Protesters gathered in Cardiff on Saturday, October 22 as part of worldwide demonstrations after a woman died in a police incident in Iran. Mahsa Amini, 22, died in Tehran on September 16 after being arrested by the country's morality police, allegedly for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Videos released appeared to show Ms Amini collapsing in a police station and she later died in hospital. Her death has caused controversy after eyewitnesses claimed Ms Amini was subjected to police brutality before her death, something the Iranian authorities deny.
The incident has led to the largest Iranian protests in over a decade as well as sparking global protests with women removing their hijabs, cutting their hair and criticising the Iranian government. More than 200 people are reported to have been killed in Iran over the last few weeks by security forces confronting protesters in the streets.
Read more: Oscar winning actresses chop off chunks of their hair in support of Iran protesters
Around 80 people gathered on Cardiff 's Central Square on Saturday, with members of the Iranian community in south Wales chanting anti-government slogans and holding Iran flags and signs in support for Ms Amini. A major rally was also due to take place in Berlin on Saturday with similar events taking place in other cities.
Layla Sadeghi Namaghi, 25, said she had come to the protest in solidarity with other women and members of her own family who live in Iran. "I'm half-Iranian, my dad's whole family are in Iran, my first cousins live in Iran," she said. "I've grown up with so many freedoms, not being in fear for my life, and they have grown up without those freedoms. It's so unfair - why am I so lucky to be here and they're not?
"They've shut down the internet in Iran so they're shutting off their voice. They're being killed for peacefully protesting, so at least we can be here and say something. We have to keep this movement alive."
Layla said watching events unfold since Ms Amini's death had been "horrific". "It's heart-breaking, it's been an emotional rollercoaster for us. Blood is being shed, people are dying. At the same time we're hopeful for change. Something needs to change, they cannot just keep going like that.
"We need the government here to condemn Iran and support Iranians."
Protester Luna Amani, 47, attended with her son Marley, 13, and is also half-Iranian. "I was fortunate enough to live in Iran until I was eight," she said. "This is my way of supporting the cause and getting our voice heard by the government and the media. I was absolutely disgusted [about Mahsa Amini], but most Iranians know this kind of thing goes on. It was absolutely disgraceful.
"The reason this has become such a big movement is because generation Z are involved. They're so much more connected to the world, they're seeing everybody else with freedom of space, and they've got to the point where they don't want to take it anymore from a completely twisted idea of what Islam is. It's not really Islam, what they're preaching.
"We want to overthrow the regime. I know first-hand from people in Iran that they will fight to the death - that's how strong everybody is feeling about this. So we have to stand there with them."
Salah Mazahrpour, 45, said people from Iran disagreed with the strict application of laws around headscarves. "We want people and women to be free," he said. "In other countries in the world most of them they don't have a scarf and they don't have any problems in their life. Why should they kill children and young women because they don't want to have a scarf?
"It's because they want to control people like 1,500 years ago. Today, those people couldn't live in the system because of technology and the changes now. I think we have to change this regime and Iranian people have to be supported. Young people are being shot by guns in the street and are in prison."
The protest comes just weeks after a memorial for Ms Amini on Cardiff's Millennium Walk by artist Sahar Saki was vandalised. Racial insults were allegedly daubed on the mural and South Wales Police later confirmed a man had been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offence.
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