There have been protests in the streets of Berlin, Washington and Los Angeles in solidarity with Iranian women who have faced violent repression by the government.
Widespread protests broke out last month after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in the custody of the country’s ethics police.
On the US National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages – dressed in green, white and red, the colors of the Iranian flag – chanted together.
“Fear. Fear. We are one of these,” the protesters shouted, before marching to the White House. “Say her name! Mahsa!”
The protests, brought together by grassroots organizers from across the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington, DC area, with some descending as far as Toronto, Canada, taking part. crowd.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest Iranian population outside of Iran, a crowd of protesters formed a slow-moving procession along the blocks of a closed street downtown. They chanted for the fall of the Iranian government and waved hundreds of Iranian flags that turned the horizon into an undulating wave of red, white and green.
“We want freedom,” they shouted.
Shooka Scharm, a lawyer born in the US after her parents fled the Iranian revolution, wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in English and Farsi. In Iran, “women are like second-class citizens and they are sick of it,” says Scharm.
Iran’s nationwide anti-government protest movement first centered on the country’s mandatory hijab for women following Amiri’s death on September 16. Protests there have turned into The biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the Green Movement in 2009 over contested elections.
In Tehran on Saturday, anti-government protests took place at several universities.
Iranian security forces dispersed gatherings in that country with live ammunition and tear gas, killing more than 200 people, including underage girls, according to human rights groups.
The official casualty figure is much lower.
The Biden administration said it condemns the brutality and repression against Iranian citizens and will seek to impose further sanctions against the Iranian government if the violence continues.
Amid cheers, protesters in Washington joined in the song, singing traditional Persian music about life and freedom. They sang in unison a special song – Baraye, which means because – the unofficial anthem of the Iranian protests. The artist of that song, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested shortly after posting the song on his Instagram in late September. It has garnered more than 40 million views.
“For women, life, freedom,” chanted the protesters, echoing the popular protest chant: Azadi – Freedom.
Saturday’s solidarity protests that lasted several weeks in the US capital drew growing crowds.
In Berlin, a crowd estimated by German police in the tens of thousands of people came to show solidarity with the women and activists who have spearheaded the movement over the past few weeks in Iran.
The protests in the German capital, organized by the Collective of Women* -Life-Freedom, began at the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park and continued as a march through central Berlin.
Some protesters there said they had come from elsewhere in Germany and other European countries to show support.
Shakib Lolo, who is Iranian but lives in the Netherlands, said: “It is important for us to be here, to be the voice of the Iranian people, who were killed in the streets. “And this is not a protest anymore, this is a revolution, in Iran. And the people of the world must witness it.”
