By Kayhan Life Staff
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi held a meeting with a delegation from the European Parliament on Sept. 23 to discuss the West and the international community’s support for the Iranian people and the ongoing nationwide protests in the country, sparked by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old ethnic Kurd, while in the custody of the morality police (guidance patrol) in Tehran on Sept. 16.
The protests have spread to 120 cities in some 30 provinces in the past week, with no sign of people backing down despite the brutal crackdown by the Iranian authorities, who have shut down the internet and severely restricted messaging platforms Instagram and WhatsApp.
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/prp_2022_9.jpeg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi held a meeting with a delegation from the European Parliament on Sept. 23. KL./” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
The morality police detained Ms. Amini, a native of Saqqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, outside a metro station in Tehran on Sept. 13 for allegedly violating the Hijab Law. According to eyewitness accounts, Amini was beaten while transported in a morality police van. She died in hospital on Friday, Sept. 16, after spending three days in a coma.
Hundreds of thousands have protested in 120 cities across the country during the past week, with angry crowds shouting chants that attacked the Islamic Republic regime and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and praising the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty, the late Reza Shah.
In his meeting with the delegation of the European Parliament, Prince Reza highlighted the need for the Western governments to support the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and their civil and human rights. He also discussed several practical and crucial ways the EU could help the Iranian nation.
“I met a delegation from the European Parliament today to discuss the ongoing protests in Iran and how the West could and should help the Iranian nation who courageously fights for freedom,” a tweet by Prince Reza said on Sept. 23. “Iranian revolution needs the help of the international community. #Mahsa_Amini.”
The tweet included four photographs of Prince Reza’s meeting with the delegation.
Prince Reza discussed with the delegation four ways that the West could help the Iranian people:
- Immediate and direct support for protests in Iran.
- European tech companies to provide internet and VPNs to people in Iran.
- Europe enforcing the Magnitsky Sanctions.
- Europe recalling all of its ambassadors to Iran in protest of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protests.
Magnitsky Legislation refers “to laws providing for governmental sanctions against foreign individuals who have committed human rights abuses or been involved in significant corruption.”
One delegate in the meeting, Charlie Weimers, a member of the European Parliament from Sweden, told Kayhan London in an interview in October 2020 that “the countdown had started for the Islamic Republic.”
In recent days, several world leaders have expressed their support for the Iranian people and protesters, including but not limited to U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Canadian President Justin Trudeau, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Chilean President Gabriel Boric, and Neda al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
