Graphic protest calls for tougher action against violence in Iran
Wearing fake blood, holding a noose, and displaying placards about the violence of Iran’s government, protesters gathered outside a Labour Party conference to call for New Zealand’s intervention.
Up to 50 protesters stood outside the Due Drop Events Centre (formerly Vodafone Events Centre) in Manukau on Saturday as Labour Party members and MPs headed out for their lunch break.
The protesters shouted: ‘‘freedom for Iran’’. They also shouted messages at Labour ministers, pleading for the Government to place sanctions on Iranian officials as the state undertakes a violent crackdown on protesters in the Islamic republic. The protest started in Aotea Square, in central Auckland, before a group of protesters moved south to the Labour Party conference.
Sam Pheonixia, who has family in Iran, said New Zealand’s Iranian community had been astonished by the Government’s muted response to the Iranian government’s attacks. He acknowledged that it appeared the Government restrained from speaking out while two Kiwi citizens, wealthy travel bloggers Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray, were trapped in Iran.
Shortly after they were able to leave Iran, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke out against Iran’s government in public statements including a column on Stuff.
She called for Iran to be removed from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The Government also suspended its human rights dialogue with Iran. But Pheonixia said New Zealand needed to apply more pressure at the UN, offer assistance to others in Iran, and introduce tough sanctions until the rights of protesters and women were respected.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was in the custody of Iran’s ‘‘morality police’’, protests against the hard-line government have escalated. For more than a month, rallies have continued across the nation – despite police using lethal force to try to end the protests.
The total death toll is unclear but state media have reported that dozens of people have been killed.