Christine Jardine has used her Scotsman column this week to criticise the UK Government for its lack of action in response to the women’s protests in Iran.

She sets the scene:

The international concern over that state’s pursuit of nuclear capability has been at the centre of diplomatic wrangling and, for the US in particular, the focus of decades of tension.

Perhaps what we have lost sight of is that Iran is a country, a people who like any other want to live their best lives. And be free so to do.

This past week what we have seen is that desire expressed on the streets and universities of Iran, provoked originally by the death in custody of a woman accused of ‘improper’ dress.

International observers, including Amnesty International, say they have not witnessed protests of the scale and intensity that have followed the death of Mahsa Amini.

The UK Government response has been muted compared to European countries and the US, she says:

But the response of our own Foreign Secretary and wider government has been woeful in comparison.

The UK Government should use the Magnitsky sanctions regime, where appropriate, for cases in which human rights abuses and atrocities have clearly been committed.

Excessive use of force cannot be unseen or go unremarked. Ministers must condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the use of violent repression to curtail public demonstrations, protests and freedom of expression.

And she reminds us of Martin Luther King’s words that “no-one is free until we are all free.”

Human rights are universal. I have freedom of choice, of thought and of expression. My rights and that of others to freedom of religious expression are protected.

I have the right to vote for and pursue the aims of the political party of my choice and, if I want to, protest where I feel our authorities have fallen short.

But while those rights are denied to others, wherever they might be in this world, I cannot feel completely free.

You can read the whole article here.

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