CNN
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President Joe Biden said Friday he was “preoccupied” with how Iranians reacted to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, saying the nation had been “awakened” by protests and protests led by women. It won’t calm down for a “long, long time.”
While visiting Irvine Valley Community College in California, Biden made brief comments about the ongoing protests in Iran before his official speech, saying the United States stands with Iranian women. Southern California traditionally had a very large population of Iranian immigrants.
“Iran must stop abusing its citizens, it is simply exercising their fundamental rights,” Biden said.
Biden said: “I want to know that we are with the citizens and brave women of Iran, we are with them.
Speaking about Amini’s death, he said, “I was stunned by what they woke up in Iran. Something woke up that I didn’t think would calm down for a long, long time.
Mass protests The death of Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police on September 13 for violating the country’s conservative dress code, has shocked Iran. The Moral Police is a special unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as the mandatory wearing of headscarves. Amin’s death has sparked widespread outrage over freedoms in the Islamic Republic to the ongoing and devastating effects of sanctions.
Biden moved quickly to support the Iranian protesters. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Biden addressed the protests over her death and said the United States stands with “the brave women of Iran who are demonstrating right now to secure their basic rights.”
Days later, the United States He announced sanctions against Iran’s moral police “For violence and abuse against Iranian women and violations of the rights of peaceful Iranian protesters.”
On Friday, Biden said: “Women all over the world are persecuted in different ways, but in the name of God they should be able to wear what they want. “No one should tell them what to wear.”
The president also recognized some of the protesters in front of the college where he spoke, and thanked those holding placards reading “Free Iran”.
“I want to thank you all for speaking up. I want to thank the Persian community here for being so vocal,” Biden said.
The effort to respond quickly to the protests that have engulfed Iran comes after some senior officials in the Biden administration admitted that the United States was too slow to respond when protests began in Iran in 2009. the administration recently told NBC that officials are worried about cracking down on protesters rather than helping them.
