A human chain of more than a kilometer took shape Saturday afternoon on the sidewalk of Sherbrooke Street in downtown Montreal, as part of a series of demonstrations held across the country and elsewhere in the world to condemn the Iranian dictatorial regime which accumulates blunders against its population.
Iranian flags fluttered as far as the eye could see along Sherbrooke Street West on Saturday afternoon, as did posters denouncing the religious dictatorship of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, who violently suppressed in recent weeks the protests held in the country to denounce the flouted rights and freedoms of its population. More than 2,000 people took part in this mobilization, which notably took place alongside McGill University. The event was organized by the Association of Victims of Flight PS752, the plane that was destroyed in Iran in January 2020, killing 176 people.
“Stop the massacre in Iran,” read a poster, while an Arabic interpretation of the famous Italian song of revolt resounded. Bella ciao. “The Islamic regime must go,” demanded another placard held up in the crowd.
According to the most recent assessment of the NGO Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo, more than 250 people, including 34 children, have been killed during the demonstrations held since the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish girl had been brutalized and arrested in Tehran three days earlier by morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code. “Say her name: Mahsa Amini!” “have also chanted the demonstrators repeatedly on Saturday.
“You know what they want, the Iranians? They just want to be able to dress how they want,” said the To have to Kia Tabou, who took part in this human chain on Saturday. He also urged the government of Justin Trudeau to put in place more sanctions against the Iranian regime in order to help undermine it. “You don’t just have to put up with [le mouvement de contestation au régime iranien]. We have to take action,” he insisted.
This mobilization is part of a series of similar human chains organized in particular in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver at different times on Saturday, not to mention those that took place in other cities around the world. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, participated in the mobilization held in Ottawa today to join his voice to the demonstrators and promise more sanctions against the Iranian regime.
“The international community must act [contre le régime iranien] “, also pleaded Mitra Arya, who believes that the vast majority of the Iranian population opposes the Islamic dictatorship in power since 1979 in this Middle Eastern country. “We want to make our voice heard because the people in Iran have no voice,” the protester continued.
“Everyone is in the street”
But the protests taking place in Iran and elsewhere will not be enough to bring down the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agrees Sarah, spokesperson for the Iranian Women’s Association of Montreal. She asked to keep her last name silent, because she plans to travel to Iran soon and fears that she will not be able to enter the country if she displays her positions publicly. “Protests will not be enough. But at the same time, there are strikes taking shape in the country,” notes the lawyer by training.
“The lawyers are in the street, the doctors, the students. Everyone is in the street”, she notes, while deploring “the force” used by the Iranian authorities to “repress” the demonstrators who dare to protest in the streets of the country, despite the risks incurred for their security.
Workers in the oil industry have also started strikes in recent weeks in Iran, which could particularly hurt the country’s economy, which revolves around black gold. So many mobilizations that lead Sarah to believe that the Islamic regime could well and truly end up collapsing. “It cannot succeed immediately, but we must have hope because this government cannot stay in power. »