Best of Maclean ’s: I helped organize the Mahsa Amini protests in Toronto

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‘The Mahsa Amini protests felt like a full-circle moment for me.’

On Sept. 16, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being apprehended by Iran’s morality police. She was accused of breaking a modesty law that requires women to dress modestly and wear a headscarf. This past weekend, protests occurred in several European and Canadian cities.

Kaveh Shahrooz, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, helped organize a protest in Toronto, where an estimated 50,000 took to the streets. Maclean’s spoke to Shahrooz about what this powerful moment in history:

Along with other Iranian-Canadian activists, I helped organize a protest for Mahsa Amini in Richmond Hill on Oct. 1. We thought that a few hundred people would show up. Police told us they estimated over 50,000 people marched that day.

I’ve worked in human rights for over 20 years, and at times it can feel like a slow grind. Seeing so many people that day felt like things were changing and it paid dividends in some way. I was so honoured to be able to share that moment of optimism with my children. Being with them at the protest felt like a full circle moment: I showed them what activism and resistance looks like in the same way that my family showed me what it meant when I was a child.

...The best way for Canadians to help is to remember and amplify. The Iranian government wants the world to forget what it’s done.

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