Mahsa Amini

<h1>Iran is in turmoil.</h1>Protests are breaking out all over the country, despite the fact that protesters are regularly arrested, tortured and too often die while in custody. There are so many arrests by plainclothes police officers that kidnappings are starting to happen in daylight and people simply assume it is the police. It is frankly unsafe to be in Iran right now, especially if you are in web3. <img src="https://giveth.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/Qmaj5qAcDt5wCyC9davACzAq9D8dkFCYkFvxEMVrFPAv8n"> <h2>Iranian tech leaders are routinely arrested and jailed</h2> The internet has been heavily censored. Iran is using a system similar to what China uses to censor the internet, except they are being much more brutal with the enforcement related to maintaining it.Most developers working in the web3 space must use a VPN, ssh tunneling or Starlink to access the international services they need to do their job, and in doing so they are breaking laws and are at risk of being arrested. Activists in the space are especially at risk, Hossein Ronagi and Amir Emad Mirmirani (Jadi) can be mentioned as examples.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Ronaghi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://giveth.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmfM6LVs6FFGAGGxdRR2VFq9geEtmtforpEfV4mRctGMvz"></a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Ronaghi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hossein Ronaghi</a>ㅡA young engineer in charge of the anti-censorship committee in Iran (IranProxy) has been arrested and jailed several times. He recently escaped the clutches of plainclothes agents who broke into his home. Unfortunately, he was later arrested and unjustly imprisoned.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Emad_Mirmirani" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amir Emad Mirmirani aka Jadi</a>ㅡ A programmer and technology promoter in Iran, as well as the founder of Radio Gig Podcast has prepared thousands of hours of free online training courses for anyone interested in programming and free open-source software. He has also been one of the opponents of censorship and internet restrictions in Iran and has informed people about the issue. Jadi was abducted from his home by plainclothes agents on October 5 of this year.<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/10/09/iranian-bitcoin-advocate-ziya-sadr-arrested-by-iranian-security-forces/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zia Sadr</a>ㅡ An Iranian blockchain evangelist and lecturer was arrested and jailed late this summer.<h2> </h2><h2>UPDATE (Dec 19, 2022)</h2> All three of the above tech leaders have been recently released. ﻿🎉﻿ <h2>International relations are getting worse.</h2> The US President, Joe Biden said, “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran, they're going to free themselves pretty soon.” These are worrying times. With the general distaste for the Iranian government growing within and external to Iran, the chances of a violent revolution / civil war erupting are rising every day. This could lead to the boarders being closed and our web3 colleagues being trapped in a bad situation.It is difficult for Iranians to travel. Not only are there visa issues, but also there are social and economic issues to be considered as well. <h2>This grant hopes to alleviate the economic burden and create a supportive social network of web3 Iranians in Istanbul.</h2>We will reimburse the flights and lodging for them and their immediate family to encourage them to flee for safety before it is too late. We will also help them book accommodation their access to international banking infrastructure is obviously limited.We have helped 2 web3 community members escape Iran already and they are currently searching for a nice neighborhood in Istanbul. When they have chosen on one, we will bring as many people as possible to stay close together, so they can have regular gatherings and build strong relationships in these troubling times.Turkey only offers Iranians 90 day visas. After our community members have been there 2 months, if the situation does not seem to be getting better, we will help them find another country to go to.Maybe nothing will happen and things will calm down. This is our hope, we would excitedly take down this project, and the web3 community members that left for Turkey could return home to their local community with new friends. If this happens unused donations will be sent to donation.eth (Giveth Matching Pool). <h2>All expenditures will be documented in the updates of this project.</h2> We will make every effort to protect the identity of the web3 community members that are in Iran, many are pseudonymous and could lose their jobs if their employers find out where they live. We appreciate this and will use an encrypted form to take applications and while doing our due diligence to confirm that applicants for this subsidy work in web3 we will in no way hint to their employers that they are from Iran. We will also make sure we send reimbursement funds to a fresh Ethereum address as opposed to their public/ens address.If you are a web3 community member currently in Iran, please stay safe and consider if you can do more to support the people of Iran outside the country, than you can do protesting inside the country. If you would appreciate support in leaving the country, we are here to help! Please use this encrypted form to apply. <h2><a href="https://form.jotform.com/223058111377047" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://form.jotform.com/223058111377047</a></h2>

Relocating Web3 Iranians

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