‘A turning point’: Iranian diaspora in UK rallies to support protesters in Iran

Pro-democracy demonstrators gather in London in attempt to ‘make a bridge between the people inside Iran and outside of Iran’

By AFP 4 January 2026, 6:17 am

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Protesters gather with placards outside the gates of Downing Street to attend a London rally in solidarity with Iranian protesters, organized by the Association of Anglo-Iranian Women in the UK, in central London on January 3, 2026, to protest against the Iranian regime's crackdown on protests. (Brook Mitchell/AFP)

LONDON, United Kingdom — Members of the Iranian diaspora rallied in London on Saturday in support of protesters in Iran, where demonstrations have spread to more than two dozen cities over the last week.

Around 100 pro-democracy demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street for the rally organized by the Association of Anglo-Iranian Women in the UK, waving Iranian flags, chanting slogans and listening to speeches by speakers.

A separate, similarly sized protest was held nearby in support of the late deposed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his US-based son, Reza Pahlavi.

“It is really important that we show our solidarity with the people of Iran,” Zohreh Zanjani, 65, a former political prisoner in Iran who fled the country three decades ago, told AFP as she joined the Association of Anglo-Iranian Women event.

“We are trying to make a bridge between the people inside Iran and outside of Iran,” she added. “So people like myself, we get courage from the people of Iran’s resistance, and of course they get courage from seeing that their voices have been heard outside.”

Omid Ebrahimi, a 28-year-old doctor born in Iran who moved to Britain as a child, said exiles like him are “very hopeful” watching the protests spread across his birthplace.

“Once again, the Iranian people have shown that this is a dictatorial regime that they do not want,” he told AFP. “Everyone is using this as an opportunity to voice their dissent towards this regime… they know the price for freedom but many of them, they don’t have a choice. They don’t see any other alternative to rise up and get rid of this regime, whatever the cost may be.”

Fara Hosseimi, 38, a London-born lawyer to Iranian parents who left the country after the late 1970s revolution, said she had attended “to show my solidarity with the people of Iran.”

“It’s really reached a turning point in the sense that it’s not just the women and the youth anymore that are rising up against the Iranian regime,” she said. “It’s people from all walks of life, including the merchants, who are historically quite conservative and quite pro-regime, really.

“So I think it’s reached a point of no return.”