The Biden administration took action Wednesday against several Iranian officials and entities for committing human rights abuses against women and girls in the latest round of sanctions against Tehran over its crackdown on unrest in the country.
As the world marked International Women’s Day, Wednesday’s actions include sanctions against two senior officials in Iran’s prison system responsible for “serious” human rights abuses, according to the US Treasury Department.
“The United States remains deeply concerned that Iranian authorities continue to suppress dissent and peaceful protest, including through mass arrests, sham trials, hasty executions, the detention of journalists, and the use of sexual violence as a means of protest suppression,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In coordination with the European Union, United Kingdom and Australia, the Treasury is also sanctioning three Iranian companies, a top Iranian commander, a “high-ranking” leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and an Iranian official the US government alleges is “central” to Iran’s ability to block internet access.
This is the tenth round of financial sanctions against Iran since the regime’s brutal crackdown of peaceful protests after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last year posed the biggest domestic threat to the Iranian regime in years. But since then, the nationwide protests that started last September have petered out in the face of a brutal wave of repression against protestors, especially women.
“The United States, along with our partners and allies, stand with the women of Iran, who advocate for fundamental freedoms in the face of a brutal regime that treats women as second-class citizens and attempts to suppress their voices by any means,” said under secretary Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s top official responsible…
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