LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to name a street intersection in memory of Mahsa Amini, whose death in the custody of the morality police in Iran nearly a year ago sparked months of nationwide protests there.
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Los Angeles, the second most populous U.S. city, is home to an Iranian community of nearly 138,000 people, of the 400,000-620,000 people of Iranian ancestry in the United States, according to the University of California, Los Angeles.
The intersection of Westwood Boulevard and Rochester Avenue- in an area home to Persian businesses- will be renamed Women Life Freedom Square in Amini’s memory, according to a record of the City Council vote on its website.
The months-long anti-government protests that followed Amini’s death spiraled into the biggest show of opposition to Iran’s authorities in years.
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The United States and Iran have clashed on human rights, Tehran’s nuclear program and its support for regional Shi’ite militias, but a deal announced on Monday allowing five Iranian Americans to leave Iran removes a major irritant.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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