British-Iranian Nazanin Boniadi, 2023 Sydney peace prize winner, met foreign minister Penny Wong at the start of an Australian tour. Photograph: Bri Hammond/The Guardian
She says Australia should sanction Iran’s communications minister, Eisa Zarepour, who did his PhD at the University of New South Wales. He has already been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.She also calls for Australia to be part of a multinational move to tip the balance against Iran and to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.And she calls on Australians to beware online propaganda and the damage it can do to democracy.
“Instead of empowering them, we revoke the visas of regime officials, we sanction them when they’re implicated in crimes against humanity.” In October last year, the US implemented sanctions against seven Iranian leaders because of the “shutdown of Iran’s internet access and the continued violence against peaceful protesters in the wake of the tragic death ofZarepour was among them, sanctioned for his “shameful attempt to block the internet access of millions of Iranians in the hopes of slowing down the protests”.
Boniadi says that, so far, international efforts have only addressed the symptoms of Iran’s problems – “the next nuclear issue, hostage diplomacy, hostage taking, terrorism, and domestic and regional aggression”.The Iranian people themselves are rising up under the banner of “woman, life, freedom”, she says.by a Senate inquiry in February) would send a strong message to Iran that it is being isolated for both its domestic and regional aggression, she says.