III 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. CON. RES. 2 

Commending the bravery, courage, and resolve of the women and men of 

Iran demonstrating in more than 133 cities and risking their safety 

to speak out against the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 26, 2023 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. COONS, Mr. RISCH, Mr. 

LANKFORD, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. 

CARDIN, Mr. CASEY, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. COTTON, Mr. 

CRAMER, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. HOEVEN, 

Mr. KAINE, Mr. KELLY, Mr. KING, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. 

MERKLEY, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. PADILLA, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. 

SCOTT of Florida, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. TILLIS, and Mr. 

VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Commending the bravery, courage, and resolve of the women 

and men of Iran demonstrating in more than 133 cities 

and risking their safety to speak out against the Iranian 

regime’s human rights abuses. 

Whereas, on September 16, 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini 

passed away in the custody of Iranian ‘‘morality police’’ 

following a 3-day coma due to wounds, including bone 

fracture, hemorrhage, and cerebral edema consistent with 

severe beating, inflicted by the police for purportedly 

wearing a hijab improperly; 


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Whereas, on September 16, 2022, Iranians gathered in the 

streets of Tehran to protest the killing of Mahsa Amini; 

Whereas demonstrations have since spread to more than 133 

cities and 130 universities in Iran, where women are removing or burning hijabs, cutting their hair, and dancing 

in front of Iranian security forces, joined by their fellow 

Iranian citizens, in a call to end the Iranian regime’s systemic repression; 

Whereas Iranian security forces have responded to such demonstrations with violence and detentions, including detentions of journalists and activists for covering the protests; 

Whereas the security forces reportedly have killed more than 

516 protestors, including at least 70 children, although 

the number of injuries and deaths is likely higher, but is 

unobtainable due to internet blackouts; 

Whereas at least 19,200 Iranians have been arrested across 

Iran according to official sources, and many thousands 

more have been detained according to independent reports; 

Whereas more than 60 percent of Iran’s population is younger than 30 years old, and the protests continue to be 

fueled by young people; 

Whereas Iran’s Revolutionary Courts have executed at least 

4 individuals who were involved in the protests, namely 

Mohsen Shekari, Majid Reza Rahnavard, Mohammad 

Mehdi Karami, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, and 

have charged at least 100 more individuals with crimes 

that are punishable in Iran by death; 

Whereas videos, images, and demonstrations have spread to 

social media platforms and are an important way for the 

voices of the Iranian people to be heard; 


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Whereas internet monitoring groups have reported that the 

Iranian regime has— 

(1) caused near-total disruption of internet 

connectivity in parts of Iran and partial disruptions in 

city centers; and 

(2) blocked WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, 

Facebook, Instagram, and video games with chat functions; 

Whereas common protest chants include— 

(1) ‘‘Women, life, and freedom!’’; 

(2) ‘‘Iranians die but will not be suppressed!’’; and 

(3) ‘‘Death to the dictator Ayatollah Ali 

Khamenei!’’; 

Whereas the Iranian regime has a long history of structural 

and legal discrimination against women, including barriers for women seeking justice against domestic violence 

and criminal prohibitions against women singing or showing hair in public and studying certain technical subjects; 

Whereas the Iranian regime approved of ‘‘depriving one social 

right or more’’ for any woman who posts an unveiled picture of herself on social media, and, in August 2022, approved of enforcing mandatory hijab laws through facial 

recognition; 

Whereas, through misogynistic criminal statutes, the Iranian 

regime for decades has detained and engaged in the ongoing persecution of women, including— 

(1) Saba Kord Afshari, who was sentenced to 15 

years in prison for posting videos to social media without 

a hijab and transferred into Ward 6 of the notorious 

Qarchak Women’s Prison, which the Secretary of the 

Treasury has identified as a place at which gross violations of human rights take place; 


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(2) Raheleh Ahmadi, mother of Afshari, who was 

sentenced to 2 years in prison for advocacy on behalf of 

Afshari; 

(3) Yasaman Aryani, her mother Monireh 

Arabshahi, and Mojgan Keshavarz, who were sentenced 

to between 16 and 23 years in prison for posting a video 

for International Women’s Day in 2019, during which 

they walked without headscarves through a metro train 

in Tehran, handing flowers to female passengers; 

(4) human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who 

was sentenced in 2019 to 38 years in prison and 148 

lashes for providing legal defense services to women 

charged with not wearing a hijab; 

(5) Narges Mohammadi, a prominent rights advocate, who— 

(A) was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 

2015 for ‘‘establishing an illegal group’’, ‘‘assembly 

and collusion to act against national security’’, and 

‘‘propaganda against the state’’; 

(B) was arrested in November 2019 (on the 

second anniversary of countrywide protests) and rearrested in 2021; and 

(C) had her prison sentence extended in October 2022 to 11 years and 9 months; 

(6) former Vice President for Women and Family 

Affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi, who was charged with 

encouraging ‘‘corruption, prostitution, and sexual deviance’’, a common charge against women refusing mandatory hijab laws, and sentenced in December 2020 to 30 

months in prison for defending the right of women to attend sporting events and criticizing the practice of child 

marriage; 


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(7) 6 women who were sentenced by the Culture and 

Media Court of Tehran in July 2022 to each serve 1 year 

in prison for the offense of singing songs in public; 

(8) Niloufar Hamedi, who was one of the first Iranian journalists to report on Mahsa Amini’s death, who 

was arrested on September 22, 2022, and is being held 

in solitary confinement; and 

(9) countless other women; 

Whereas the Iranian regime consistently commits a range of 

human rights abuses in addition to its systematic persecution of women and peaceful protesters, including— 

(1) unlawful or arbitrary killings and torture; 

(2) trials without due process; 

(3) forced disappearances; 

(4) arbitrary arrest and detention; 

(5) life-threatening prison conditions; 

(6) transnational attacks against dissidents; and 

(7) severe restrictions on free expression and the 

media, peaceful assembly and association, and religious 

freedom; 

Whereas Freedom House ranks the Government of Iran as 

one of the worst human rights violators in the world, 

with a Global Freedom Score of 14 out of 100 and an 

Internet Freedom Score of 16 out of 100; 

Whereas peaceful protests in Iran during 2022 have focused 

on grievances such as— 

(1) mismanagement of the economy and national resources; 

(2) prioritization of funding for terror groups and 

pariah regimes over social services for the people of Iran; 

and 


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(3) widespread political corruption: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 

2 concurring), That Congress— 

3 (1) commends the bravery, courage, and resolve 

4 of the women and men of Iran who are— 

5 (A) participating in the current protests to 

6 defend their fundamental human rights; and 

7 (B) risking their safety to speak out 

8 against the human rights abuses committed by 

9 the Iranian regime; 

10 (2) condemns— 

11 (A) the brutal beating and death of Mahsa 

12 Amini; and 

13 (B) the violent suppression by the Iranian 

14 regime of women and men participating in the 

15 current demonstrations, including children, and 

16 calls for transparent accountability for all 

17 killings of protesters by Iranian security forces; 

18 (3) supports internet freedom programs that 

19 circumvent the regime, including the Open Tech20 nology Fund, which provides support for VPNs, 

21 proxy servers, and other alternatives that can be 

22 used to bypass attempts by authoritarian govern23 ments to censor internet access during times of proVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:21 Jan 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SC2.IS SC2

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1 test, and commends private entities willing to pro2 vide programs to circumvent such censorship; 

3 (4) encourages continued efforts by the Biden 

4 Administration to respond to the protests, including 

5 the recent sanctioning of the Iranian morality police, 

6 and further encourages the Biden Administration— 

7 (A) to immediately impose, under existing 

8 authorities, additional human rights sanctions 

9 on officials and entities responsible for the re10 pression of the current protests; 

11 (B) to prioritize efforts to expand unre12 stricted internet access in Iran, consistent with 

13 existing law; and 

14 (C) to work to develop a strategy to pre15 vent the Iranian regime from obtaining and ex16 ploiting facial recognition data and software for 

17 the use of mass surveillance and enforcement of 

18 mandatory hijab; 

19 (5) encourages the private sector, following the 

20 recent clarification by the Biden Administration of 

21 sanctions exemptions on communications technology, 

22 to work with the Biden Administration to ensure 

23 protestors and activists have access to tools needed 

24 to circumvent government surveillance and repres25 sion; 


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1 (6) encourages representatives of the private 

2 sector to coordinate with the Department of the 

3 Treasury and their subsidiaries to utilize licensing 

4 opportunities and expand access of key communica5 tions services to Iranians residing within Iran; 

6 (7) welcomes the efforts of the international 

7 community to support protestors in Iran, including 

8 by removing Iran from the United Nations Commis9 sion on the Status of Women; and 

10 (8) calls on the international community— 

11 (A) to publicly condemn violence by the 

12 Iranian regime against peaceful protesters; 

13 (B) to speak out against violations by the 

14 regime of fundamental human rights, including 

15 the freedom of expression, assembly, and re16 dress of grievances of the Iranian people; and 

17 (C) impose human rights sanctions on offi18 cials and entities that are responsible for the re19 pression of current protests and involved in vio20 lating the human rights of the Iranian people. 

Æ 


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