Members of Anglo-Iranian communities, including the AWYAF held a demonstration in Trafalgar Square to show solidarity with the popular uprisings in Iran and to mark the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution in Iran. Participants expressed their support for the ongoing popular protests against the regime across the country demanding change. They also chanted the popular slogans, such as “Down with Dictator, Down with Khamenei” and “Down with the tyrants, both the Shah and the Leader (referring to the Supreme Leader)”, heard on the Iranian streets during the recent protests in solidarity with the Iranian people.
The rally also included exhibitions honouring the memories of resistance heroes in Iran who were slain during and in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian revolution, as well as street theatres highlighting the ongoing uprising in the country. The rally ended with a march to Parliament Square passing through Whitehall and the Number 10 Downing Street, where a group representing the Anglo-Iranian communities delivered a letter with their demands to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Current and former Members of the UK Parliament, human rights lawyers and representatives of various Anglo-Iranian Associations addressed the rally joining members of the Anglo-Iranian community to urge the UK Government to recognise the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people, and to hold the regime to account for over four decades of repression, terrorism and systematic human rights abuses. “Since the clerical regime usurped power in Iran four decades ago, it has turned the country into a large prison for the 80 million Iranians who dreamt of a better future”, Mark Williams, former Liberal Democrat MP said. “With their recent protests targeting the Supreme Leader and the regime in its entirety, the Iranian people are rejecting the theocratic rule in Iran, its domestic repression and its destabilising role in the Middle East. Dr Matthew Offord, Conservative MP and a leading member of the British Committee for Iran Freedom said: "resistance units show that the Iranian people ... are determined to take back their country and the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution that the mullahs hijacked 41 years ago.” Professor Chandler condemned the regime for its persecution of lawyers who defend human rights activists in Iran and said, “This is a crucial message that the international legal community is sending to Iran, we defend human rights for all persons, respect for access to lawyers and legal representation in the justice system, and respect for the rule of law ... International norms, treaties and conventions, and especially the universal declaration of human rights must be respected. I will stand beside you with my humble contribution, shoulder to shoulder as long as is needed.”
