Tehran: Priyanka Chopra of all Bollywood actors came out in support of Iranian women protesting against the nation's harsh Islamic laws that restrict women's personal freedom and social life.
Over a fortnight women in their hundreds have been protesting against the death in custody of Mahsa Amini arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing hijab modestly enough.
Priyanka Chopra took to Instagram to register her solidarity with the women who are resisting severe crackdown by security forces in Iran.
She wrote that women in Iran and around the world are raising their voices in many forms of protests including publicly cutting their hair against the death of Mahsa Amini.
Adding further, she wrote that the young life was taken away brutally by the Iranian Morality Police for wearing hijab improperly.
The voices that speak after ages of forced silence, she said, would rightfully burst like a volcano and they must not be stemmed, according to a report in NDTV.
Mahsa Amini was leaving Tehran metro station with her brother when she was taken in custody on September 13.
Her family later learnt that she was in hospital and died of "natural causes" after being in coma for three days.
The incident touched off raging protest in the nation beginning with a protest gathering at her funeral.
Subsequently, hundreds of women flooded the streets with most them tossing their hijab into bonfires.
School girls became the latest Iranians to join the protests discarding their hijabs within and without the classrooms.
Priyanka Chopra has joined notables to extend support to the protest saying she is in awe of women's courage and their purpose.
She was quoted as saying it is not easy to risk their life, literally, to challenge the patriarchal establishment and fight for rights. She added, "you are courageous women doing this every day regardless of the cost to yourselves."
To ensure this movement will have a lasting effect, she said urging everybody to hear the women's call, understand the issues and then join in with collective voices.