This is not an attack on anyone who was participating in this protest but I walked past it during on Kensington High Street and had a few observations to make from someone passing by. I am only posting this because I genuinely care about the cause and my dearest wish is for the people or Iran to be free. I think some of our PR strategies in the diaspora need to change. I must also preface that I support Reza Pahlavi as a unifying figure and have always followed him, long before most Iranians even spoke about him in the diaspora. I must also say that I support Israel in the obliteration of the regime and that’s been even long before the 2026 strikes.
Firstly, the protest and symbolisms are simply too confusing for people to understand. There are so many messages that the main one get’s lost. Unless I’m missing something it should be “Free the people of Iran. Help bring down the regime”
I was with a friend and when we were walking they saw it first from far away and she told me oh look as we have had conversations about Iran and what’s happening there. She knows how deeply I hold it in my heart. However, the closer we got the more I was apprehensive due to what I was seeing, I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly and from a passer by perspective the movement looked completely bizarre.
First point, I had the impression there were more Israeli flags that Iranian flags. I understand it when it’s Israelis showing support and coming to protests and repping their support. But I’m pretty sure this was not the case and it was Iranians waving the flag. I’m not saying it is morally wrong, however it does drown the message and draws the attention away from the main message. And the issue is that some of us maybe from a younger generation do our activist work by talking with our peers and educating them through conversations. This work can become harder when they see Israel and the Iranian people getting conflated as a lot of them don’t particularly like Israel. It’s also great propaganda for the pro-regime supporters. Frankly, Israel does not need us to wave its flag, and it clearly doesn’t care about its public image anyways, so what’s the point of doing this? What they acc need is Iranians in Iran helping them sabotage the regime and they have that. The rest is useless to them.
Remember the Shah when he spoke about patriotism, would he really have liked Iranians waving around another flag but the one of Iran?
Secondly, and I’ll be completely blunt here, the whole crown display and chant while raising it makes us look like a cult. If anything I feel like this hurts Reza Pahlavi’s image more than anything as it makes his followers look like fanatics. In my head at some point I even wondered if there weren’t pro-regime elements trying to push that image in the crowd.
There was other 2 passer bys next to us and I literally heard the guy say “I’m so confused” when they were looking at it.
And that really summed up my impression.
What exactly are we trying to communicate to the British public?
Surely our central message should be simple: the people of Iran deserve freedom, the Islamic Republic must go, and Western governments should stop appeasing a regime that imprisons, tortures and kills its own people.
The Lion and Sun flag, clear slogans, images and stories of victims, and straightforward demands would communicate that message far more effectively than a confusing mixture of foreign flags and royal symbolism.
I’m not questioning anyone’s dedication to Iran. I know many people attending these demonstrations have sacrificed and been through far more for this cause than I have.
But passion alone doesn’t guarantee effective advocacy. We need to think seriously about how our protests are perceived by people outside our own community.
I’m sharing this as constructive criticism because I genuinely want our movement to succeed.
I’d be interested to hear what others think, particularly anyone who attended the protest. Perhaps there’s context I’m missing.
Javid Shah
Payandeh Iran