Bill Text: IL SR1239 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Expresses support for the Iranian martyrs to liberty who are currently dying on the streets and in the prisons of Iran. Urges President Biden and the members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to eschew any further negotiations with or cash releases to the Iranian regime while it is murdering its own citizens. Urges the U.S. use this opportunity to once more unfurl America's standard as a bulwark of freedom and liberty against the forces of oppression and tyranny in a troubled world. Urges President Biden and the members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to use America's influence on the world stage to work with the United States' international partners to isolate the Iranian regime.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-11-14 - Referred to Assignments [SR1239 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-SR1239-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Agents of the Iranian regime arrested and beat
Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on September
13, 2022, for not fully covering her hair; and
WHEREAS, The brutal beating reportedly knocked Mahsa Amini
unconscious, and she remained in a coma for three days; and
WHEREAS, On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini died from the
injuries she received from governmental thugs; and
WHEREAS, The murder of Mahsa Amini ignited a spark,
inspiring the people of Iran to rise up against their
oppressors, calling for freedom and human dignity; her death,
coming after years of oppression, arrests, and executions, set
off a firestorm, first on social media and then on the streets
of Iran; and
WHEREAS, Protests started in Mahsa Amini's home province
and spread across Iran, uniting disparate ethnic groups, such
as the Kurds, Persians, Baloch, and Azerbaijanis, against the
regime; and
WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour composed a song, threading
together Twitter posts hashtagged MahsaAmini, to explain the

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multitude of reasons behind the protests; and
WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour was arrested by the government,
and the song taken down shortly after he posted it online; and
WHEREAS, Shervin Hajipour's song, particularly one phrase,
women, life, freedom, has been taken up by Iranian protestors
in defiance of the regime and its totalitarian henchmen; and
WHEREAS, Social media is replete with videos and images of
women and schoolgirls baring their heads, burning their
mandatory head coverings, destroying regime photos of Iran's
dictator, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and reclaiming their
schools and public spaces, even if only momentarily, from the
dictates of the regime's centralized bureaucracy; and
WHEREAS, Videos show these same women and schoolgirls
chanting the slogan, women, life, freedom, in defiance of the
government; and
WHEREAS, Despite the government's repression, protests
have continued to spread, often led by women, including Hadis
Najafi, who, while boldly protesting, was shot six times and
was tragically killed by the regime, and the teenager Nika
Shakarami, whose mutilated and abused body was finally
released by the government to her family days after she

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disappeared during a protest; and
WHEREAS, In Zahedan, Iran, governmental forces attacked
protestors, killing an unknown number of the local Baloch
minority who were protesting the death of Mahsa Amina and the
purported rape of a local 15-year-old girl by a commander in
the regime's Revolutionary Guard; and
WHEREAS, The Iranian government has sought to undermine
the protest movement by cutting access to the internet,
censuring its opponents, and blaming the unrest on foreign
agitation and disinformation; and
WHEREAS, An unknown number of Iranians have been killed in
the governmental crackdown against the protests, and many more
protestors have been arrested; and
WHEREAS, Shortly after the protests began, an Iranian
missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan killed an American woman and
12 Kurds while injuring countless others; and
WHEREAS, Per reports on social media trickling out of the
country, Iranian citizens in Tehran continued to chant
anti-governmental slogans and to call for the fall of the
regime from their windows and balconies at night despite the
regime's brutal suppression techniques; and

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WHEREAS, The Iranian people have risen time and time again
against their authoritarian government, only to be repressed
and terrorized over and over again; and
WHEREAS, The Iranian regime has ruthlessly snuffed out
protests in the past, arresting and killing its own citizens,
such as Navid Afkari, a young Iranian wrestler who was hanged
on September 12, 2020, on dubious charges and without due
process; and
WHEREAS, Iran has the highest number of executions per
capita of any country in the world; and
WHEREAS, Iran, under the leadership of Supreme Leader
Khamenei, a modern-day Yazid, has been the leading state
sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department;
and
WHEREAS, Iran has repeatedly taken U.S. and other allied
citizens hostage, holding them in deplorable conditions, in
demand for huge ransoms and other concessions; and
WHEREAS, Iran played a direct role in the deaths of at
least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq and an unknown number in
Afghanistan; and

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WHEREAS, Iran, using the billions of dollars released by
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), joined with
Russia's President Vladimir Putin to brutally repress the
Syrian revolution, contributing to hundreds of thousands dead,
millions displaced, and a global refugee crisis; and
WHEREAS, Iran forced Afghan refugees in Iran to take up
arms in Syria against the Syrian people; and
WHEREAS, Iran seized ten U.S. sailors in the Arabian Gulf
in early 2016, broadcasting photos of their capture and
captivity prior to releasing them; and
WHEREAS, Iran has provided and continues to provide arms
and support to groups hostile to the U.S. and its allies; it
has supplied warfighting materials to Russian President Putin
for use in Ukraine; and
WHEREAS, Iranian governmental revenues and instances of
international provocation, including attacks on U.S. flagged
shipping and on U.S. allies, have soared since the beginning
of 2021; and
WHEREAS, Iranian-aligned groups have repeatedly sought to
interfere in U.S. elections, disrupting the democratic

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process; and
WHEREAS, Iran unleashed a massive cyberattack on Albania,
a NATO ally, in July 2022, causing the country to consider
invoking Article 5 of the treaty organization; and
WHEREAS, Iran has recently plotted to assassinate former
American officials and to kidnap Masih Alinejad, a prominent
Iranian activist living in New York; and
WHEREAS, On August 12, 2022, a would-be assassin attacked
Salman Rushdie in New York; he had been targeted for
assassination by the Iranian government, and the attacker
sympathized with the Iranian regime; and
WHEREAS, Since the beginning of 2021, the Iranian regime
has made rapid, irreversible strides in developing its nuclear
program; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we stand with the
Iranian martyrs to liberty who are currently dying on the
streets and in the prisons of Iran; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we join with the Iranian protestors who are
fearlessly confronting a despotic regime, demanding freedom,

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dignity, and a better future, and urge President Biden and the
members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to eschew any
further negotiations with or cash releases to the Iranian
regime while it is murdering its own citizens; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That the U.S. use this opportunity to once more
unfurl America's standard as a bulwark of freedom and liberty
against the forces of oppression and tyranny in a troubled
world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge President Biden and the members of
the Illinois Congressional Delegation to use America's
influence on the world stage to work with the United States'
international partners to isolate the Iranian regime; and be
it further
RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
delivered to President Biden and all members of the Illinois
Congressional Delegation.