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Chanting crowds have marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington and Los Angeles in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran.
- Waving hundreds of Iranian flags, protesters chanted "we want freedom"
- About 80,000 people joined a protest in Berlin
- Iran's anti-government protests began over mandatory hijab coverings for women
Five weeks after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police, thousands of women and men of all ages around the world have taken to the streets.
"Be scared. Be scared. We are one in this," demonstrators — wearing green, white and red, the colours of the Iran flag — shouted in rhythm at the US National Mall, before marching to the White House.
"Say her name! Mahsa!"
In Los Angeles, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside of Iran, a throng of protesters formed a slow-moving procession along blocks of a closed downtown street.
They chanted for the fall of Iran's government and waved hundreds of Iranian flags that turned the horizon to a undulating wave of red, white and green.
"We want freedom," they thundered.
Shooka Scharm, an attorney who was born in the US after her parents fled the Iranian revolution, was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Women, Life, Freedom" in English and Farsi.
Ms Scharm said In Iran "women are like a second-class citizen and they are sick of it".
Iran's nationwide anti-government protest movement first focused on the country's mandatory hijab covering for women following Ms Amiri's death on September 16.
The demonstrations there have since transformed into the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 green movement over disputed elections.
In Tehran on Saturday, more anti-government protests took place at several universities.
Iran's security forces have dispersed gatherings in that country with live ammunition and tear gas, killing more than 200 people, including teenage girls, according to rights groups.
The Biden administration has said it condemns the brutality and repression against the citizens of Iran and that it will look for ways to impose more sanctions against the Iranian government if the violence continues.
Between chants, protesters in DC broke into song, singing traditional Persian music about life and freedom — all written after the revolution in 1979 brought religious fundamentalists to power in Iran.
They sang in unison Baraye, which has become the unofficial anthem of the Iran protests.
The artist of that song, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested shortly after posting the song to his Instagram in late September. It accrued more than 40 million views.
"Because of women, life, freedom," protesters sang, echoing a popular protest chant: "Azadi" — Freedom.
Protester Samin Aayanifard, who left Iran three years ago, said the movement in Iran was rooted in the same issues as in the US and around the globe.
"It's forced hijab in Iran and here in America, after 50 years, women's bodies are under control," Ms Aayanifard said.
She referred to roll backs of abortion laws in the United States. "It's about control over women's bodies."
In Berlin, a crowd estimated by German police to be 80,000 turned out to show solidarity for the women and activists leading the movement for the past few weeks in Iran.
The protests in Germany's capital, organised by the Woman Life Freedom Collective, began at the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten park and continued as a march through central Berlin.
Some demonstrators there said they had come from elsewhere in Germany and other European countries to show their support.
"It is so important for us to be here, to be the voice of the people of Iran, who are killed on the streets," Shakib Lolo, who is from Iran but lives in the Netherlands said.
"This is not a protest anymore, this is a revolution, in Iran. And the people of the world have to see it."
AP