A niece of the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a prominent Iranian human rights activist, recently urged the international community to sever its diplomatic relations with the Iranian ayatollah regime amid its increasingly lethal crackdown on Iranian civilians calling for freedom and regime change. 

In a video statement, Farideh Moradkhani openly urged the nations of the world to stand with the Iranian people against her uncle’s dictatorial rule. 

“O free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime,” Moradkhani said. “This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power.”  

“Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries,” she said. 

Moradkhani criticized the international community for seeking to strike deals with the ayatollah regime, comparing her uncle Khamenei to the Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler. 

“On the one hand, ridiculous and laughable sanctions [are imposed] just to go through the motions; and on the other hand, multi-billion dollar deals are made behind the scenes. These emphasize the loneliness of the freedom-seeking Iranians in this breathtaking battle,” Moradkhani said. 

Moradkhani also spoke against enabling “political tyrants everywhere in the world.” 

“The bullets that kill children in Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Balochistan, Khozestan and throughout Iran are not Iranian-made,” she said. “Isn’t the experience of Hitler, [Italian fascist leader Benito] Mussolini, [former Romanian President Nicolae] Ceaușescu, [Libyan dictator Muammar] Qadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Khomeini, and, most recently, Khamenei, enough to make the world contemplate a new path?” Moradkhani said. 

Moradkhani comes from a family of prominent anti-regime dissidents. Her brother, Mahmoud Moradkhani, who lives in France, also openly presents himself as “an opponent of the Islamic Republic” on social media and shared his sister’s video appeal on YouTube. 

Moradkhani’s late father, Ali Moradkhani Arangeh, was a Shiite cleric who was a prominent anti-regime critic despite being married to Khamenei’s sister. 

Moradkhani, who the Iranian regime recently arrested, vowed prior to her arrest that the Iranian people would eventually topple the ayatollah regime  but also urged the international community to end its dealings with Tehran’s Islamic regime. 

“The free and brave Iranians will topple this oppressive and tyrannical regime on their own. What is needed is to refrain from supporting the regime that in November 2019, murdered thousands of Iranians in four days, while the world was watching from the sidelines. This, and similar catastrophes, constitute a mark of shame on the forehead of humanity,” she said. “The time has come that, as a symbolic act, all the freedom-seeking countries recall their representatives from Iran, and expel from their countries all the representatives and attachés of this blood-thirsty regime. This will be a show of solidarity with the freedom-loving Iranian public.”

Anti-regime protests began in September, when the regime’s morality police beat to death 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini while in custody, for failing to wear a hijab, or Islamic headscarf, properly. Amini’s death triggered protests that spread across Iran, including to its capital, Tehran. Iranian forces have killed more than 300 civilians, including more than 40 children since September, and reportedly arrested thousands. 

Jeremy Laurence, the spokesperson for United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk, said the U.N. views the human rights crisis in Iran as critical. 

“U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says the rising number of deaths from protests in Iran, including those of two children [over] the weekend, and the hardening of the response by security forces, underline the critical situation in the country,” Laurence said. “We urge the authorities to address people’s demands for equality, dignity and rights – instead of using unnecessary or disproportionate force to suppress the protests.” 

“The lack of accountability for gross human rights violations in Iran remains persistent and is contributing to the growing grievances,” he said.

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