Iranian man's death in France shakes distressed diaspora
>> When a 38-yearold man anguished over the protests in Iran took his own life in the French city of Lyon, fellow members of the Iranian diaspora felt his pain.
Three months into the anti-government protests, Iranians abroad are going through a spectrum of emotions. Activists and counselors hope Mohammad Moradi's desperate act this week inspires others to reach out for help and to raise awareness of what is happening in Iran.
In videos in Farsi and French recorded before his death, Moradi criticized Iran's leadership and called for solidarity from Western governments against it. The recordings featured him saying, “When you see this video, I will be dead.”
The Iranian Kurdish man arrived in France in 2019 with his wife and was pursuing a PhD in history. His death Monday resonated near and far. Other Iranians in the Lyon region, activists and friends brought flowers and candles to the site where he died in what police were investigating as an an apparent suicide.
Many members of the Iranian diaspora have experienced distress since the unprecedented protests began, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody in September. Police had detained Amini for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.
“Mohammad Moradi is the image of all of us, what we live today, as the Iranian diaspora across the world,” Hengameh Yahyazadeh, the lead organizer of solidarity protests against Iran's clerics in the French city of Toulouse, told The Associated Press.
Moradi's Instagram profile tells of a person interested in literature, poetry and politics. Like many Iranians abroad, he took to Instagram
to relay messages criticizing the Islamic Republic's clerical rule, chronicling his participation in demonstrations in Lyon, and expressing his indignation at the treatment of protesters in Iran. .
The feeling is widespread.
“Some days I wake up and I'm scared,” Yahyazadeh said. “I have a dozen friends in Iranian prisons, I'm scared of knowing how I will face the possible news that one of my friends was executed.”
Since the start of the protests, at least 507 protesters have been killed and more than 18,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists, a group in Iran that has closely monitored the unrest.
Iranian authorities have not released figures for those killed or arrested. A dozen people are also facing the death penalty for their involvement in the protests.