A large protest against the current government in Tehran was organised by members of the Iranian diaspora on the streets of Brussels on Monday. Protestors denounced the repression and persecution of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his regime, with some 6,000 people taking part in the event, according to police estimates.
Participants gathered from 10:00 on the Boulevard Albert II, near the Gare du Nord station. Some had travelled from the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark or Sweden to denounce the political regime in Iran. Many members of the Iranian diaspora were present, but the protest was also attended by non-Iranians who joined in solidarity.
Waving Iranian flags but also British, German, French, and Norwegian ones, they called on Iran to end the persecution of women in its country, as well as also demanding the EU to classify the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation.
Furthermore, the opposition is urging the West to order the closure of Iranian embassies and send diplomats back to their countries.
People gather for a protest to support the Iranian resistance movement, Monday 20 February 2023 in Brussels. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
Protestors are also denouncing the use of “transfer treaties” (exchange of prisoners) that some countries, including Belgium, are signing with the Tehran regime.
This contentious type of treaty could allow the release of former humanitarian worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who has been imprisoned for almost a year and sentenced by the Iranian justice system to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for espionage.
People carry flags with resistance symbols at a protest to support the Iranian resistance movement, Monday 20 February 2023 in Brussels. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
The demonstration continued its planned route in the direction of the Boulevard du Jardin Botanique, Rue Joseph II and the Chaussée d’Etterbeek, before going on towards Cinquantenaire Park.
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Iran has been rocked by large, violently repressed protests every week since the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman arrested for allegedly violating the country’s dress code for women.
The young woman had died in hospital a few days after being arrested by the morality police.
