Emmanuel Macron receives Iranian women and salutes their “revolution”

Emmanuel Macron received Iranian women in Paris on Friday, whose “revolution they are leading” he hailed. “We welcomed with great honor and pleasure a delegation of Iranian women,” declared the French president at the Paris Peace Forum.

“I want here to really tell them our respect and our admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading,” he added.

An interview Monday on France Inter to clarify the position of France

According to the Elysée, the delegation was made up of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist based in New York who encourages Iranian women to protest against the compulsory wearing of the veil, Shima Babaei, who is fighting for information about her father whose she is without news, Ladan Boroumand, co-founder of a rights organization based in Washington, and Roya Piraie.

Emmanuel Macron said in mid-October that France stood “alongside” the Iranian demonstrators. Tehran had denounced an “interference”. France Inter radio announced that it would broadcast an interview with President Macron on Monday morning in which he “specifies France’s position”.

At least 304 people have been killed

A protest movement erupted in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by vice squad who accused her of breaking the strict dress code imposing women to wear the veil in public.

As the days passed, protests for women’s freedom turned into a movement directed against the religious regime, which faces a challenge unprecedented since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In total, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) , based in Oslo, at least 304 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests across Iran since September 16.