The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion to support women’s rights in Iran and Iranian protesters abroad as well as within the county in a 5–0 vote Oct. 18.
The move comes after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last month at the hands of Iranian morality police for improperly wearing a hijab.
Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis co-drafted the motion, which will direct the county CEO to send a letter to President Joe Biden signaling the county’s support for Iranians protesting as well as commending U.S. sanctions on the country for human rights violations. The letter will also oppose state-imposed internet restrictions on the people of Iran.
Since Amini’s death, women and girls around the world are burning their hijabs in protest. Other local protests in Orange County have gained momentum—about 36 miles south of Los Angeles—with more than 50 people protesting at Costa Mesa’s City Hall Oct. 17.
“This is not just one woman’s case, this is a reform movement now led by young women, old women, all women across all of our different communities,” Kuehl said during the board meeting. “I hope that this serves as a wake-up call for oppressive regimes worldwide.”
Los Angeles, home to the nation’s highest population of Iranian immigrants, has had weeks of local demonstrations in support of Iranian democracy activists since Amini was killed on Sept. 16.
Roozbeh Farahanipour, president of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and local restaurant owner, said he is no stranger to the abuses of the Islamic regime in Iran. In 1999, Farahanipour said, he was tortured in prison for leading a student activist group battling for democracy in the country.
“We need to demand the Biden Administration to not get engaged in any kind of the negotiation with the brutal regime or negotiate with the terrorists,” he told The Epoch Times.
In one of his restaurants, called the Persian Gulf in Westwood, Farahanipour said he has set up a memorial for Amini and other women killed at the hands of the Iranian government. Candles and photos of the victims are on display on one of the tables, he said.
He said there are two entities in Iran: the citizens, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said, as he communicates with friends and extended family in Iran, he learned that activists tell him they are looking to exclude radical Islamic forces from their government.
“That’s the main demand in Iran and the people inside Iran, or ‘free occupied Iran,’” he said. “They are humans. We need to defend them and I’m standing with the Iranian people.”
