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Iran protests trigger solidarity protests in the US, Europe


WASHINGTON –

Chanting crowds marched through the streets of Berlin, Washington DC and Los Angeles on Saturday to show international support for protesters facing a violent government crackdown. in Iran, caused by the death of Mahsa Amini, 22 years old in the custody of that country’s moral police.

On the National Mall of the United States, thousands of women and men of all ages – dressed in green, white and red, the colors of the Iranian flag – chanted to the beat. “Be afraid. Be afraid. 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 from Toronto to join the crowds.

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 said like thunder.

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’re sick of it,” Scharm said.

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 become 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 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, DC protesters joined in the song, singing traditional Persian music about life and freedom – all written after the 1979 revolution brought fundamentalists The religious system came to power in Iran. They sang a special verse in unison – “Baraye,” meaning because, the song became 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,” the protesters sang, echoing a popular protest song: “Azadi” – Freedom.

The movement in Iran is rooted in issues similar to those in the US and globally, said protester Samin Aayanifard, 28, who left Iran three years ago. “It’s been forced to wear the hijab in Iran and here in the US, after 50 years, women’s bodies are controlled,” said Aayanifard, who drove from East Lansing, Michigan to join the DC march. . She refers to the rollback of abortion laws in the United States. “It’s about taking control of a woman’s body.”

Saturday’s solidarity protests that lasted several weeks in the US capital drew growing crowds.

In Berlin, nearly 40,000 people gathered to show solidarity with the women and activists who have led the movement over the past few weeks in Iran. The protests in the German capital, organized by the Women’s Free Lives Foundation (asterisk), began at the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten park and continued as a march through the centre. Berlin.

Some protesters there said they had come from elsewhere in Germany and other European countries to show support.

“It’s important for us to be here, to be the voice of the Iranian people, who are being killed on the streets,” said Shakib Lolo, an Iranian but living in the Netherlands. “And this is not a protest anymore, this is a revolution, in Iran. And the people of the world must witness it.”

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Leopard blood from Los Angeles.

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