Hundreds take to streets in Turkey in support of Iranian women

Hundreds took to the streets in Turkey on Sunday to protest Iran’s crackdown on women-led demonstrations, triggered by Mahsa Amini’s suspicious death after arrested by the police forces in Tehran.

Many Iranians were among the demonstrators who chanted slogans in support of Iranian women, AFP reported. 

The protests in Iran began after the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab law. Amini on Sept.13 was arrested by Iran’s morality police [Gasht-e-Ershad] - a unit enforcing the laws on Islamic dress code in public - for wearing her headscarf too “loosely” and hours after detention, fell into a coma. Three days after hospitalized, Amini died on Sept.16. According to Iranian police, she died due to a heart failure, but her family says she was subjected to torture, suffering a fatal blow to the head.

Following the death of Amini, thousands took the streets for the largest anti-government protests in Iran since 2009. Spreading to as many as 80 cities, women were at the forefront of the demonstrations, waving and burning their headscarves. Iranian authorities escalated a violent crackdown on the protestors, killing dozens, arresting activists and journalists. According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), 133 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the protests. 

During the demonstrations in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul, women held red roses, Iranian flags and signs bearing the words "women, life, freedom," AFP said. Protestors also gathered in southeastern Diyarbakir and western Izmir provinces, the news agency said.