From refuge in Iraq, Kurdish exiles hope Iran's 'revolution' prevails

While the protests have reached every one of Iran's 31 provinces, they have been most intense in the northwestern areas where most Kurds live. Iran has responded by striking Iranian Kurdish opposition groups inside Iraq.

More than a decade after he fled to sanctuary in northern Iraq, Iranian Kurdish activist Sirvan Hassan can't keep his eyes off news of the protests which have swept Iran over the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month.

One of the some 10,200 Iranian Kurds registered as refugees or asylum seekers in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, Mr. Hassan said they were all gripped by the "revolution" that started in Iran's northwestern region, where most of the country's estimated 10 million Kurds live, before spreading nationwide.

"Currently — continuously — even if I am at work, I have my phone in my hands... to check the news and see what's happened," said Mr. Hassan, 40, who was once a Kurdish peshmerga fighter and escaped Iran after he was briefly arrested about 14 years ago.

"They are waiting to see where the revolution will go, what will happen to the people. Will they be killed, will they succeed, or fail? Honestly, this has taken over our souls."

The unrest buffeting Iran erupted nearly three weeks ago after the death of 22-year-old Amini, who was detained for wearing clothes deemed "inappropriate" by the Islamic Republic's strict morality police.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Amini's death "deeply broke my heart" but he gave his full backing to security forces confronting the unrest, in which rights groups say more than 150 people have died.

His comments could be the harbinger of a harsher crackdown on protesters, but Mr. Hassan said they would not back down.