Protests against the Iranian regime | Montreal supports the Iranian people

(Montreal) Thousands of people marched in the streets of Montreal on Saturday afternoon to give a voice to the Iranian people and to denounce the oppressive political regime of the Islamic Republic.

Delphine Belzile
The Press

Iran’s flags flew in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon as protesters marched under the slogan “Woman, life, freedom” to denounce the violence of the regime of Ebrahim Raisi against women in Iran .

“We try to be an echo of what is happening in Iran”, explains the researcher of Iranian origin Nimâ Machouf, member of the collective Femme vie liberté who supervised the march.

The palms of the hand slathered in red, about twenty women led the march with a banner on which one could read “No to the Islamic Republic”. This march is part of the context of the death of Mahsa Amini, who died at the hands of the morality police for wearing her veil “incorrectly” on September 16, 2022.

The demonstrators brandished slogans in French, English and Persian, such as “For my mother, for my sister, for Iran” and “Freedom and democracy in Iran”.

“Crime against humanity”

As the crowd gathered in Canada Square late in the day, the Iranian community sang along Baraye by Iranian Shervin Hajiaghapour. The song was written by the artist in the wake of the girl’s death and denounces the oppressive Islamic Republic regime that has plagued Iran for several years.

“They need us to be their voice. It is a crime against humanity that has been going on for more than a month in Iran,” said Atena Barforoushi, who immigrated to Quebec from Iran nearly 10 years ago. Like many protesters in Iran, she was previously arrested by morality police three times for deviating from the republic’s code of conduct, she said.

Rose Tandel took part in the march alongside her parents who left Iran before the Islamic Republic took hold in the 1980s. “We must support our sisters in Iran”, explains the young girl seated with her mother and his grandmother instead of Canada.

The Tandels lost contact with their family members still in Iran, following the state internet shutdowns last September. “I would like to be there”, laments the mother of Rose Tandel, who feels helpless in the face of the wave of revolts in her native country.

His daughter, lawyer Yalda Machouf Khadir, spoke to the crowd on behalf of the collective Femme vie liberté. “This authoritarian, corrupt and repressive regime no longer has a place in our country. The time has come for the Iranian people to free themselves from the [régime islamique] who tyrannizes Iran, its people and its women,” she said.

The group notably asks the Government of Canada to suspend the agreements with the Islamic Republic of Iran and to recognize as a “terrorist entity” the “army corps formed by the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution”. The group also calls on the Canadian government to “identify law enforcement agents directly linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

80,000 demonstrators in Berlin

Some 80,000 people took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday to support the Iranian people shaken by the revolts, a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

“Today, thousands of people are showing their solidarity with the brave women and protesters in Iran,” Lisa Paus, Germany’s Minister for the Family, wrote on Twitter. We are by your side. »

While many activists gave their support to the Iranian people on Saturday, merchants and workers went on strike in several cities in Iran, including Saquez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini.

Many students also protested on campuses across the country, as the uprisings enter their sixth week, according to local news outlet 1500tasvir.

The crackdown on protests in Iran is the largest in the country since protests in 2019 over rising gas prices. The organization Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo, lists 122 dead, including children, since the beginning of the revolts.

With The Canadian Press and Agence France-Presse