Why Iranians are rallying online to stop the execution of three protesters

Iranians have a long history of finding ways to express discontent, despite harsh restrictions on speech and protests. But the seemingly spontaneous response to the approaching execution of demonstrators gained unusual breadth and momentum, amid a new wave of novel coronavirus infections that has strained the country’s health-care system. The online movement also marked the week of the fifth anniversary of the Iran nuclear deal, from which President Trump withdrew in 2018. The return of U.S. sanctions have had stark economic consequences for Iranians.

“It’s a particularly bad time to be an Iranian in Iran right now,” said Dina Esfandiary, a fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation. “Economically, they are really struggling. Politically, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of hope.”

“The anniversary [of the nuclear deal] makes it that much more in your face,” she added.

All week, Esfandiary said, many Iranians online shared and were inundated by remembered moments from 2015, when optimism over the country’s prospects soared. The agreement, in theory, promised to end Tehran’s economic and political isolation in return for checks on the country’s nuclear program. Instead, as relations between Washington and Tehran deteriorated under Trump, economic stagnation continued.

The value of Iran’s currency is in decline, as inflation and the prices of basic goods rise.

The case of the three protesters sentenced to die — Amirhossein Moradi, 25; Saeed Tamjidi, 27; and Mohammad Rajabi, 25 — resonated with Iranians from different walks of life because of the severity of the punishment for something many had done themselves, said Holly Dagres, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington.

“Iranians understood that sentencing three men to death for protesting was a message to anyone taking part in future protests,” she said. “It was an extreme ruling with no evidence, and it angered many Iranians.”

Late last year, Iran was rocked by days of nationwide demonstrations against the government, sparked by an overnight hike in gasoline prices. Rights groups estimated that over 300 people were killed by security forces and more than 7,000 arrested during the protests.

The three young men facing execution were among those detained and charged with “vandalism and arson with the intent to confront and engage in war with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” according to the New York Times.

Their lawyer said that his clients were tortured and forced to confess. On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal and upheld the death sentences.

Soon after, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter, which is banned in Iran, lit up with angry responses. Famous Iranian artists, athletes, bloggers and even some politicians and clerics joined the fray — alongside everyday Iranians, for whom the risks of participating in such discourses is often even higher.

Internet campaigns always run the risk of appearing larger than they really are due to bots, but Amir Rashidi, a digital researcher, told the New York Times that he had “never seen a hashtag with this level of participation from Iranians everywhere.”

Last year, Iran executed at least 251 people, second only to China, according to Amnesty International, a human rights group. The country has recently executed prisoners on charges ranging from drinking alcohol to spying for the CIA.

“There’s been a growing movement inside Iran led by celebrities, activists and charities that are pushing for those sentenced to death to be forgiven,” said Dagres. “The practice of executions is increasingly being seen as archaic, and this is in part why Iranians were quick to take to social media to express their disapproval.”

On Wednesday, Trump entered the fray, tweeting his opposition to the executions in both Persian and English. The tweets came a day after his administration carried out the first federal execution in the United States since 2003.

The Trump administration has adopted a hawkish stance on Iran, which nearly came to a head in January, when the United States killed Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader, in a Baghdad airstrike, dragging the countries to the brink of armed conflict.

Iranians were unlikely to take Trump’s support seriously, said Esfandiary.

Any real change, she said, would be driven by Iranians, who are looking for ways to show discontent without taking major risks. “That’s why I think you are going to see an uptake in campaigns like this,” she said.