SR1239 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1239 LRB102 29296 MST 41265 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Agents of the Iranian regime arrested and beat Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on September 13, 2022, for not fully covering her hair; and

WHEREAS, The brutal beating reportedly knocked Mahsa Amini unconscious, and she remained in a coma for three days; and

WHEREAS, On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini died from the injuries she received from governmental thugs; and

WHEREAS, The murder of Mahsa Amini ignited a spark, inspiring the people of Iran to rise up against their oppressors, calling for freedom and human dignity; her death, coming after years of oppression, arrests, and executions, set off a firestorm, first on social media and then on the streets of Iran; and

WHEREAS, Protests started in Mahsa Amini's home province and spread across Iran, uniting disparate ethnic groups, such as the Kurds, Persians, Baloch, and Azerbaijanis, against the regime; and

WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour composed a song, threading together Twitter posts hashtagged MahsaAmini, to explain the multitude of reasons behind the protests; and

WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour was arrested by the government, and the song taken down shortly after he posted it online; and

WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour's song, particularly one phrase, women, life, freedom, has been taken up by Iranian protestors in defiance of the regime and its totalitarian henchmen; and

WHEREAS, Social media is replete with videos and images of women and schoolgirls baring their heads, burning their mandatory head coverings, destroying regime photos of Iran's dictator, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and reclaiming their schools and public spaces, even if only momentarily, from the dictates of the regime's centralized bureaucracy; and

WHEREAS, Videos show these same women and schoolgirls chanting the slogan, women, life, freedom, in defiance of the government; and

WHEREAS, Despite the government's repression, protests have continued to spread, often led by women, including Hadis Najafi, who, while boldly protesting, was shot six times and was tragically killed by the regime, and the teenager Nika Shakarami, whose mutilated and abused body was finally released by the government to her family days after she disappeared during a protest; and

WHEREAS, In Zahedan, Iran, governmental forces attacked protestors, killing an unknown number of the local Baloch minority who were protesting the death of Mahsa Amina and the purported rape of a local 15-year-old girl by a commander in the regime's Revolutionary Guard; and

WHEREAS, The Iranian government has sought to undermine the protest movement by cutting access to the internet, censuring its opponents, and blaming the unrest on foreign agitation and disinformation; and

WHEREAS, An unknown number of Iranians have been killed in the governmental crackdown against the protests, and many more protestors have been arrested; and

WHEREAS, Shortly after the protests began, an Iranian missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan killed an American woman and 12 Kurds while injuring countless others; and

WHEREAS, Per reports on social media trickling out of the country, Iranian citizens in Tehran continued to chant anti-governmental slogans and to call for the fall of the regime from their windows and balconies at night despite the regime's brutal suppression techniques; and

WHEREAS, The Iranian people have risen time and time again against their authoritarian government, only to be repressed and terrorized over and over again; and

WHEREAS, The Iranian regime has ruthlessly snuffed out protests in the past, arresting and killing its own citizens, such as Navid Afkari, a young Iranian wrestler who was hanged on September 12, 2020, on dubious charges and without due process; and

WHEREAS, Iran has the highest number of executions per capita of any country in the world; and

WHEREAS, Iran, under the leadership of Supreme Leader Khamenei, a modern-day Yazid, has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department; and

WHEREAS, Iran has repeatedly taken U.S. and other allied citizens hostage, holding them in deplorable conditions, in demand for huge ransoms and other concessions; and

WHEREAS, Iran played a direct role in the deaths of at least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq and an unknown number in Afghanistan; and

WHEREAS, Iran, using the billions of dollars released by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), joined with Russia's President Vladimir Putin to brutally repress the Syrian revolution, contributing to hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, and a global refugee crisis; and

WHEREAS, Iran forced Afghan refugees in Iran to take up arms in Syria against the Syrian people; and

WHEREAS, Iran seized ten U.S. sailors in the Arabian Gulf in early 2016, broadcasting photos of their capture and captivity prior to releasing them; and

WHEREAS, Iran has provided and continues to provide arms and support to groups hostile to the U.S. and its allies; it has supplied warfighting materials to Russian President Putin for use in Ukraine; and

WHEREAS, Iranian governmental revenues and instances of international provocation, including attacks on U.S. flagged shipping and on U.S. allies, have soared since the beginning of 2021; and

WHEREAS, Iranian-aligned groups have repeatedly sought to interfere in U.S. elections, disrupting the democratic process; and

WHEREAS, Iran unleashed a massive cyberattack on Albania, a NATO ally, in July 2022, causing the country to consider invoking Article 5 of the treaty organization; and

WHEREAS, Iran has recently plotted to assassinate former American officials and to kidnap Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian activist living in New York; and

WHEREAS, On August 12, 2022, a would-be assassin attacked Salman Rushdie in New York; he had been targeted for assassination by the Iranian government, and the attacker sympathized with the Iranian regime; and

WHEREAS, Since the beginning of 2021, the Iranian regime has made rapid, irreversible strides in developing its nuclear program; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we stand with the Iranian martyrs to liberty who are currently dying on the streets and in the prisons of Iran; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we join with the Iranian protestors who are fearlessly confronting a despotic regime, demanding freedom, dignity, and a better future, and urge President Biden and the members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to eschew any further negotiations with or cash releases to the Iranian regime while it is murdering its own citizens; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the U.S. use this opportunity to once more unfurl America's standard as a bulwark of freedom and liberty against the forces of oppression and tyranny in a troubled world; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge President Biden and the members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to use America's influence on the world stage to work with the United States' international partners to isolate the Iranian regime; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to President Biden and all members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.