Quito.- The community Iranian resident in Ecuador gathered this Friday in Quito to protest against Internet cuts and the repression of the Government of his country in the face of the massive protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after being detained by the Moral Police for wearing the veil wrong.
The small but vocal group of Iranians residing in the Ecuadorian capital made themselves known in front of some United Nations offices and later moved to the Embassy of Iran in Ecuadorlocated in the north of the city.
Shouting in Farsi, Iranian protesters burned a veil and brandished pictures of Mahsa Amini and banners with messages such as “Free Iran,” “We are all Mahsa Amini,” “We take back Iran and we will rebuild it,” and “Free life” through the streets of Quito. for women in Iran.
They also emphasized that the Iranian people have been held incommunicado as they fight for their basic rights, all in the same days that world leaders are gathered at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Other protesters also made explicit their desire for Iran to cease to be an Islamic republic.
Ardavan Jamalifard, one of the participants in the mobilization, assured Efe that they have been unable to communicate with their relatives in Iran for three days and called on the international community to act.
“We are here to call on the whole world to listen to us and help us, to do something for the people of Iran. The people of Iran are now without any weapons, empty-handed against the fully armed government and against the people,” Jamalifard said.
With this they want “that the same history does not repeat itself”, that of the 2019 episodes, where another wave of protests against the Islamic regime of Iran ended with around 1,500 deaths in clashes against state forces.
“We are in Quito to bring the voice of all our brothers and sisters who are in Iran and are suffering from that government. We want to know what is happening in Iran », he reiterated about protests where Iranian state television already speaks of at least 26 deaths.
The protests were triggered after the death of Amini, arrested on Tuesday of last week by the so-called Morale Police in Tehran, and was transferred to a police station to attend “an hour of re-education” for wearing the veil wrong.
He died three days later in a hospital where he arrived in a coma after suffering a heart attack, which the authorities have attributed to health problems, something rejected by the family.
This Friday the United States authorized technology companies to expand their services in Iran, in response to internet cuts.
“With this measure, we will help the Iranian people not to be isolated in the dark. It is a step to meaningfully support Iranians demanding that their fundamental rights be respected,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
In a subsequent telephone press conference, a high-ranking official from the US Administration explained that the expansion of services to the cloud will facilitate access to VPN networks, which allow circumventing censorship and blockages on the Internet.
Restrictions on communication services between people are also eliminated, something that technology companies had requested from the US authorities.
