Pro-democracy Iran rally in Paris to highlight abuses

Iran Focus: Paris, France, Jan. 18 – Iranians are planning a massive rally in Paris on the twenty-sixth anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution to call for an end to theocratic rule in their country. Organisers are expecting a huge turnout in the event scheduled for February 10 at Place Trocadero in central Paris.
“We are going to call every man and woman of conscience in the world to join us on February 10,” said Elham Parsafar of the Paris-based Committee in Defense of Human Rights in Iran. Iran Focus

Paris, France, Jan. 18 – Iranians are planning a massive rally in Paris on the twenty-sixth anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution to call for an end to theocratic rule in their country.

Organisers are expecting a huge turnout in the event scheduled for February 10 at Place Trocadero in central Paris.

“We are going to call every man and woman of conscience in the world to join us on February 10,” said Elham Parsafar of the Paris-based Committee in Defense of Human Rights in Iran. “What the mullahs are doing in Iran – public hangings, floggings, stoning women to death – are an affront to humanity, not just Iranians.”

Demonstrators will call for an end to diplomatic and economic ties between European governments and the clerical regime, so long as human rights violations in Iran persist.

The rally has already received strong support from a broad array of French political and social personalities and human rights groups.

“I do as my conscience tells me,” Henri, a French sociology student helping the organisers, said, when asked why he had volunteered for this effort. “I suppose if I had lived seventy years ago, I would have done something against the Nazis. You can’t remain indifferent if sixteen-year-old girls are being hanged somewhere.”

Organizers are putting up a list of prominent French and international political figures to address the rally.

The worsening human rights situation in Iran is coming under increasing international scrutiny. Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution by majority vote censuring human rights violations in Iran in the second such move over the past six months.

The toughly-worded resolution denounced practices such as execution of juveniles and stonings carried out by the Iranian regime.

Iran was also censured by the United Nations General Assembly last month for its flagrant violations of human rights. Human rights agencies report that at least 174 forms of torture such as flogging, limb amputation, and eye gouging are used in Iranian prisons.

The Paris rally is expected to highlight these violations and call on the EU to develop a new policy to induce genuine change in Iran by supporting the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations.