Masses took to the streets in Belgium’s capital, Brussels, in protest at the Iranian Islamic Republic.

During the action which was promoted by Kurdish and Iranian organisations, demonstrators, the majority of them being women, demanded freedom, justice and equality.

Protesters displayed posters of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in the custody of morality police in Tehran sparked protests in mid-September, which have been increasingly ongoing since. The slogans chanted during the demonstration included “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” [Woman, Life, Freedom], which has become a symbol of the women-led uprising in Iran and Eastern Kurdistan.

The demonstrators, joined by Belgian women and opposition groups, staged a protest march from Trône to Schuman Square where the European Commission building is located.

Speakers condemned the Iranian state and called for freedom for women, different identities and communities.

Pointing to the Iranian regime’s hostility towards the different communities, especially the Kurds and Azeris, activists called for European solidarity with the ongoing resistance in the country.

Demonstrators also displayed photos of Kurdish journalist and academic Nagihan Akarsel, editor of Jineology Magazine, who was murdered in a targeted attack in the Sulaymaniyah city of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) on 4 October.