NEW YORK—Over 600 Iranians and supporters rallied at Time Square and marched to the United Nations on Saturday, demanding civil rights, freedom and equality from the Iranian government.
Following disputed results of the presidential election last month in Iran, an unconfirmed number of Iranians who took to the streets in protest were arrested. An unknown number of people were also killed by government officials during the protests.
“There are a lot of people who have been arrested, and there are a lot of people who have disappeared, and we don’t know where they are,” said the spokesman for the New York chapter of Where is My Vote?, a worldwide organization created in response to the Iranian election results. He asked to be identified as N.H.
N.H. said that the New York chapter of Where is My Vote? organized the event locally to send a message to the U.N.
“We want the U.N. to send a committee to Iran to investigate the disappearances, the crimes and the torture,” said N.H. “We want a delegation to go to Iran [and investigate].” Other demands include the immediate release of political prisoners, an end to state-sponsored violence, and accountability for those who have committed crimes.
The Facebook-initiated rally and march were part of an international day of protests in over 100 cities, including Vancouver, Cairo, Caracas, Manila, Paris, Melbourne and New Delhi. Some of the slogans protesters yelled out included, “The people united will never be defeated.”
Klanoush Nazarpour, an Iranian citizen who has lived in the United Kingdom for five years, joined the rally as he is currently on a business trip in New York. He cast his vote to reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who, according to official election results, was defeated by over 30 percent.
