Sandy woman can’t get in touch with family in Iran after country blocks internet

SANDY, Utah — Protests continue in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman who died while in custody of the country’s morality police.

Eida, an Iranian-American from Utah, said watching what is happening to her family thousands of miles away is difficult, especially because she cannot reach them. 

“It’s like pieces of your heart being scattered and broken into a million pieces,” she said. “We don’t have contact with them because they don’t have access to the Internet, they don’t have access to these social media apps.”

U.S. officials said the Iranian government has cut off access to the Internet for most of its 80 million citizens as protests continue over Mahsa Amini’s death.

“She’s not the first, she won’t be the last. I’m here because we want to show our support and solidarity that we stand with the people of Iran. This isn’t right. This isn’t fair. This is injustice,” Eida said.

Eida, who does not want to share her last name, said she even posted about the conflict, sharing a video of a protest, but this week, received a message from Instagram that it had been removed because it goes against their guidelines on violence and dangerous organizations.

“The reason those posts and stories have that graphic sensitive content is because the Islamic Republic Regime is doing that to people,” she said.

Eida argues video of the punishment protestors are facing should be seen in order to prompt change. She is calling on U.S. leaders to step up and help the people of Iran.

“I want people to think about, ‘What if this was me? What if this was you? What if this was your brother or your sister?’” Eida said. “This affects us all; we are all human beings.”