Dozens of Iranians gathered near the Islamic Republic’s consulate in Istanbul on Monday, Oct. 17 to mark the one-month anniversary of the protests sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman — chanting slogans against the country’s clerical rule.
Around 100 people filled a narrow street across from the consulate located at the heart of Istanbul’s most historic quarter.
They were surrounded by tens of police as they chanted the popular slogan “women, life, freedom.”
The protests in Iran were sparked after Mahsa Amini — a 22-year-old from Kurdistan province in northwest Iran — died on Sept. 16 while under custody of the Islamic Republic’s morality police.
She had been detained for violating strict codes requiring women to dress modestly in public.
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One protester in Istanbul, a 23-year-old woman who declined to give her name, said the issue is not only about women being forced to wear a hijab but about wider freedoms.
The unrest has turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, even if the protests do not seem close to toppling the system.
By Reuters. (Production: Emin Caliskan, Omer Berberoglu)
