Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 52

Waging Peace

New Yorkers Rally for Democracy in Iran

Along with thousands of Iranians and their supporters worldwide, some 2,000 New Yorkers rallied July 25 as part of the worldwide Iranian Global Day of Action. Congregating in Times Square, the protesters demanded the release of all political prisoners and called for democracy in the Islamic Republic.

“This is not another revolution,” Columbia University professor Dr. Hamid Dabashi told the large group. “This is a civil rights movement.” Many in the crowd wore scarves, headbands, masks or T-shirts in emerald green, which has become the symbolic color of the Iranian freedom rights movement.

With a police escort, the crowd marched to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations, after stopping briefly outside the Iranian Mission to the U.N. on Third Avenue.

Tala Dowlatshahi of Reporters Without Borders called for the release of all political prisoners, including journalists, students and human rights activists. She urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately appoint a delegation to travel to Iran to investigate the fate of prisoners and disappeared persons.

—Elaine Pasquini