Many Germans showed solidarity with the protests in Iran at the weekend. More than ten thousand people are taking to the streets in several German cities and demanding freedom for Iranian women – but they are also sending a message to the federal government.
More than ten thousand people showed solidarity with the anti-government protests in Iran at demonstrations in Germany. In Berlin, the police spoke on Saturday of a total of almost 5,000 participants in various elevators, in Hamburg of around 4,000 and in Frankfurt am Main of around 2,800. They were protesting against the system of government in Iran and the systematic discrimination against women there.
The latest protests in Iran were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested by the Morality Police for violating the Islamic dress code, after which she fell into a coma and died. Critics accuse the morality police of using violence, which the police deny. Since then, thousands have been demonstrating in the country against the government and the Islamic system. At least 19 people were killed in riots in the southeast on Friday.
In Hamburg, participants shouted “Gone, gone, gone – mullahs have to go” and “Women, life, freedom” – slogans that can also be heard on the streets of Tehran. Already in the morning there was an action on the town hall market in Hamburg, in which protesters put posters and a wig with red paint on the ground.
In Frankfurt, too, demonstrators chanted catchphrases such as “woman, life, freedom”. There were more participants than registered. In Berlin, a spokesman for a group of exiled Iranians in Germany called for an end to the bloodshed and democratic reforms in the country. In view of the current violence in Iran, he called on the German government to impose new sanctions, primarily against the regime’s elites.
