There has been a wave of protests on 25 July in major cities across the world in support of Iranian activists, who are demonstrating against the country’s disputed election held on 12 June, the Timesonline has learnt.
Around 100 cities, including London, Islamabad, Brussels, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul and Amsterdam, Berlin took part in the event, which was backed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, said the CNN International.
According to the Timesonline, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989 and was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, ordered an end to demonstrations against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month.
Apart from Ayatollah Khamenei’s command, thousands of demonstrators have continued to take part in the protest on the streets in Iran, prompting the arrests of activities and violent clashes with riot police, military and Ahmadinejad’s supporters, said the Timesonline.
During one protest, a 27-year-old onlooker, named Neda Agha Soltan was killed, which prompted many of the protesters waved his printed picture placards outside the Iranian embassy in London on the global protests day, 25 July.
British demonstrators wanted to show solidarity for those Iranians “who feel too intimidated, too fearful” to go back out on the streets to protest, reported CNN Correspondent Paula Newton in London.
Demonstration in front of the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, about 80 people wearing headbands, wristbands or bandanas in green – the colour of Iran’s Protest movement, said the Timesonline.
The sea of green also appeared in Washington, where hundreds of Iranian-American demonstrators marched from the United Nations Information Centre to the US Capitol building to call on the United Nations to take a more active role in addressing alleged human rights abuses inside Mahaoud Ahmadienjad’s government.
“This is a show of solidarity with the people inside Iran,” protester Khosrow Akbari said. “Iranians all over the world are united to send the message that they will not tolerate the human rights abuses inside the country.”
Speaking in Amsterdam, Iranian Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi urged the international community to reject the outcome of the Iranian election and called for a new vote monitored by the United Nations, the Timesonline reports.
Shirin said: “We are all working for the same Iran, where is our homeland and let us be united.”
According to the CNN International, Roxanna Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who spent four months in an Iranian jail earlier this year, addressed a crowd in Chicago, Illinois.
Roxanna said she is very touched because all of the protesters turned out on this very important day, and spoke for those Iranians whose voices cannot be heard.
The demonstrations in the United States and Europe called for Western government to be more vocal about the reported human rights violations in Iran.
“Enough is enough,” said Parviz Shahi, a demonstrator in London. “How many people do they have to sacrifice?”
Meanwhile, in German capital Berlin, around 2,000 people turned out to rally for Iranians. A moment of silence was held, and about 40 people have been participating in a hunger strike over the past three days, the CNN Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen in German reports.
A protestor named Sahand Zamani, whose 19-year-old cousin Sohrab Aarabi was reportedly shot dead on June 15 during one of the bloody protests that followed the presidential elections, told the CNN International “We are watching Iran, hoping the government come to their senses and realise that this is their own people they’re shooting at”.
Sahand added: “I certainly think Sohrab is standing for a lot of young people and his death is national tragedy in Iran, as well as I think a tragedy worldwide. A 19-year-old boy getting shot because of his opinion – this has a meaning, but I hope he can find rest and peace and this won’t happen again.”
Germany is one of Iran’s major trade partners, prompting the Berlin protesters to call on their government to get tough with the Islamic republic’s human rights record and nuclear ambitions.
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