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MP Al-Sahlani: "Women, Life, Freedom"
Photo: EUROPEAN UNION / Handout / REUTERS
A Swedish MEP cut her hair off in the European Parliament - a gesture of solidarity with the protests against the regime in Iran.
“Until Iran is free, our anger will outweigh the oppressors.
Until the Iranian women are free, we will stand by you," said Abir Al-Sahlani on Tuesday evening in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Then she took a heavy arm, said "Women, life, freedom" in Kurdish and English, cut off her braid and lifted her hair.
Al-Sahlani was born in Iraq and is a member of the Swedish bourgeois-liberal Center Party.
She is a member of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.
Stars from the entertainment industry had also shown their solidarity with the protest movement with similar actions.
In total, around 50 famous French actresses and singers cut their hair.
In the protest video published on Wednesday, actress and Oscar winner Juliette Binoche first looks into the camera, says "for freedom", cuts off a tuft of hair and holds it up to the camera.
Other participants in the video, which is accompanied by the anthem »Bella Ciao«, include Isabelle Huppert, Jane Birkin and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
For many days, the regime in Tehran has been brutally cracking down on protests.
The demonstrations were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September.
The moral police had arrested her because of her allegedly "un-Islamic outfit".
After her arrest, Amini collapsed under mysterious circumstances at the police station, fell into a coma and was pronounced dead at the hospital three days later.
Critics accuse the morality police of using violence;
the police deny it.
Since the woman's death, thousands have been demonstrating across the country against the government's repressive course and the headscarf requirement.
There were numerous violent clashes, and dozens of people died.
The regime blames Israel and the US for the protests and has shown no willingness to respond to the demands of the protest movement.
Ulz/Reuters/AFP