Iranian Dutch receive death threats, but do not stop their protest

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Cartoonist Sanaz Bagheri came from Iran to the Netherlands four years ago. She could no longer endure the oppression of women in her country. But here too she feels the pressure of the Iranian regime, now that she regularly criticizes the repression of recent months.

She receives death threats, probably because of her anti-regime cartoons she posts online. The messages would come from the cyber arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite military corps. “But I have no fear,” says Bagheri. “I chose to fight against the regime in this way.”

She is certainly not the only Iranian in the Netherlands to experience the long arm of Tehran. There is good reason to take the threats seriously: two murders in the Netherlands in recent years have been linked to the Iranian government.

I hope that the Dutch, my compatriots, will join us.

Tahereh Khorrami, Iranian Dutchman

“People feel unsafe here,” says Asefeh Eskandari, who came to the Netherlands with her parents more than thirty years ago. “I know of several cases of Iranian Dutch people who are threatened with liquidation.”

Eskandari is a political activist. On Saturday, she demonstrated at Schiphol for sanctions against members of the Iranian regime. “They can still travel freely and enter our country. They are terrorists, people who kill fellow citizens, imprison, torture, rape and issue death sentences. And those people are allowed to enter here and through a transfer to other places in the world . How is that possible?”

Of protests in Iran have now lasted 112 days. In September, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Iranian vice police because she did not wear her headscarf correctly. She was tortured and died of her injuries. Since then there have been protests that have been harshly crushed by the very conservative rulers. Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands have been arrested. Four demonstrators are known to have been executed for participating in the protests.

Ten party leaders in the House of Representatives are also calling for harsh sanctions against members of the regime. For example, they want the Revolutionary Guards to be on the list of terrorist organizations. International travel would then be made virtually impossible for them.

This measure is badly needed, says Eskandari’s mother Tahereh Khorrami. “In recent months, the feeling of insecurity has increased enormously. The Iranian regime is capable of anything.”

She seems to be right about that. In 2015 and 2017, two Dutch citizens of Iranian descent were liquidated in the Netherlands. The AIVD has strong indications that Iran is behind it.

“The Iranian regime is dangerous and all opponents should be careful,” says cartoonist Bagheri. “At home and abroad.”

A drawing by Bagheri can be seen this week in a special Iran edition of Charlie Hebdo, exactly eight years after the bloody terror attack on the editorial office of the satirical French weekly:

Sanaz Bagheri

Bagheri herself was recently advised by the Dutch police not to mention her place of residence in interviews. But she has no intention of posting fewer cartoons. On the contrary. “I want to have influence. I want to make the voices of Iranians heard in other countries and to other governments. A cartoon can be a way to fight.”

“And I think that all Iranians all over the world should fight against the regime. Because they are terrorists. Iranians have been oppressed and killed for decades. The regime tries to silence people, but they can’t.”

Family not seen for 36 years

Tahereh Khorrami knows all about the brutal ways the dictatorial regime has maintained power since the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. “You always have to obey the regime. People can’t wear what they want. Nothing has changed since then.”

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Tahereh Khorrami (right) with her daughter and husband

Like her daughter now, Khorrami was a political activist at the time. Before her departure to the Netherlands, she and her husband spent years in prison. “The reason was that I had read banned books and was a member of an organization that organized political activities against the regime.”

She hasn’t seen most of her family in 36 years. A visit to Iran is too risky. “My nephews have all grown up. I always carry a kind of sadness in me because I miss my family, nature and culture.”

In addition to harsh sanctions from the government, she counts on support from the population. “I hope that the Dutch citizens, my compatriots, will stand with the Iranian people in this very difficult time. What they did for Ukraine was phenomenal. I hope they will do the same for Iranians.”

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