Local business owner urges immediate action after death of Iranian woman
Sep 27, 2022, 3:44 PM | Updated: 3:53 pm
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 24: Activists demonstrate over the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran on September 24, 2022 near the White House in Washington, DC. Amini die after she was arrested in Tehran by the Iranian “morality police” for violating a law that mandates women to wear a hijab properly. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The death of Mahsa Amini in early September at the hands of Iranian police sparked protests 6,600 miles away in Bellevue on Sunday evening. Amini died in custody after being arrested for not properly wearing her hijab.
Two different protests took place in Bellevue on Sunday: One near Downtown Park and another near Bellevue Way.
Layla Farange, an Iranian woman and local business owner, joined the Gee and Ursula Show to speak about the injustice happening in Iran and why they spoke out against Amini’s killing.
“This is the regime in Iran, they’re killing people for no good reason. Massa, this young lady they killed, she was perfectly dressed the way they want to dress,” Farange said. “You know, every morning, we wake up, and we don’t even think what [we’re] going to wear, what kind of shoes you have to wear to go to work, or do whatever you’re going to do. But over there, you have to think about what you’re going to put on your head, what do you have to wear, you cannot wear colorful shoes, you cannot put on too much makeup. You know, they’re controlling women for no good reason.”
Many protesters present Sunday expressed that this is just the start of their movement, and they hope to see more participation from those outside the Iranian community in the coming weeks.
The United States is currently considering more sanctions against Iran over their attempts to suppress protests across the country, according to the Associated Press. But Farange says these actions are just punishing the people of Iran and not actually affecting the government.
“The sanctions [they put on Iran] are so bad. They put it on Iranian people, not the regime doing all the bad things around the world. So the sanctions are killing the Iranians. Nothing goes in that country.”
Most importantly, Farange stressed how important the right to protest was for defending these rights.
“The freedom of speech and the freedom you have is priceless. Over there, people are fighting for this, and they’re getting killed for it.”
Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
