A thousand people demonstrated on Sunday January 8 in Lyon in support of the protest movement in Iran and in tribute to Mohammad Moradi who committed suicide by jumping into the Rhône to draw attention to his country, noted journalists from the AFP. Protesters marched behind a large banner proclaiming “woman, life, freedom“, the slogan of the revolt movement in Iran that they shouted along the route.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the death of student Mahsa Amini on September 16 after her arrest for violating the dress code. Since then, 14 people have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests, according to an AFP tally based on official information. Among them, four were executed, including two on Saturday.
“I am here to ask for freedom”
The emotion was strong in Lyon among the demonstrators who waved Iranian flags or were swaddled in them. “I am here to ask for freedom in Iran (…) When I was little, they arrested my whole family“, explained to AFP Sholeh Golrokhi, 49, from Paris and who drew a red tear on her face. “We are against this regime (…) which is against humanity, against all the Iranian people“, explained Jiyan Bahramian, a 46-year-old political refugee living in Besançon.
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He held with other compatriots a fabric banner displaying, in red, the word freedom composed with the names of 630 political prisoners, “a small part of a large number“, he said. According to the UN, around 14,000 people have been arrested since the beginning of the movement. “We are here to ask Western countries to be the voice of our people” and “to expel Iranian ambassadors“Said Samane Ramezanpanah, a 35-year-old computer scientist.
Holding signs “Stop the killing», «Long live the democratic revolution in Iran” Where “Stop the massacres of the innocentthe crowd chanted the names of Mohammad Moradi, who committed suicide in Lyon on December 28, or people recently executed. Songs by rapper Toomaj Salehi, arrested for his support for the movement, were broadcast, while on a truck, a woman, the Iranian flag painted on her face, imitated a hanging.
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If the crowd was mainly made up of Iranians, Lyonnais also came to support them, like Maurice Magnan and his wife. “Iran is living through a dramatic time, the mullahs in power only aim to maintain them and in no case the happiness of their people. Iran really deserves to be taken care of.“, underlined this 65-year-old retiree. “We felt immense dissatisfaction from the Iranian peopleduring a trip to Iran, he explained, referring to the dire state of the economy and the lack of hope among young people.