80,000 Gather in Berlin to support Iran protests
Berlin, Oct 22 (EFE).- A crowd estimated by police at 80,000 marched through the German capital on Saturday in solidarity with protests in Iran against the government of the Islamic Republic.
Despite some arrests of people who set off smoke bombs and pyrotechnics, a police officer told the daily Berliner Zeitung that the demonstration was “very peaceful.”
German-Iranian journalist Natalie Amiri, who reported from Tehran for Germany’s ARD television in 2015-2020, people flocked to Berlin from throughout Germany and from other European cities, including Stockholm, London, Brussels, Paris and Zurich, to take part.
The Woman Life Freedom Collective organized the show of support for the demonstrations in Iran that erupted six weeks ago following the death of a young woman in the custody of the Guidance Patrol, which enforces the restrictive dress code of the Islamic Republic.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died after being detained for wearing in an “improper” manner the headscarf that is obligatory for women in Iran.
Her Sept. 17 funeral in Saqez saw the first of what was to become a wave of protests.
The slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” – in both English and German – appeared on signs and in chants, as well as “Death to Khamenei,” a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, cleric Ali Khamenei, who has attributed the “small disturbances” following Amini’s deaths to foreign conspiracies. EFE egw/dr
