Los Angeles names junction in memory of Mahsa Amini of Iran

City corner home to Iranian businesses will be renamed Women Life Freedom Square for woman who sparked Iran protests

Demonstrators display images of Mahsa Amini at a Freedom Rally for Iran outside City Hall in Los Angeles, California, on October 1, 2022. Reuters

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to name a street junction 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.

Los Angeles, the second most populous US city, is home to an Iranian community of nearly 138,000 people, of the up to 620,000 people of Iranian heredity in the US, according to the University of California, Los Angeles.

The intersection of Westwood Boulevard and Rochester Avenue, in an area home to Iranian businesses, will be renamed Women Life Freedom Square in Ms Amini's memory, according to a record of the City Council vote on its website.

The months-long anti-government protests that followed her death soared into the biggest show of opposition to Iran's authorities in years.

The US and Iran have clashed on human rights, Tehran's nuclear programme and its support for regional Shiite militias, but a deal announced on Monday allowing five Iranian Americans to leave Iran removes a major irritant.