Mahsa Amini was beaten to death by the Iranian vice squad
Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
From BZ/dpa
With a large demonstration through the Berlin government district, a women’s collective wants to support the protests in Iran that have been going on for weeks this Saturday.
50,000 participants are registered with the police for the protest from 3:00 p.m. at the Victory Column in Berlin. The title reads: “Solidarity with the protesters in Iran”. According to the police, the applicant is the collective “Woman* Life Freedom Kollektiv”, which wants to stand up against oppression and discrimination in Iran.
The well-known Iranian activist Hamed Esmaeilion is also calling for the demonstration. “We invite European citizens to come to Berlin,” the Iranian-Canadian wrote on Twitter.
After the death of his wife and daughter, Esmaeilion appears as an activist with protest organizations abroad against the Islamic Republic. His family died when a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down near Tehran in January 2020.
The trigger for the system-critical mass protests in Iran was the death of the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The moral police had arrested her because she allegedly did not comply with the mandatory rules for wearing a headscarf.
The woman died in police custody on September 16. Since her death, thousands have been demonstrating across the country against the government’s repressive course and the Islamic system of rule.