Indiana residents protest Iranian government violations of human rights

Indianapolis, Indiana – Days after the Iranian government executed a 23-year-old demonstrator, dozens of Iranian-Americans held a rally in Monument Circle on Saturday.

IUPUI PhD student Haniyeh Eyvani was one of those showing support for other Iranian Americans. In 2017, she traveled from Iran to the United States.

“I literally could not live there anymore, because every minute, every moment I was told you are not anyone, you are just here to obey us,” Eyvani said.

Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman, passed away in police detention in September. She was held because she wasn’t donning a head scarf correctly. Iran’s government has placed harsh Islamic rules on its women. Months of demonstrations and a police crackdown followed Amini’s killing.

“The government is so brutal and they torture and killing and hanging innocent people,” said Parisa Keywfard, protester.

Iranians are required to follow Persian customs, despite the fact that people of Persian, Turkish, Arabian, and Kurdish descent live there.

“You have to speak in Farsi. You have to chose Persian names for your children when they are born. You have to be taught in schools in Farsi,” Eyvani said.

People in Indiana who are protesting feel that even though the regime has been in power since 1979, a younger generation of Iranians is so fed up that they are protesting as if they have nothing to lose.

“Young people between 15 and 25 years old, they had enough, they said we die or we are going to have our freedom,” Keywfard said.

Some of the demonstrators in Indianapolis on Saturday believe that President Biden ought to put severe sanctions on the Iranian government in response to its violations of human rights.