A full-throated cry for justice echoed across Downtown Vancouver for a third-week running following the death of a young Iranian woman by the regime's morality police.
Thousands of passionate demonstrators congregated outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday (Oct. 8) to protest 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's passing, as well as the deaths of several other young Iranians.
Hundreds of people carried signs with Amini's name and chanted "woman, life, freedom" or "woman, life, liberty."
While Iranian police have denied any mistreatment, the U.N. human rights office was called in for an investigation. It found police had expanded their patrols in recent months and verified videos of women being slapped in the face, struck with batons and thrown into police vans for wearing the hijab too loosely.
Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried in her home city of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Several protesters were arrested.
The Vancouver protest commenced at 3 p.m., with numerous people waving the country's old flag, which is also red, white, and green but has a lion and sun emblem in the middle. It was replaced by the current flag in 1980 after the Islamic Republic came into power in 1979.
Many of the people who attended the Iran protest said they want the country to drop the mandatory hijab law, which came into effect in 1981. They also called for an end to the regime's brutal treatment of prisoners.
On Sept. 21, Iranians experienced a near-total internet blackout. The loss of internet access made it more difficult for demonstrators to communicate and arrange protests.
Massive protests have been held around the world since her death to show solidarity with the demonstrators in Iran and to protest the Islamic republic.
