Brandishing portraits of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after her arrest by the Iranian vice police, a few hundred Iraqi and Iranian Kurds demonstrated on Saturday in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, to denounce "
the Iranian regime
" and the "
repression
".
"
Woman, life, freedom
", "
Down with the dictatorship
", chanted in Kurdish the 300 or so demonstrators, men and women, gathered in front of the United Nations offices in Erbil, reported an AFP photographer.
Some burned an Iranian flag.
Read alsoIran: power opts for repression against demonstrators
“
Stand with the Iranian people
”, “
People are being killed for freedom in Iran
”, could be read in English on a sign.
"
Jhina, an example of life, the spark of revolt
", was written on another, alluding to the Kurdish first name of Mahsa Amini, 22 years old.
Originally from Iranian Kurdistan, in the north-west of Iran bordering Iraq, Mahsa Amini was arrested on September 13 in Tehran for “
wearing inappropriate clothes
”.
Arrested by the morality police, a unit responsible for enforcing the strict dress code imposed on women, she died three days later after falling into a coma.
On Saturday in Erbil, the protesters held up portraits of the young woman, smiling with a veil thrown carelessly over her hair and revealing a few locks, according to the fashion followed by many Iranian women.
“
Today, we are gathered in front of the UN headquarters against the murder of Mahsa Amini and the feminicides, and against the Iranian regime
”, explained Jwana Temsi.
This 20-year-old Iranian Kurd is part of the opposition present in Iraqi Kurdistan and engaged in the fight against the power of Tehran.
Mahsa Amini's death has sparked protests across Iran, with Amnesty International denouncing the "
brutal crackdown
" by security forces.
“
The situation in Iran is catastrophic, the death toll is on the rise
,” lamented Fatma Abdallah, a 69-year-old Iranian Kurd, a green scarf loosely draped over her gray hair.
“
People are arrested and imprisoned, abused and tortured on a daily basis, regardless of whether they are women, children or the elderly
,” she added.
At least 35 people have been killed in "
riots
" in Iran, according to the latest report from Iranian state television.
But the opposition NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Oslo, reported on Friday at least 50 dead in the repression of the demonstrations.
