At a protest demonstration in front of the Belen Palace, Tina Sabunati of the Association of Iranians in Portugal stressed to Lusa news agency that the Lisbon action was also intended to force Portugal to oppose the Tehran regime by welcoming Marcelo’s presidency. Rebelo de Souza told Ambassador Morteza Damanpak Jami that Tehran “should be wary of women and young students” and that human rights were at stake.
“This is the beginning, I would not say that this is a victory, I would say that this is the first step towards victory. [O Presidente português] said that [as autoridades iranianas] you have to be careful with human rights and with students, but I also had to say that there are people who are dying,” said Sabunati Lusa.
“[Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa] should have mentioned [ao embaixador do Irão em Lisboa] what mode [de Teerão] You can’t kill, you can’t torture, you can’t rape. This is true, and this is what is happening in Iran right now. I continue to believe that we are at the beginning of the journey, and I am glad that I said and addressed these words to the ambassador, but we still have a long way to go,” he added.
During a visit to the Diplomatic Bazaar, in the Lisbon Congress Center and passing by the bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke with Ambassador Morteza Damanpak Jami and, saying goodbye, said: “They should treat women, young students, women, because that it is good for you and good for the whole world.”
This is a matter of “human rights,” said the President of the Republic, speaking in English, surrounded by journalists.
Leaving the Lisbon Congress Center, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed that he had told the Iranian ambassador to “look at how the Iranian authorities are handling the role of women and the civil intervention of young women in Iran, protecting their rights.” “.
The protest of the Iranian community mobilized about three dozen Iranians in Jardim Afonso de Albuquerque, in front of the Belen Palace, where 100 photographs of Iranian activists executed by the regime and 66 other photographs of political prisoners were laid out in a symbolic moment to draw attention to the ongoing crackdown in Iran.
Tina Sabunati, 41, a native of Tehran, denounced that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “barbarian regime” had arrested 14,000 innocent Iranians and expressed her fear that many of them would be executed, calling the “atrocities” committed against the people “crushing.” especially against women.
“There is nothing this regime avoids in order to stay in power. He beats, arrests, sexually abuses, tortures and kills demonstrators, including children and the elderly,” said Lusa Nahid, a 34-year-old Iranian who has been in Portugal for five years and chose not to give her last name for fear of reprisals from other family members living in Tehran.
Like Sabunati, Nahid recalled that the international community has a “long way to go” to pressure Iran to end the crackdown as the population wants democracy.
Nahid recalled the case of young Kurdish Mahsa Amini, 22, who died on September 16 this year, three days after being arrested by the “vice police” who accused her of violating a strict dress code that requires women to wear clothing. veil in public.
In the demonstrations that followed Amini’s death, at least 304 people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations across the country, the Oslo-based Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHR) said.
Martin Sobels, a 51-year-old Dutchman who is married to an Iranian, told Lusa that his participation in the Lisbon protest is to support Iranian women, “victims of the repression of Khamenei’s dictatorship”, and promote liberation and revolution. women in the country of Iran, regretting that few people in the world know what is happening in Iran.
“We are also here to be the voice of women and men who do not have access to the Internet in Iran, which the regime has banned for them, who are crying out for freedom,” Sobels said, echoed by his wife. , who chose to identify herself as 50-year-old Maria in order to also avoid reprisals against family members living in Tehran.
“The Iranians are asking us to be their voice abroad as they are being arrested, tortured and killed, they have no freedom. Thus, we want to contribute to the revolution to end the dictatorial regime,” she said. , was born in Tehran, where her parents emigrated to the Netherlands 49 years ago.
In Lisbon since 2017, along with Martin, a “digital nomad” who works in Lisbon for a Dutch company, Maria, an artist and designer, considered the “silence” of the international community to be “shameful” in the face of “constant and egregious violations of human rights in Iran.”
“[As autoridades de Teerão] they are criminals, they are terrorists. The world must rise up against the regime and support the revolution, the liberation of the Iranian people from the dictatorial regime. The dictatorial regime of the Ayatollah must be ended,” Maria stressed.
The artist recalled that a whole generation up to 43 years old lived under repression since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which turned the country from a pro-Western autocratic monarchy led by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into a theocratic Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
During the protest, some of the participants were dressed in white “T-shirts” with red dots, symbolizing “the blood of the suffering and those who died martyred.”
