Protests take place in Montreal on anniversary of Iran’s Student Day
Posted December 7, 2022 11:17 pm.
Last Updated December 7, 2022 11:29 pm.
At Norman Bethune Square at Concordia University, Montrealers came together to show their support for Iranian students. Protests in that country and around the world continue following the September death of Mahsa Amini.
This year marks the 69th anniversary of Student Day in Iran – a day which serves to commemorate the lives of three students that were killed by police in 1953.
“It’s dating back to seventy years ago when three students were shot to death by the police at the time. And the student day movement continued throughout the four decades of the Islamic Republic and it has always been the frontier of the movement of freedom-seeking movement in Iran,” said Mohammad Mohajerani, organizer of Woman, Life, Freedom in Montreal.
But this year, Student Day takes place in the middle of Civil unrest and after close to three months of protests against the Iranian regime.
And it’s a day that hits close to home for some like Mohajerani.
“I once was a student in Iran. I immigrated here in 2011 and student day always had a symbolic representation for me,” explained Mohajerani. “I was tortured by the regime. I was detained by the regime. And student days was one of the days that I was I had a symbolic representation.”
A protester CityNews spoke to said their family lives in Iran and said students in Iran live life like they are in prison. Adding that since the eruption of these protests she fears for her family’s safety.
“My sister attends the protests and every time she attends, I just wait until she comes back home and sends me a message. But over there, we have some internet problems. They shut down mostly. And then it’s so hard to get connected to each other. And then I get some news. But yeah, I. I’m under pressure here,” explained the protester.
RELATED:
- Iranian-Montrealer preoccupied by unrest in Iran as holiday season nears
- Canadians arrested for peaceful Iran protest at World Cup in Qatar
- Montrealers protest Iran’s deadly repression of demonstrators
For the past couple of months since the protests following 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini’s death, students have become a driving force in this revolution. Yet they continue to be targeted by Iranian government officials.
On December 3, an unappointed independent expert on Iran said the protests cost the lives of more than 300 people, including more than 40 children.
“The students are at the forefront of this revolution. They are chanting for their freedom and they are in the middle of that peaceful protest by the Islamic Republic to oppress them in a very, very, very brutal way,” said Forough Fereydouni, organizer of Woman, Life, Freedom in Montreal.
“And this is important to be their voice and be the soldier in the solidarity of people who are in this strike with this student of Iran. And we are here to be the voice of them who are in the middle of a revolution.”
Various reputable media outlets reported last week that Iran’s morality police force had been shut down. But some fear that this tactic is a diversionary method to distract people’s attention from what is going on there.
“We have to be very careful about information versus this information,” explained Mohajerani. “So this is kind of one of the propaganda of the regime and it’s unfortunately highlighted in the by the Western media. The movement in Iran is not about morality. Police are dismantling of it, even. It doesn’t mean much. People are going out to the streets to remove this brutal and murderous regime.”
