A Year Later, Iranian Regime Still Attacking Women, U.S. Still Ineffectual

A year later, and nothing has changed. Last week, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s so-called “morality police” reportedly attacked 16-year-old Armita Geravand on a metro in Tehran for allegedly not wearing the hijab. She is now in a coma with head trauma. This incident serves as a reminder of the Iranian regime’s continued repression of its people one year and one month following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman whose murder ignited widespread protests throughout the country.

That Iran keeps brutalizing its women underscores that—despite largely symbolic actions like imposing sanctions and awarding an Iranian activist the Nobel Peace Prize—the United States and its partners have failed to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its transgressions. This latest attack on Geravand should spur the administration to take action to assist the Iranian people by dealing increasing costs on the Iranian regime for its violent oppression through reputational damage, greater sanctions enforcement, and new penalties for its systemic abuse of women. The United States should begin by demanding the Nobel Foundation bars Iranian regime officials from attending the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony.

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