Thousands of Iranian Americans and NCRI supporters gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York on September 24, 2025, denouncing regime president Masoud Pezeshkian’s appearance at the General Assembly and affirming support for Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI. The crowd’s central slogan rang out: “No to the Shah, no to the mullahs—yes to a democratic republic.”
Maryam Rajavi addressed the rally in an audio message, hailing participants as the “true voice of the Iranian people before the United Nations.” She said the protests in New York mirrored those in Tehran, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Zahedan, and even inside prisons. “The message is very simple and clear: Overthrow and democratic change—a democratic republic, with freedom and democratic rights,” she declared. Rajavi highlighted 1,817 executions in just 14 months, calling the regime guilty of crimes against humanity. She urged an end to appeasement, insisting: “The seat of the Iranian people at the United Nations must not be given to a regime of executions and massacres.” Stressing Tehran would never abandon nuclear ambitions, she credited the NCRI’s 133 revelations with preventing a bomb and closed with: “We want neither a mullah nor a Shah. The era of all forms of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical, is over. Our message for Iran’s future is simple: the sovereignty of the people—the people’s republic.”
2nd DAY👏👏 Thousands of Iranian Americans and their supporters getting ready for another HUGE RALLY to say (LISTEN)⬇️ yourself 😤#2025FreeIranNYRally #OurChoiceMaryamRajavi @ABC7NY @NBCNewYork @NY1 @abc @GettyImages @AP_Images Watch👆🏻 pic.twitter.com/UvD4U7a81Q
— OIAC: Organization of Iranian American Communities (@OrgIAC) September 24, 2025
Former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey described the regime as weaker than ever: “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that conditions are more favorable now for the collapse of the regime than they have been in decades.” He dismissed Pezeshkian as “simply a mouthpiece for the mullahs” and urged preparation for accountability: “We should be compiling testimony and documentation of what they did — the massacres, the phony trials, the executions — so that the evidence is at hand.” Rejecting claims for a return to monarchy in Iran, he said only Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan offered a credible democratic vision.
Soona Samsami, NCRI’s U.S. Representative, told the rally: “We are here for one reason: to reject the president of a regime that massacres prisoners, suppresses women and youth, and races for nuclear weapons. But this is also a message of hope because there is an alternative. There is an organized resistance and a leader with a vision: Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.”
Former Congressman Judge Ted Poe echoed that message, framing freedom as “a God-given right, not a gift from dictators.” Quoting America’s Declaration of Independence, he added: “Whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government. That sounds like something y’all would say.” He praised the Resistance’s roots in opposing dictatorship: “It didn’t start with the mullahs. It started with removing another dictator, the Shah.” Poe warned against monarchy’s return: “You gave your lives to get rid of a dictator because you wanted to be free. Now some are talking about replacing that dictator with one of his family members. That is not a good idea.” Highlighting women and youth, he said: “So many young women have given their lives just for what you’re standing here for today. Woe be to the mullahs — they do not know what they’re dealing with.”
Message to the New York Rally
You are the voice of the Iranian people, not the president of the Supreme Leader!
So, we have every right to ask: What is the representative of such an anti-human regime doing here?#2025FreeIranNYRally pic.twitter.com/LZCrfmxPgx— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 24, 2025
Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg reflected on decades of support: “I have stood against the mullahs, inspired by the democratic ideals of the people’s resistance and Madam Maryam Rajavi, who I respect and admire so much as a friend and as a leader.” He praised Resistance Units inside Iran: “Thanks to the Resistance Units of Iran who have sacrificed under Maryam Rajavi, your friends and your family, that axis of resistance is no longer.” On monarchist claims, he said Iranians would not “turn back the clock to the days of kings doling out little bits and pieces of democracy while they rule from the throne.” Ginsberg credited the MEK’s intelligence for blocking Tehran’s nuclear weapons and described Ashraf 3 as “not just a place, it is an ideal. It is an aspiration for freedom and justice.” He warned that the regime fears Rajavi as “an iron lady whose network inside Iran has chipped away piece by piece at the edifice of this regime.”
Young Iranian Americans also voiced personal connections. Maryam Hosseini, said: “Even in the darkest prisons, they cannot extinguish the light of freedom. No to the Shah. No to the mullahs. Yes to a democratic republic.” Emma Vali Beigi, relative to a political prisoner executed during the 1988 massacre, declared: “The Shah’s regime was also a repressive force. We cannot afford to choose between one dictatorship and another. Iran deserves better.” She recalled nine uprisings since 2018 where protesters shouted: “‘Down with the dictator! Down with the oppressor! Be it the Shah or the mullahs!’”
Mani Mansourpour, holding a photo of his uncle executed in 1988, said Pezeshkian represents “Khamenei and all the crimes associated with him for over four decades,” urging UN action against executions and in favor of the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the regime.
Hadi Shakibanejad condemned normalization of tyranny: “Our beloved Iran is under occupation by a murderous regime that calls itself the Islamic Republic. But this regime is neither Islamic nor a Republic.” He ended with the rally’s chant: “No to the Shah, no to the mullahs! Our choice, Maryam Rajavi.”
