Consider This from NPR - U.S.-Iran Exchange Prisoners – A Year Since the Death of Masha Amini Sparked Protests

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

On Monday, five Americans who were imprisoned in Iran, stepped off a plane in Doha, Qatar. They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the U.S. and Iran.Despite the happy news, the Biden administration is facing a lot of criticism for this deal, which also gave Iran access to about $6 billion of its oil revenue - money that had been frozen under sanctions targeting the government in Tehran. The deal also comes just a little over a year after the death of a young Kurdish-Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini. Her death sparked the biggest anti-regime protests that Iran had seen in years. NPR's Arezou Rezvani tells us about the legacy of those protests a year later. We also hear reporting from NPR's Michele Kelemen about the U.S.-Iran prisoner swap. Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. For lawyer Jared Genzer, it was the call he's been waiting for. His client, American businessman Siamak Namazi, who had been imprisoned for over eight years and faced torture in Iran, was seen on video stepping off a plane in Doha, Qatar. A moment later, he picked up the phone and called me and he said, Jared, I'm finally free. And for me, it was the culmination of a whole lot of work and effort by so many people all around the world over so many years. And I'm just so grateful today that the Namazi family nightmare is finally over. He said Namazi, who had been passed over in several previous prisoner swaps with Iran,

was feeling overwhelmed. You know, overwhelmed by the fact that this day had finally come. And frankly, I mean, he's missed some of the best years of his life. You know, he'd like to get married and have kids. He, you know, obviously needs to figure out what he's going to do for a job and what is he going to do and how is he going to recover from this traumatic experience? In addition to Namazi, four other Americans were released. They include environmentalist Marad Tabaz and Imad Shargi, a businessman. The Biden administration did not identify the two others, a man and a woman. And at the Qatar airport, where some were seen emerging

from their flight from Iran, they were greeted by U.S. and Qatari officials. Namazi's mother and Tabaz's wife were traveling with them. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he had an emotional call with all of them from Qatar. It's very good to be able to say that our fellow citizens are free after enduring something that I think it would be difficult for any of us to imagine, that their families will soon have them back among them, and that in this moment, at least, I have something very joyful to report. Despite the happy news, the Biden administration is facing a lot of criticism about this deal. Along with swapping prisoners held in both countries, the deal also gives Iran access

to about $6 billion in its oil revenue, assets that had been frozen. The U.S. had stressed that Iran can only use the money for food, agricultural products, medicine, and medical devices. And the U.S. warned that the funds can be cut off again at any time. But Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who spoke on Fox News Sunday morning features, said the administration is naive. We all know money's fungible. And then the president of Iran just came out and said, I'm going to spend it however I want to. And of course he is. And guess where it's going to go? It's going to go into terror proxy operations. It's going to go into

building their nuclear, you know, their nuclear, not defense system, but offensive system. Just last Friday, the U.S. announced new sanctions against Iran for its human rights violations over the last year against protesters who took to the streets following the death of Masa Amani. She was also known by her Kurdish name, Jina. The 22-year-old had died in police custody after she was arrested for reportedly not wearing her headscarf correctly. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement online. We're announcing new sanctions against 29 other individuals and entities in connection with the Iranian regime's human rights abuses. The United States will continue to support Iranians and all people who are defending their human rights and fundamental freedoms. But these new sanctions haven't really quieted any of the criticisms against the prisoner swap deal.

From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Monday, September 18th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges.

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More information is at waltonfamilyfoundation.org. It's Consider This from NPR. There's a concern that the $6 billion the U.S. has released as part of the prisoner swap could be used to further suppress human rights in Iran. The death of Masa Amani last September sparked global outrage and the biggest anti-regime protests that Iran had seen in years. The crackdown was brutal. Iran's security forces beat protesters, hundreds were killed, thousands arrested. And a year on, that brutality continues. What we're seeing is, you know, a regime that is increasingly afraid of its own people. Golnaz Esfandiari is an Iranian-born journalist who covers Iran from outside the country for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The establishment is cracking down on activists and others. The family members of

those killed in the brutal state crackdown have been harassed. They've been pressured to remain silent. About 20 of them have been detained, including the family of Mahsa Amini, has come under immense pressure. Esfandiari says the anger from Iranian citizens is not gone. About 70 children were killed. How can people forget that? How can people forget the level of cruelty we saw from this regime in the streets of Tehran and other cities. Women in Iran continue to defy the mandatory dress code in protest.

Women have become braver, bolder. I personally think that something broke during the recent protests, especially the crackdown. And I believe it was a turning point and nothing, it's not going to go back to things that were not going to go back to the way they were. So how much has life changed for women in Iran? Well, NPR's Arazu Razvani takes it from here. A few months ago, 28-year-old Khotan launched a clothing shop on Instagram. You won't find the oversized billowy garments Iranian women are required to wear in public on her page. No, her shop sells colorful, form-fitting crop tops and T-shirts,

the kind you might see girls wearing on the streets of Los Angeles, not out in the open in Tehran. We did at some point think about selling headscarves and cloaks. But in the end, we decided to post Instagram stories showing our followers different ways they can fashion their scarves into tops or skirts instead. Khotan, who spoke to us through an interpreter on a scratchy Zoom line from Tehran and gives only her first name for fear she could be detained for criticizing the government, is serving a new and emboldened clientele. They are young, defiant women who were at the forefront of the uprisings a year ago, and they are continuing to protest in their ways. Even though there haven't been street protests or mass gatherings in recent months, the civil disobedience continues. Many women, for example, still refuse to wear the compulsory headscarf.

Khotan is one of them. She hasn't worn the headscarf, a key symbol of Iran's clerical rule, since the early days of the uprising. This, she says, has been one of the most important legacies of last year's protests. People are bolder, braver, and more united than ever. Some men have been wearing shorts in public, a violation of the country's dress code, in a show of solidarity. I once saw a couple of female officers had stopped some young girls for the way they were dressed. And they wanted to detain them. But these two guys, who were wearing shorts, spotted them and intervened.

They were able to help the girls break free and got tangled up with the officers instead. It's been a year since Mahsa Amini, known also by her Kurdish name Gina, died in police custody. Her death set off months of some of the largest protests Iran has seen in decades. And it was met by a violent crackdown from the government. Hundreds were killed. Thousands more were arrested. But Khotan's online shop points to the

ways that protest movement is still alive, even though the government remains repressive. Singers are still producing protest songs. Activists are still spreading anti-government messages on social media. And those messages are calling for more change than ever before, says Hadi Ghayemi, head of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. It's no longer about reforming incrementally, but finding ways to change the system at its root. But the movement is facing challenges that go beyond government repression. There's still no clear and widely accepted leader. Many protesters argue that's been a strength. The government would have targeted any leader as a blow to the movement. And yet others say a leader

is essential to galvanize support. An opposition coalition did form in the Iranian diaspora, featuring an eclectic group of prominent Iranians in exile, but it quickly fell apart, partly due to political inexperience, infighting, and a fundamental disconnect with people in Iran. The diaspora is very cut off from inside. You can't travel there. You can't physically hold meetings. It's the internet. And the internet is something that the government can control and really turn it off as it wishes. So for that reason, I feel like the diaspora opposition has not figured out what is its support bases in the country. That has left Iran's ruling establishment with the upper hand. As the anniversary of last year's uprising approaches,

the government isn't taking any chances on the potential for a new wave of unrest. The Iranian government has become much more aggressive. It basically has rounded up hundreds of prominent people from all walks of life, thrown them into prison. It is purging universities from professors and activist students. It is going after women in public spaces again. So the repression has entered a new phase. The decision to clamp down on an increasingly disaffected population may seem like a gamble or a last gasp for Iran's ruling establishment. But Iran's ultimate decision-maker, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,

sees it as a tried-and-true strategy, says Kareem Sajidpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Time and again, it's been proven to Khamenei that when your population is rising up, you should never concede an inch. Because if you take a step backward, that's going to embolden your adversaries. And I think the most recent example was the Arab uprisings of 2011. Autocrats who promised their populations they would reform, a month later they were out of power. Who didn't promise reform? Bashar Assad in Syria, Iran's main client. And he's still standing 12 years later. So for that reason, and all the time that Khamenei has been in power over the last four decades, he's never responded to popular protests

with conciliatory gestures. He's always just wanted to crush it. That puts young Iranians like 33-year-old Elnaz in a very tough bind. Reached by internet in Iran, she's another protester who's abandoned her headscarf. But she worries this crackdown will only intensify with time and may soon be too much to bear. It may become a lot harder to participate in acts of civil disobedience if all of a sudden the government starts depriving access to bank accounts, for example, or confiscating passports or denying renewal of ID cards. For now, Elnaz, Khotan and countless others have no plans to put their headscarves back on. Too much blood has been spilt, they say, to simply go back to the way things were. That was NPR's Arazu Razvani. Too much blood has been spilt, they say, to simply go back to the way things were.

That was NPR's Arazu Razvani. At the top of this episode, you heard reporting from NPR correspondent Michelle Kellerman. It's Consider This. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang.