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Hundreds of people marched in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women's rights and freedom in Iran.© Provided by Star Phoenix
Though the rally was thousands of miles from Iran, hundreds of people gathered and marched in Saskatoon in what organizers say was a show of support for those holding similar protests — but facing life-threatening danger to do so.
“The sole purpose of these rallies is to bring awareness, and what better testament to that than the unity we see in support of basic human rights with a diverse presence,” said Pooyan Arab of the Saskatoon Iranian Cultural Association , and one of the organizers behind Saturday’s march.
“We believe fundamental human values are the ultimate uniting force.”
Mary Akhgar was one of hundreds of people who marched in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women’s rights and freedom in Iran.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women, remains the potent symbol of protests that have posed the greatest threat to the country’s theocratic government since the 2009 Green Movement demonstrations.
The demonstrations erupted after morality police detained Amini last month for not properly covering her hair with the Islamic head scarf, known as the hijab, which is mandatory for Iranian women. She collapsed at a police station and died three days later on Sept. 16.
Organizers held the march on Saturday in Saskatoon to support what they called the freedom movement of Iranian people and to condemn the Iranian government’s brutality in killing and arresting protesters.
“The courage Iranian youth are showing, intentionally putting themselves at risk of death, to have some basic freedoms, should be a warning to us all how costly regaining freedoms can be,” Arab said.
“Those of us coming from authoritarian countries know that liberty can be eroded away gradually through mass indifference, and it will not be easy to get them back.”
Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark was one of hundreds of people who marched in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women’s rights and freedom in Iran.
Among the hundreds in attendance at the Saskatoon rally were Mayor Charlie Clark and Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper. Arab said organizers “absolutely feel the support” when people from all races, creeds and backgrounds gather at an event like the one held Saturday.
The march started at College Drive and Wiggins Avenue along the University of Saskatchewan campus, and wound across University Bridge before ending at City Hall.
Hundreds of people marched in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women’s rights and freedom in Iran.
Protests have taken place for weeks around the globe. In Iran, the rallies and marches have galvanized university students, labour unions, prisoners and ethnic minorities like the Kurds along Iran’s border with Iraq.
With the slogan #WomanLifeFreedom, the demonstrations first focused on women’s rights and the state-mandated hijab, or head scarf for women. But they quickly evolved into calls to oust the Shiite clerics that have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards warned protesters there that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, in a sign that security forces may intensify their fierce crackdown on unrest sweeping the country.
Weeks into the protests, women have continued to remove their hijabs during the street demonstrations as international pressure grows on Iran’s government over its crackdown on protesters. The demonstrations have involved over 125 cities; at least 270 people have been killed and nearly 14,000 have been arrested, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran.
Hundreds of people marched in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women’s rights and freedom in Iran.
Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi told the state-run IRNA news agency this week that four protesters had been charged with “war against God,” which is punishable by death in Iran. Iranian officials have blamed the protests on foreign interference, without offering evidence.
With similar rallies held in cities across Canada this weekend — from Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton to Saskatoon, and Toronto to Halifax — the collective goal is to “mount international pressure on the Iranian regime, to stop using lethal force and mass arrests against protesters in Iran,” Arab said.
Arab believes it is “important to reiterate that Iranian people are not facing an invading force, and we cannot help them using conventional methods,” he said.
“These rallies are critical to ask the International community to hold the Iranian government to account on these brutal crackdowns and gross human rights violations.”
— With Associated Press files
Shabnam Abddi carries balloons with messages during the rally in Saskatoon on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 in support of women’s rights and freedom in Iran.
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