Whereas, beginning in 2017, and continuing for several months after protests erupted in more than 100 cities, the Iranian regime suppressed such protests with repressive forces that resulted in at least 25 deaths and 4,000 arrests, including decorated wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who was later executed in September 2020 amidst international outrage; Whereas, on November 15, 2019, popular protests against the Iranian regime began and rapidly spread to at least 100 cities throughout the country, and reports indicate that Iranian security forces used lethal force and about 1,500 people were killed during less than 2 weeks of unrest, and thousands more were detained during these protests; Whereas, beginning in September 2022, antigovernment protests ignited in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was arrested by the morality police that enforce Iran’s mandatory dress code laws; Whereas women and youth have led the 2022 protests in Iran, demanding social freedom and political change; Whereas these protests are rooted in the more than four decades of organized resistance against the Iranian dictatorship, which have been most recently led by women who have endured torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and death; Whereas in several months of continuing protests in hundreds of cities throughout Iran, the regime’s security forces have killed hundreds and arrested tens of thousands of protesters, two of whom, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard (both 23 years old), were hung on December 8 and 12, 2022, in Tehran and Mashhad; meanwhile, dozens more have been convicted of Moharebeh (waging war on God), and are at risk of execution; Whereas, according to a December 9, 2022, Amnesty International report, Iran’s security forces have killed with absolute impunity more than 40 children and injured many more in a bid to crush the spirit of resistance among the country’s youth and retain their iron grip on power at any cost