U.N. Ambassador Says the Women of Iran 'Need to Hear from the World That We Have Their Backs'
AFP via Getty Iran protests
Weeks after the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was detained for allegedly wearing a hijab too loosely, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield admits she can't fathom the "hell and torture" that women in Iran are enduring. Women who, in recent weeks, have taken to the streets to protest Mahsa Amini's death — facing violence and even death themselves.
But Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran of the foreign service who has held positions around the globe, says the protests aren't for naught.
"I cannot imagine what Iranian women are going through today and the kind of hell and torture they are being forced to endure," Thomas-Greenfield tells PEOPLE. "Just because they want to decide how they will dress every day. That is a simple, simple right that they have."
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/Shutterstock Linda Thomas-Greenfield
As Thomas-Greenfield explains, the protests were sparked in mid-September, when Amini was reportedly arrested by Iran's Morality Police for wearing her hijab improperly.
"She was arrested and taken into police custody for what they call an 'educational and reorientation class,'" Thomas-Greenfield says. "Some hours later, she was transferred to the hospital in a coma and she died two days later."
While Amini's family was told by Iranian police that she had suffered from a heart condition, her family has disputed that assessment, saying she had no heart ailment and that bruises seen on her body indicated she had been tortured.
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As word began to spread about Amini's death, protests cropped up around the country, often featuring women removing their hijabs and cutting their hair in defiance of the Morality Police, which the U.S. State Department has described as an organization that "arrests women for wearing 'inappropriate' hijab and enforces other restrictions on freedom of expression."
Thomas-Greenfield says that similar law enforcement arms which police "morality" have been seen elsewhere in the world, including in Afghanistan, where The Ministry of Vice and Virtue became a notorious symbol of arbitrary abuses during the previous Taliban reign of the mid-1990s.
"These [law enforcement agencies governing morality] tend to be particularly harsh against women," Thomas-Greenfield says.
She continues: "We all have to get educated about what is happening everywhere in the world. Human rights are rights that we should all support. Women's rights are human rights. The fact that these women are being forced to dress in a certain way, that many can not be educated, many are not allowed to work, not allowed out of their homes ... We need to be aware of these things so we can add our voices to the chorus of others and give these women whatever support we can give them."
In response to Amini's death "and other human rights violations in Iran," State Department Secretary Antony Blinken announced earlier this month that the U.S. had imposed sanctions both on Iran's Morality Police and on "senior security officials who have engaged in serious human rights abuses."
The sanctions will target "seven senior leaders of Iran's security organizations: the Morality Police, Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the Army's Ground Forces, Basij Resistance Forces, and Law Enforcement Forces," according to the Treasury Department.
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"These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women's rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha'i community," the Treasury Department statement said.
And then there are the protests happening within Iran, which Thomas-Greenfield says send another message.
"The protests have ignited the entire country. There are now men engaged in the protests in support of the women, and women are protesting around the world," Thomas-Greenfield says. "It really has ignited a new level of action inside of Iran against this government."
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Despite the sanctions and protests, the Iranian government has yet to back down, with protesters being beaten and in some cases killed or jailed.
According to Thomas-Greenfield, up to 100 women have so far been killed, with countless others injured or taken to the hospital as a result of the protests. Others are being jailed. Just this week, reports emerged that a female Iranian athlete who competed in a climbing competition without a hijab would be arrested upon returning home from the competition.
"I saw pictures of women with pellet holes in their back, bleeding because of these attacks," Thomas-Greenfield tells PEOPLE. "They need to hear from the world that we have their backs."
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Now, the American government is looking at how it might provide visas to women trying to get out of the country, or how it can expand internet access to arts of Iran that cut off the mode of communication amid the protests.
"They want to try and keep the rest of the world from watching their crackdown," the ambassador says.
As the protests rage on, Thomas-Greenfield says education about the issues is more integral than ever.
"We really do have to educate ourselves about what is happening in the world, so we can advocate for these brave women," she says. "Our voices are important for Iranian women to hear, so they know they have the support of the world when they take the very brave and courageous action of taking to the streets."
