Swiss protests continue against Iranian repression
Hundreds of people have again taken to the streets of Swiss cities in solidarity with Iranians protesting repression in their country.
For the third Saturday in a row, demonstrations took place in the afternoon in Zurich and Bern under the slogan "give a voice to the Iranian protest". A few hundred people gathered in Zurich and nearly 500 in Bern, according to Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA. In Lausanne, some 200 people demonstrated late Friday afternoon.
The ongoing protests in Iran were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died after being taken into custody. She was arrested by the morality police for violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. Activists say she was ill-treated by police during her arrest and later died in hospital. Iranian authorities said she died of heart failure related to a previous illness.
While the protests were initially directed against the compulsory wearing of headscarves, they quickly turned to questioning Iran's system of Islamic governance.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights organisation, more than 100 people have already been killed during the protests in Iran. According to Amnesty International, at least 23 minors are among the victims.
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