Hundreds gather in Paris, European cities to denounce the Iranian regime

Hundreds gather in Paris, European cities to denounce the Iranian regime

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Hundreds of Iranians living abroad rallied in Paris and other European cities on Saturday to denounce Iran’s crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by morality police.

Demonstrators gathered in the central Place du Chatelet in the French capital and chanted slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and also called on French President Emmanuel Macron to end negotiations with Iran.

“Khamenei out of Iran!”, “Macron enough rest!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic” were among the slogans shouted by the protesters in French and Persian, an AFP reporter said.

The protesters also sang the Italian protest song “Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful)” in Persian, which has become popular with supporters of the movement.

They also repeated the viral Persian chants used by protesters in Iran, such as “zan, zendegi, azadi!” (Woman, Life, Freedom!) and also its Kurdish equivalent “jin, jiyan, azadi!” when Amini, also known as Jhina Amini, was Kurdish.

At other protests, Iranian women in Athens cut their hair in solidarity with Amini and waved placards that read “Say her name!”.

Demonstrators on Sergels torg in the center of the Swedish capital Stockholm also cut their hair, while another group held up pictures of those killed in front of the Swedish parliament.

Iran says 35 people have died in protests that erupted after Amini’s death, but activists say the number is now over 50 and likely higher.

Protesters in Paris expressed anger that Macron met and shook hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week as Paris seeks to keep the 2015 deal on Tehran’s nuclear program alive to obtain.

“How can you shake hands with someone who has committed a crime against humanity?” Read a placard waved by the protesters referring to Raisi’s alleged involvement in the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.

“The anger has caught fire and the flames will be impossible to put out,” said Mahtab Ghorbani, an exiled poet and writer based in France.

“Those who do not speak out will be held accountable and we demand that France end the negotiations (on the nuclear issue) and close the Iranian embassy in Paris,” she said.

The demonstrators are planning a second demonstration on Sunday in which they want to march on the Iranian embassy in Paris.

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