Iran Regime Crackdown on Protesters

Over the past months and weeks, the crackdown by the

regime in Iran continues unabated.

The situation remains horrific for so many, particularly young

people whose only crime was to demand the liberty that we

take for granted. More and more protesters are being sentenced to

death in a desperate attempt by the regime to instill a

culture of fear among the people of Iran.

Nothing better illustrates the horror more than the case of twin sisters

Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, who were just teenagers when they

were dragged from their beds by the Islamic Revolutionary

Guard Corps last January. Since then, they have endured cruelty

beyond what many are capable of bearing.

It took four months for their mother, Marzieh, to learn

what had happened to them. By the time she could visit,

her daughters were

unrecognizable under bruises, limping with hair ripped out

of its roots. There have been reports of torture,

threats of rape, and

sexual violence, unless one of them confessed to

imagined crimes. Taraneh has been sentenced to death and

Romina to a twenty-five-year prison term.

Their family has not seen them since the sentence.

Theirs is not an isolated case. There are many, many more stories

of the horror inflicted by a regime trying to beat their

people into a futile attempt at submission and

silence. I know that this is an issue close to the hearts of many

members

here, and in your name today we tell the

ninety-two million people of

Iran that they are not alone, that light will crack through the

darkness, and that

a regime that uses violence, murder, and repression

as tools of self-preservation is a regime that is desperate and

understands that it has no legitimacy.

So we will continue to demand the immediate release of Taraneh,

Romina, and all those unjustly imprisoned.

We will not be silent. That is why we took the steps that we did of

banning representatives of the regime from our parliament.

That is why we insisted to designate the IRGC as the terrorist

organization we know it to be. And that is why we will keep playing our part

to amplify the voice of those demanding freedom.