Iranian influencer in Seoul pleads for attention to deadly crackdown

Hoda Niku, an Iranian model based in Korea, appeals for support for Iranian protests in a video posted to her Instagram. Captured from Hoda Niku's Instagram

A video message from Hoda Niku, an Iranian influencer in Korea, asking Koreans to support intensifying anti-government protests in her home country, has gone viral.

Niku posted a video titled “For Iran’s Freedom” on her Instagram account on Saturday. Speaking in Korean, she began, “As someone who loves both my countries, Iran and Korea, I’m sharing this video in the hope that the voices of the Iranian people can be heard more widely.”

"I kindly ask you to pay a little more attention to news about Iran," she pleaded. "Even showing support for the courage of the Iranian people gives us great strength."

Protesters march in the streets of Tehran, Jan. 8. AP-Yonhap

Anti-government protests in Iran have continued for more than two weeks, with casualties rising sharply due to the government’s bloody crackdown.

According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) on Tuesday (local time), the death toll has reached about 2,000, including 1,847 protesters and 135 government personnel such as military and police. More than 16,700 people have been arrested.

Iran International, a U.K.-based anti-Tehran media outlet, reported the same day that “at least 12,000 people have been killed in Iran in the largest killing in the country's contemporary history, much of it carried out on Jan. 8 and 9.”

Hoda Niku condemns the “massacre” of protesters in Iran amid an internet blackout in an Instagram post. Captured from Hoda Niku’s Instagram

Niku spoke out against the Iranian regime.

“Iranians have long taken part in many protests in pursuit of freedom and democracy,” she said. “During that time, force was often used to silence people’s voices and many lives were sadly affected (lost).”

The influencer also vented anger in another Instagram post Tuesday. "Thousands have lost their lives while the internet is completely cut off. If this isn't a massacre, what should we call it?"

Iranian model Hoda Niku appears on KBS’s “My Neighbor, Charles,” aired on April 19, 2022. Capture from KBS1

Niku, who placed third in Miss Iran 2018, currently works in Korea as a model, TV personality and YouTuber. She has more than 526,000 followers on Instagram.

Regarding her decision to move to Korea, she previously said on a TV program, “I grew up as the only daughter of a wealthy family wanting for nothing, but I came to Korea because I hated the regulations that forced me to wear a hijab and banned many things simply because I am a woman.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.