US Sanctions Iran Prison Officers For Abusing Women And Children

Protests over Mahsa Amini's death in Iran. (Wikimedia Commons/Ideophagous)

JAKARTA - The United States Department of the Treasury marked International Women's Day on Wednesday, issuing sanctions against two senior Iranian prison officials responsible for serious human rights violations against women and girls.

The department said it had also sanctioned an Iranian military commander, a senior official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and three Iranian companies, as well as their leaders who had allowed law enforcement to engage in repression.

"The United States, along with our partners and allies, supports Iranian women, who advocate for fundamental freedoms in the face of a brutal regime that treats women as second-class citizens, seeking to suppress their voice at any cost," said the Undersecretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Brian Nelson said in a statement, reported by The National News on March 9.

In a statement marking International Women's Day, President Joe Biden said the rights of girls and women remain under attack in "too many places".

"We saw it in Afghanistan, where the Taliban kept women and girls out of school and from pursuing jobs," President Biden said.

"We saw it in Iran, where the regime is brutally suppressing the voices of women who bravely defend their freedom," he continued.

"And in the face of Russia's cruel and unjust invasion of Ukraine, including the use of rape as a weapon of war, we are seeing many stories of women who bravely fought for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Ukrainians," President Biden said.

The Treasury Department described its sanctions as the 10th action against Iranian officials, since Tehran's crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in September while in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Women around the world lined up to mark International Women's Day on Wednesday, with many showing support for the Iranian women who took to the streets after Amini's death.