Protesters in Amsterdam and Eindhoven take to the streets for Iranian women

In cooperation with

Broadcasting Brabant

NOS News•today, 17:19

For the third time in more than a week, protesters in the Netherlands have shown support for women in Iran and their fight for freedom and equality. Many hundreds of people were on their feet in both Amsterdam and Eindhoven.

A number of people in Eindhoven cut their hair in protest against the regime in Iran and the violence against women. Head scarves were also burned again.

“We have come together here to express our sympathy for the struggle that is going on in Iran,” said one of the demonstrators in Eindhoven at Omroep Brabant. “This is not a government, this is an Islamic gang that commits crimes against humanity. Iran’s embassy should be closed here.”

The demonstrations follow the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran. She was arrested by the morality police in September for allegedly failing to comply with Iranian rules that require a woman to cover her head. She died after her arrest, according to eyewitnesses, because she was assaulted in a police van.

Immediately after Amini’s death, massive protests broke out in Iran, which are severely suppressed by the regime. Dozens of people were killed, according to human rights groups.

Amini’s death also sparked protests in the rest of the world. In the Netherlands there was a protest in The Hague last Friday. A number of protesters cut their hair off demonstratively. At the House of Representatives building they turned against the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei with slogans such as “Death to the dictator” and “Away, away, murderer”.

Last Saturday about two hundred Kurds protested in Rotterdam. And last Thursday there was a small demonstration in Amsterdam, with organizer Mina Saadadi calling Amini’s death “a state murder”.

The new demonstrations today in Amsterdam and Eindhoven attracted a total of more than 600 participants. “People are very angry because every day in Iran there is a battle going on in the streets,” said one of the participants in Eindhoven, “We are here for freedom for Iran. The dictatorial regime must go, freedom for everything. Not only for women, for everything”, adds another: “also for democratic ideas.”