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When the Iran Freedom Congress opened its doors in London on Saturday, it sought to send a message of inclusivity by decorating the stage with two different flags: Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag with the Persian lion at its centre, and a tricolour flag with no emblem.
The latter was known as the "flag of the people" among those at the Westminster event.
The decision sparked complaints from two camps: those who regard the lion as a symbol of the oppression experienced under the Shah of Iran before the Islamic Revolution 1979; and those who say the tricolour flag is an erasure of Iran’s culture and history.
But disagreement was the point of the two-day conference, which for the first time brought together different groups of the Iranian opposition in exile.
The conference saw more than 250 political campaigners, academics and the representatives of political parties from Europe and North America meet discuss a wide range of issues such as democratic transition and the voices of Iran’s ethnic minorities.
But the liveliest conversations took place outside the main hall, in the back room where people exchanged ideas.
“Some people hated each other [before today’s event]. Now you see them having coffee,” said Kourosh Sehati, a political activist and journalist who was jailed for his involvement in the student movement in Iran in the late 1990s.
Uncertainty from the US-led war on Iran, with the US warship USS Tripoli arriving in the Middle East with 3,500 service members on Sunday, was chief on people’s minds.
The Congress now faces the challenge of setting out a series of shared resolutions, and deciding on a direction, as Iranians abroad prepare for the day after the collapse of the Islamic regime.
The event’s main organiser, Majid Zamani, a London-based entrepreneur who was formerly jailed by the regime during the Green Movement protests, told The National that those present were united in their belief that no single party could rule a future Iran alone.
“We believe that no single group or organisation could rule Iran in any case after the Islamic Republic. That is the fundamental assumption,” he said.
Mr Zamani said the Congress would remain a “platform” for political discussions, rather than a group seeking power. “The difference is that the Congress doesn’t want to claim power. We want to be that place that creates resolutions that bring people together,” he said.
“We want to be a platform where different political groups come together and try to come up with some resolutions that help co-ordinate between these groups, in order to get over with the Islamic Republic and manage the transition period to a democratic regime."
The emphasis on pluralism has led many to view the event as an “alternative” to the growing support for the Shah’s son in exile, Reza Pahlavi, who has expressed his intention to rule Iran after the fall of the Islamic Republic.
The IFC’s organisers insist that Mr Pahlavi and his followers were invited to the event, but many guests would prefer him not to be there.
“We need a political alternative to the monarchists, who created a bloc for themselves,” said Mr Sehati. “Monarchists don’t believe in democracy, they have already chosen their leader.”
But a group known as constitutional monarchists was at the event, sitting alongside various branches of Republicans.
A French MP, Ayda Hadizadeh, has invited the Congress to debate their issues at National Assembly.
The event was praised for its inclusion of Kurdish, Balochi, Ahwazi Arab and Azerbaijani-Turkish parties, who seek a commitment to a decentralised Iran and acknowledgememnt their cultural rights.
“It’s the first time I hear diverse voices and see all different groups together, even more radical ones,” said Shukriya Bradost, a US-based security analyst who was invited to speak at the event. “Most of the minorities are asking to be accepted as part of Iran, who labelled them as separatists.”
Duman Radmehr, a Sweden-based activist for Azerbaijani-Turks, said that the war had led to paralysis as groups in exile tried to anticipate what comes next. “Everybody wants to see what happens first, because its very difficult to act,” he said.
Mr Radmehr's party in exile, the Azerbaijan Democracy and Development Association (Odjaq), is in touch with people in northern Iran to “act immediately” if the regime falls, by taking over local administrative duties to prevent a power vacuum. “It is to guarantee the supply chain and security,” he said.
An anti-war song by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was played by filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, who recently made a film about the late Gazan journalist Fatma Hassona. But other groups at the event who supported the US military intervention against the regime said privately they would probably pull out of the Congress if an anti-war stance was taken.
Another challenge for the Congress will be gaining influence within Iran. Two Farsi-language satellite TV stations were broadcasting the entirety of the conference in Iran. “That is a big thing,” Mr Zamani said, while acknowledging that many in Iran will also not be aware of the event.
“We are at the beginning of our efforts. As we go on, people get to know this initiative more. We do have a broad coalition and all these people have their own media and their own platforms, who can utilise their platforms to reach out to people."
Hadi Zamani, a London-based economist and a member of the IFC’s Co-ordination Committee, said more attention needed to be given to youth movements including the Women, Life, Freedom revolution that emerged in 2022.
“They should have given a lot more space to the women’s struggle. A lot more time should have been given to the issues faced by young people. The movement of Women, Life, Freedom was a major event. Those aspects were not properly presented in here,” he said.
While it was “absolutely correct” to shed light on the issues faced by Iran’s ethnic minorities, Hadi Zamani feared this had become “a little bit disproportionate”. “It is likely to have an adverse affect on the outcomes of the conference,” he said.
“It is vital that we go beyond having a conference, I would like to see a determination that they do want to go beyond having talks and agree on a set of common values on the basis of which they can form an effective opposition,” he said.
“Pluralism takes shape when different groups can agree on a set of principles."
Ramin Parham, a Paris-based author of several books on Iran, feared the immediate priorities for a post-war Iran were being overlooked.
“It is a lot of talk about diversity but I didn’t hear anything that could make a difference,” Mr Parham said. "The priority now is defending the country against external aggression … and distributing food, water, electricity to a large population.
"Once this is over you will have another set of priorities: a large society severely damaged by external aggression and severely impacted, structurally, mentally, morally, psychologically, economically, by almost 50 years of revolution."
