65 people have been killed<\/a> in the protests that started in late December over the economy and have turned into demonstrations against the government.<\/p>\nThe son of Iran’s exiled shah, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, has positioned himself in favour of the protests, calling for demonstrations Thursday and Friday night.<\/p>\n
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the protesters, who state media have called “terrorists,” are acting “in order to please the president of the United States.”<\/p>\n
The Associated Press said the government cut off the internet and has blocked international calls. More than 2,300 people have been detained.<\/p>\n
Iranians ‘sacrificing’ lives for cause, expert says<\/p>\n
Lily Pourzand, an Iranian community activist and expert in women’s rights, said the mandate from protesters is clear.<\/p>\n
“[Iranians] are done with this system and they want the regime and the system to be changed,” she said Saturday. “They are sacrificing their life and freedom for that.”<\/p>\n
Internet blackout has been historically used as a weapon, Pourzand said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about the luxury now, it’s about human rights, it’s about the safety and it’s about their voice, which needs to be heard and the footage that needs to be seen by the whole world,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We know that the violence is going to escalate, the stories are going to be twisted and in reality it’s the people who are going to lose their lives.”<\/p>\n
Salar Gholami, who helped organize the march in Richmond Hill, said he hasn\u2019t heard from his parents and siblings, who are back in Iran.<\/p>\n
“We are so sad and mad,” he said.<\/p>\n
Demonstrator Alex Family told CBC Toronto Saturday he\u2019s hopeful this will be the last time they\u2019ll have to protest for freedom.<\/p>\n
“The world hasn’t heard the message from the young people in Iran for far too long,” he said. “[The regime has] been using the wealth of our country to finance terrorism, to finance instability in the region and the world.”<\/p>\n
“Long live Iran. Long live the world. Long live freedom to all.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in Richmond Hill, Ont., Saturday to show solidarity to protesters in Iran, fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[126255,126257,42,87,43,126256,125262,126254,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-232250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crown-prince-reza-pahlavi","tag-demonstrators","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-ongoing-protests","tag-protesters","tag-richmond-hill","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}