Full Text of SR1239 102nd General Assembly
SR1239 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Agents of the Iranian regime arrested and beat | 3 | | Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on September | 4 | | 13, 2022, for not fully covering her hair; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, The brutal beating reportedly knocked Mahsa Amini | 6 | | unconscious, and she remained in a coma for three days; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini died from the | 8 | | injuries she received from governmental thugs; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, The murder of Mahsa Amini ignited a spark, | 10 | | inspiring the people of Iran to rise up against their | 11 | | oppressors, calling for freedom and human dignity; her death, | 12 | | coming after years of oppression, arrests, and executions, set | 13 | | off a firestorm, first on social media and then on the streets | 14 | | of Iran; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Protests started in Mahsa Amini's home province | 16 | | and spread across Iran, uniting disparate ethnic groups, such | 17 | | as the Kurds, Persians, Baloch, and Azerbaijanis, against the | 18 | | regime; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour composed a song, threading | 20 | | together Twitter posts hashtagged MahsaAmini, to explain the |
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| 1 | | multitude of reasons behind the protests; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour was arrested by the government, | 3 | | and the song taken down shortly after he posted it online; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour's song, particularly one phrase, | 5 | | women, life, freedom, has been taken up by Iranian protestors | 6 | | in defiance of the regime and its totalitarian henchmen; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, Social media is replete with videos and images of | 8 | | women and schoolgirls baring their heads, burning their | 9 | | mandatory head coverings, destroying regime photos of Iran's | 10 | | dictator, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and reclaiming their | 11 | | schools and public spaces, even if only momentarily, from the | 12 | | dictates of the regime's centralized bureaucracy; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, Videos show these same women and schoolgirls | 14 | | chanting the slogan, women, life, freedom, in defiance of the | 15 | | government; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, Despite the government's repression, protests | 17 | | have continued to spread, often led by women, including Hadis | 18 | | Najafi, who, while boldly protesting, was shot six times and | 19 | | was tragically killed by the regime, and the teenager Nika | 20 | | Shakarami, whose mutilated and abused body was finally | 21 | | released by the government to her family days after she |
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| 1 | | disappeared during a protest; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, In Zahedan, Iran, governmental forces attacked | 3 | | protestors, killing an unknown number of the local Baloch | 4 | | minority who were protesting the death of Mahsa Amina and the | 5 | | purported rape of a local 15-year-old girl by a commander in | 6 | | the regime's Revolutionary Guard; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, The Iranian government has sought to undermine | 8 | | the protest movement by cutting access to the internet, | 9 | | censuring its opponents, and blaming the unrest on foreign | 10 | | agitation and disinformation; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, An unknown number of Iranians have been killed in | 12 | | the governmental crackdown against the protests, and many more | 13 | | protestors have been arrested; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, Shortly after the protests began, an Iranian | 15 | | missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan killed an American woman and | 16 | | 12 Kurds while injuring countless others; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Per reports on social media trickling out of the | 18 | | country, Iranian citizens in Tehran continued to chant | 19 | | anti-governmental slogans and to call for the fall of the | 20 | | regime from their windows and balconies at night despite the | 21 | | regime's brutal suppression techniques; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The Iranian people have risen time and time again | 2 | | against their authoritarian government, only to be repressed | 3 | | and terrorized over and over again; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, The Iranian regime has ruthlessly snuffed out | 5 | | protests in the past, arresting and killing its own citizens, | 6 | | such as Navid Afkari, a young Iranian wrestler who was hanged | 7 | | on September 12, 2020, on dubious charges and without due | 8 | | process; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Iran has the highest number of executions per | 10 | | capita of any country in the world; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Iran, under the leadership of Supreme Leader | 12 | | Khamenei, a modern-day Yazid, has been the leading state | 13 | | sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department; | 14 | | and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Iran has repeatedly taken U.S. and other allied | 16 | | citizens hostage, holding them in deplorable conditions, in | 17 | | demand for huge ransoms and other concessions; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Iran played a direct role in the deaths of at | 19 | | least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq and an unknown number in | 20 | | Afghanistan; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Iran, using the billions of dollars released by | 2 | | the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), joined with | 3 | | Russia's President Vladimir Putin to brutally repress the | 4 | | Syrian revolution, contributing to hundreds of thousands dead, | 5 | | millions displaced, and a global refugee crisis; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Iran forced Afghan refugees in Iran to take up | 7 | | arms in Syria against the Syrian people; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, Iran seized ten U.S. sailors in the Arabian Gulf | 9 | | in early 2016, broadcasting photos of their capture and | 10 | | captivity prior to releasing them; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Iran has provided and continues to provide arms | 12 | | and support to groups hostile to the U.S. and its allies; it | 13 | | has supplied warfighting materials to Russian President Putin | 14 | | for use in Ukraine; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Iranian governmental revenues and instances of | 16 | | international provocation, including attacks on U.S. flagged | 17 | | shipping and on U.S. allies, have soared since the beginning | 18 | | of 2021; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, Iranian-aligned groups have repeatedly sought to | 20 | | interfere in U.S. elections, disrupting the democratic |
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| 1 | | process; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Iran unleashed a massive cyberattack on Albania, | 3 | | a NATO ally, in July 2022, causing the country to consider | 4 | | invoking Article 5 of the treaty organization; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Iran has recently plotted to assassinate former | 6 | | American officials and to kidnap Masih Alinejad, a prominent | 7 | | Iranian activist living in New York; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, On August 12, 2022, a would-be assassin attacked | 9 | | Salman Rushdie in New York; he had been targeted for | 10 | | assassination by the Iranian government, and the attacker | 11 | | sympathized with the Iranian regime; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Since the beginning of 2021, the Iranian regime | 13 | | has made rapid, irreversible strides in developing its nuclear | 14 | | program; therefore, be it
| 15 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL | 16 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we stand with the | 17 | | Iranian martyrs to liberty who are currently dying on the | 18 | | streets and in the prisons of Iran; and be it further | 19 | | RESOLVED, That we join with the Iranian protestors who are | 20 | | fearlessly confronting a despotic regime, demanding freedom, |
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| 1 | | dignity, and a better future, and urge President Biden and the | 2 | | members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to eschew any | 3 | | further negotiations with or cash releases to the Iranian | 4 | | regime while it is murdering its own citizens; and be it | 5 | | further | 6 | | RESOLVED, That the U.S. use this opportunity to once more | 7 | | unfurl America's standard as a bulwark of freedom and liberty | 8 | | against the forces of oppression and tyranny in a troubled | 9 | | world; and be it further | 10 | | RESOLVED, That we urge President Biden and the members of | 11 | | the Illinois Congressional Delegation to use America's | 12 | | influence on the world stage to work with the United States' | 13 | | international partners to isolate the Iranian regime; and be | 14 | | it further
| 15 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 16 | | delivered to President Biden and all members of the Illinois | 17 | | Congressional Delegation.
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