Hundreds rally in San Francisco against the brutalities of the Iranian government
SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds rallied against the Iranian government outside San Francisco City Hall Sunday afternoon as protests spread across the globe following 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death after being detained by her country's morality police.
She was detained for improperly wearing her headscarf.
Protests in Iran, largely led by women, have been met with violence from law enforcement. Civil unrest is spilling into its fourth week, as the regime's use of force appears to be growing more brutal. Officials say 185 people have been killed there during the unrest. Some of them were children.
San Francisco city attorney David Chiu was among several speakers and city officials at Sunday's rally.
"We stand with you, we stand with you for women, life, and freedom, until the deaths stop, until the killing stop, until basic human rights reign the day." Chiu said. "I want you to take a moment and just look around, look around at this beautiful diaspora of Iranian California, of Iranian America, but more importantly, we are the diaspora of the world saying to the power structure of Iran, 'We are going to take you down.'"
Meanwhile in Iran, anti-government demonstrations erupted in several locations over the weekend as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy. At least two people were killed.
Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.
On Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran's state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read "Join us and stand up!" and "The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws," a reference to Khamenei.
A song with the lyrics "Woman. Life. Freedom" — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background.
