community in Portugal asks Marcelo and Costa to ″tell your position″
“Women, Life and Liberty” was one of the slogans that echoed this afternoon in downtown Coimbra in solidarity with the women of Iran. The protests in the country have lasted for two weeks and follow the death of a 22-year-old girl, Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the customs police.
Naghmeh Ivaki, who has lived in Portugal for 13 years, believes that the support of the international community is essential for the Iranian cause and that, without it, the “cost is too high” for Iranians.
The Iranian woman also appealed to the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and to the Prime Minister, António Costa, to “say your position” on the situation in Iran: “I think the position is clear to me, but they must say it. Secondly, they have to call the Iranian ambassador and ask them to explain the situation. And you can also call the ambassador who is in Iran. Because we have a government fascist who does everything he can to maintain his ideology and it’s not easy for Iranians. It never was.”
In this initiative, which brought people together in Praça 8 de Maio, the Municipal President of Coimbra was present. José Manuel Silva, who in a short statement expressed solidarity with the Iranian people. University professor Catarina Martins and Diana Silver, from the International Women International Group Coimbra, also participated.
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Professor and former Left Bloc deputy José Manuel Pureza was another participant, considering that this is a struggle of Iranian women and all women, but it must also be a struggle of men: “It is a struggle against the police of morality . Of a moral that is always of control and repression of women and this is a fight that has to be of men too.”
Demonstrations of support for the Iranians were repeated today all over the world. In Portugal, in addition to Coimbra, developments took place in Lisbon and Porto. Although there are no official figures, the Iranian community in Coimbra claims to have between 50 and 100 people.