DEFIANT demonstrators peacefully marched through Colchester city centre in protest against Iran’s strict hijab laws following the death of a young woman.
More than 50 Iranian activists took to the streets of Colchester over the weekend in a moving show of solidarity with the women of their homeland.
The campaigners made their voices heard after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody three days after being detained at a train station in Tehran.
She was accused of not complying with Iran’s stringent Islamic dress code, but her family have since claimed she was tortured by the country’s ‘morality police’.
Government officials said Mahsa had underlying health conditions, but global protests ignited in the wake of her death suggest many do not believe them.
During their demonstration on Saturday afternoon, members of Colchester’s Iranian community held aloft signs and banners as they walked through the city centre.
After making their way down Head Street and then the High Street, they briefly stopped outside the town hall, before concluding the march near Castle Park.
Ghasem Kaye, 76, organised the protest with wife Mahnaz Karimi, 45, who is currently studying English at Colchester Institute.
He said: “My beautiful wife, whose brother was killed in Iran when he was 18, just said that we had to do something, so I telephoned more than 100 people.
“It went very well and we did not have anyone who was against us or against what we were saying. We were all shouting out and it was all very powerful.
“It was really wonderful and people were clapping us, even though I think some people did not know why we were demonstrating, but we are going to do it again.”
Ghasem, who has lived in Colchester for about 40 years, moved to the UK from Iran to study, initially in England and then Scotland.
Like many others, he continues to question the rights afforded to the women living in Iran and believes the death of Mahsa will further bring the debate into focus.
“All over the world they have had these demonstrations because this girl had a little bit of hair on her forehead and then died for nothing,” he added.
“That is not what a civilised world is and we really need help because she should not have died because of that.”
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