regime; and be
14it further
 
15    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
16delivered to President Biden and all members of the Illinois
17Congressional Delegation.