Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani cuts hair during EU parliament speech in solidarity with Iranian women

Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani has cut hair during an EUparliament speech in solidarity with Iranian women.

Her act came as protests continue in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after allegedly breaching the country’s rules that require women to cover their hair with a hijab.

Rights groups say at least 130 people have died, as security forces including police and the volunteer Basij militia crack down on the protests.

Speaking at the EU parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Ms Al-Sahlani paid tribute to the “three weeks of continuous courage shown by the women in Iran”.

”Persian, Azeri, Kurdish women are paying the ultimate price for freedom - their lives,” she said.

“Enough with the press releases now, enough with the mumbling. It’s time to speak out. It’s time to act.

“We, the peoples and the ctiizens of the EU demand the unconditional and immediate stop of all the violence against the women and men in Iran. Until Iran is free, our fury will be bigger than the oppressors’.”

Raising a pair of scissors and using them to cut off her ponytail, she added: “Until the women of Iran are free, we are going to stand with you.”

Her move follows the release of a video showing more than 50 French female actors and musicians symbolically also cutting pieces of their own hair solidarity with Iranian women.

Among those featured are leading actresses Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Huppert, Juliette Binoche, and Charlotte Gainsbourg who features along with her mother, singer Jane Birkin.

Last week, British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - who spent six years in prison in Iran before her release earlier this year - sent footage of herself cutting her locks to BBC Persian.

The West Hampstead-based mother-of-one, speaking in Persian, named women who have faced punishment under Iranian law before taking cuts of her hair.

“For my mother, for my daughter, for the fear of solitary confinement, for the women of my country, for freedom,” she said at the end of the video.