U.S. involvement with Iran has escalated recently, with increased naval presence in the region and President Donald Trump’s executive order for tariffs on any countries trading with Iran.
Buffalo activist and attorney Nadia Shahram doesn’t want President Donald Trump’s intervention in her home country. But if there is outside assistance, it must be more than threats and tariffs, she said.
“Iranians are fighting on the streets without having any equipment, without having guns. So, if Donald Trump was going to do something, it has to be destroying their capability to kill their own citizens.”
New reports say the Iranian military is forcing the families of arrested protesters to attend pro-government rallies and that soldiers are entering hospitals to execute protesters.
Narges Heydari has felt the military's impact personally. She said her cousin, Abbas Maleki, was recently killed during a protest.
"Now his family, and even other relatives, are being threatened into silence," she said. "If you generalize this to the entire country, you can imagine how many crimes have been committed — and how the regime is trying to cut the internet again so that none of this can leak out to the world."
The military's actions show there is no concern about being stopped, Shahram said.
“Before, they wouldn't go and search the hospital. (Now) They go and search schools, hospitals. Now, they have said that to the families, this is a new development," she said "If you want your prisoners to be to not be killed, the families must attend rallies in support of the government."
There are more than 7,000 confirmed deaths, according to PBS News, but the number of possible protesters killed is much higher. By the end of January, outlets like The Guardian, TIME and Al-Jazeera reported the death toll could be more than 30,000.
Shahram, Heydari and other local Iranians joined more than 200,000 demonstrators Saturday in Toronto to protest the Iranian regime.
