Spread to the US and Europe… Hair cut in protest against Iranian government
Solidarity protests took place in the United States and Europe, as anti-government protests spread across the country after a woman in her 20s was detained in Iran for not wearing a hijab and then mysteriously died.
According to AFP news agency, Voice of America (VOA), and CNN on the 25th (local time), protests against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in several cities in the United States, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden took place
In the United States, protests against the Iranian government were held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and at UC Berkeley in California on the 23rd, led by Iranian-Americans.
“The protests symbolize solidarity with those who are ready to overthrow the Iranian regime at their expense,” the organizer of the protest told CNN.
On the 2nd of next month, a demonstration will be held to create a human chain that crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
“As people not living under the oppression of the Islamic regime, we have a duty to raise our voices and become the voices of the Iranian people,” said a woman who organized the protests in Chicago.
There were also protests in Turkiye, where there are many Iranian migrants.
About 300 migrants from Iran gathered in front of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul on the 21st to protest the death of Ami.
During the protests, at least three women cut their own hair in protest against the Iranian government’s restraints on women’s bodies.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “We are not silent, we are not afraid, we do not obey” and “I decide my body.”
Protesters also held up placards condemning Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Iranian regime.
Protests against Iranian authorities took place in Paris, France, for two consecutive days starting on the 24th.
About 4,000 people, according to police estimates, took part in the protest held at Trogadero Square in the center of Paris that day.
The protests initially began in a peaceful atmosphere, but as some participants headed to the nearby Iranian embassy, they clashed with the police.
Among the protesters, slogans such as “Death to the Islamic Republic” erupted along with voices condemning Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
They also chanted ‘Women, Life, Freedom!’ in Persian and Kurdish, the official language of Iran, the slogan used by Iranians during anti-government protests across Iran.
French police used tear gas and riot gear to block protesters from marching towards the Iranian embassy.
French police said in a statement that “some demonstrators attempted to cross the barriers placed around the Iranian embassy on several occasions and used tear gas to push them away.”
But the police’s crackdown has further provoked anti-Iranian human rights groups in France, AFP reported.
Human rights activists, who have already expressed aversion to French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Raish at the UN General Assembly last week, believe the authorities are protecting the Iranian government, AFP news agency reported.
At the same time, in London, England, five protesters were arrested in clashes between protesters and police as they attempted to approach the Iranian embassy in Britain.
Social media has shared photos of protesters attempting to break through a police barrier set outside the Iranian embassy.
London police said many protesters had gathered near the Iranian embassy in Britain with “collective intent to create disorder,” adding that “protesters attempted to cross the police line and threw objects at officers, sending additional police forces.”
Amini went to Tehran with her family on the 13th of this month and was arrested for not wearing a hijab properly.
He died on the 16th, three days after being transported to the hospital.
Iranian police said he had never used violence and claimed he could have a heart attack, but there are claims that he died after being hit in the head at the police station.
As a result of this incident, accumulated dissatisfaction with the Iranian leadership has erupted, and large-scale protests have erupted in major cities including Tehran, the Iranian government is fighting back with hardened suppression.
At least 41 people have been killed in the process so far, but Iran’s judiciary chief Golam Hossein Mosseni-Ejay stressed the need for decisive action without tolerance on the 25th, implying further spurs in the crackdown.
In a statement issued in the name of the EU, Rousseff Borrell, the European Union’s high-level foreign affairs and security policy representative, said, “The widespread and excessive use of force (by Iranian authorities) against nonviolent protesters is unjustifiable or unacceptable for the EU and its member states. action,” he criticized.
“Iranian authorities are severely restricting internet access and blocking instant messaging platforms,” he said.
/yunhap news