Thousands march in Brussels on anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death

On the eve of the first anniversary of the passing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman whose death while in the care of Iran’s morality police ignited months of anti-government rallies, Iranian emigrants marched in Brussels on Friday. Thousands of protesters demanded the fall of Iran’s theocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic while holding up images of Amini and numerous other protest victims. According to the organisers, they also called for a single European Union position to hold Iran’s Shi’ite clerical leaders accountable for their misdeeds. The demonstrations that erupted after Amini’s death, who had been detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s mandated dress code, culminated in the largest display of defiance against the Iranian government in recent memory. According to rights groups, during the disturbance that was subsequently put down by security forces, over 500 people—including 71 minors—were murdered, hundreds were injured, and thousands were jailed. The Tehran government claims that the unrest was stoked to undermine Iran by the US, Israel, and their local agents. (With agency inputs)