Around 80,000 Iranians and their supporters have marched in Berlin in solidarity with ongoing protests in Iran.
Saturday’s rally in the German capital is believed to have been the biggest so far held by the Iranian diaspora. Iranians from across Europe chanted the slogan of the protesters „Women, Life and Liberty!”
In Iran itself, protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini have entered a sixth week.
On Saturday gatherings were held in several world capitals including Washington, where thousands have been marching.
Organisers of the Berlin rally put the number of protesters at closer to 100,000. Their demands included more Western sanctions against Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian diplomats, the protesters said, should be thrown out of Western capitals.
„It’s breathtaking, it’s amazing,” one protester told the BBC. „It’s the first time that so many people in our nation are united regardless of their political beliefs before revolution and after revolution. I am really proud.”
Inside Iran, the authorities have cut off access to internet in many areas, but videos have appeared on social media showing demonstrators in at least several cities.
Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) estimates that 244 protesters, including 32 children, have been killed by security forces in the crackdown. It says more than 12,500 others have been detained, many of them young people and children.
On the U.S. National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages, wearing the colors of the Iran flag: “Be scared. Be scared. We are one in this”, demonstrators yelled, marching to the White House. „Say her name! Mahsa!”
The demonstrations, put together by grassroots organizers from around the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington D.C. area, with some travelling down from Toronto to join the crowd.
In Los Angeles, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside of Iran, protesters formed a slow-moving procession along blocks of a closed downtown street. „We want freedom”, they cried.
The Biden administration has stated it condemns the brutality and repression against the citizens of Iran and that it will look for ways to impose more sanctions against the Iranian government if the violence continues.
