A former detainee of Iran's Evin prison is demonstrating outside the US embassy in London, demanding action from President Donald Trump against the Islamic Republic's regime.
London resident Nasrin Roshan was on her third day of camping outside the embassy, where she is also on hunger strike. She told The National she plans to spend 10 days without eating.
Ms Roshan and two other protesters have put up a sign reading “Trump Smash Islamic Regime”, alongside US, UK and pre-revolutionary Iranian flags. “I want Trump to act now. He promised he would act if an Iranian was killed. Twelve thousand people have been killed now,” she said.
Ms Roshan also holds a sign for her niece, Sara Tabrizi, who died in mysterious circumstances in Tehran two years ago after the two women were detained together in 2023.
Mr Trump threatened to “take action” against Iran this month if authorities used violence against the protesters, and promised the following week that “help was on its way”. Yet thousands of Iranians have been killed in the past two weeks – with the regime putting the death toll at 5,000 on Monday, and campaigners saying it could be closer to 16,500.
A government-imposed internet blackout has left Iranians abroad unable to contact their families to confirm they are safe.
Ms Roshan is sleeping in a car near the embassy after being told she cannot set up a tent on the premises. She spends most of her time alone with a couple of other demonstrators, although other Iranians regularly stop by to support her.
She has been jailed twice by the Iranian government for her activism and was released from Evin prison in May last year. She was first detained and tortured at the age of 18 for four years during the post-revolution period.
In 2023, after Iranian authorities obtained photos of her attending commemorations for the Shah of Iran in Egypt, she was arrested and jailed for more than 18 months.
Since the demonstrations began, Ms Roshan said she has not been able to contact her family directly, but heard from a friend that they were still alive. A young man known to her has been killed in the protests.
Another poster called for Mr Trump to meet Reza Pahlavi, the grandson of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed by the Islamic revolution of 1979.
The Shah's autocratic rule and its legacy have long been divisive among opposition groups. His grandson's recent support for the Israeli army campaigns against Iran and its proxies further alienated some Iranians.
But Mr Pahlavi is now emerging as the most prominent leader of the Iranian protest movement, and among an estimated 4,500 anti-regime demonstrators in London on Sunday, many also came out in support of the monarchy. There was one arrest of a man for a racially aggravated public order offence.
The march from the BBC's headquarters near Oxford Street to Whitehall was co-organised by the Iranian Freedom Committee and Stop the Hate, a group advocating for Israel.
Arrests were made on Friday outside the Iranian embassy after demonstrators tried to remove the Islamic Republic's flag, the Met Police said. Two of those arrested then have been charged. The others have been bailed pending further inquiries.
Shahab Zaherinasab, 27, was charged with intentionally causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress. Ramiz Moghaddam, 34, was charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, February 16.
The growth in support for the Shah was “unbelievable” Ms Roshan said. “A lot of people with different ideas accept that he is the leader of this revolution. My community is a big community with different ideas,” she said. “At the moment, Pahlavism is for everyone."
The UK’s continued diplomatic relations with Tehran has made Iranians supporting the revolution feel “so lonely”, she said. She and others are calling for the British proscription of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and for Iranian diplomats in the UK to be expelled.
Experts believe it is likely that US President Trump will return to the Iranian issue as he distinguishes himself from presidents who sought to appease the regime. This could be in the form of a deal with the Iranian government, or a US-led change in leadership similar to this month's events in Venezuela.
“I don’t think Trump has forgotten about Iran,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at foreign affairs think tank Chatham House in London.
"There was no plan for that day after. Amidst the lack of a strong opposition or an alternative inside the country, it made sense for the time being to step back. But I don’t think he has completely decided to move Iran to the bottom of his to-do list."
