A thousand people demonstrated this 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.
Waving Iranian flags or carrying them on their shoulders, the demonstrators marched behind a large banner proclaiming “Woman, Life, Freedom”, the slogan of the revolt movement in Iran which they shouted along the route. “Let’s prevent the killing”, “Long live the democratic revolution in Iran” or “Stop the massacres of the innocent”, could also be read on the signs.
End December, an Iranian committed suicide by throwing itself into the Rhône, in the same city of Lyon. He explained in a posthumous video that he wanted to draw attention to the situation in his country. ” Police attack people, we lost a lot of sons and daughters, we have to do something “, he explained.
France must start by closing the Iranian embassy in France, after the other countries will do the same.
Demonstration of support for the Iranians in Lyon
In the crowd this Sunday, Guilda Torabi, 21, came to be heard by the French government. ” We would like them to stop protecting our murderers and executioners. The French president said he supported us and that he was wholeheartedly with us, but we see nothing “, laments at the microphone of RFI this accounting student, whose parents are Iranian. Guilda would like Paris to close embassies, dismiss ambassadors, stop organizing meetings with Iranian authorities. ” We support terrorists, we encourage them, we continue to conduct nuclear negotiations. We must stop all relations with this regime “, she insists
The crowd also chanted the names of Mohammad Moradi, who committed suicide in Lyon on December 28, or people recently executed in Iran. 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.
” We are against this regime (…) which is against humanity, against all the Iranian people “, explains to AFP Jiyan Bahramian, a 46-year-old political refugee living in Besançon. He held with other compatriots a fabric banner displaying, in red, the word freedom composed with the names of 630 political prisoners. According to the UN, around 14,000 people have been arrested since the start of the movement.
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.
(And with AFP)