Most Americans have no idea who Nahid Shirbisheh is. But in Iran, she has become a powerful symbol of resistance. A little over a year ago, she witnessed her son¡¯s murder at a government protest in Tehran. Last month she released a video made at the location of his killing that went viral in Iran.
When I spoke to her in November, she surprised me by thanking the outgoing Trump administration. ¡°They mentioned my son¡¯s name and my own name and they supported my voice when my son was killed and I was in prison,¡± she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s Iran policy was designed mostly to coerce the regime into a better nuclear deal than the one it joined in 2015. U.S.-imposed sanctions were not meant to pressure Iran¡¯s rulers to release political prisoners or to allow a referendum on the powers of the supreme leader, as Iranian activists have been demanding for years. Even if Trump¡¯s policy had succeeded, which it didn¡¯t, Iranians would still be stuck with their oppressors.
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