More than one hundred Raleigh residents gathered in front of the Wake County Courthouse on Saturday to demonstrate their support for the uprising in Iran and their condemnation of the current regime.

Starting on Dec. 23, widespread protests in Iran have been met with extreme governmental violence. Internet blackouts have limited the information coming out of the country, but there are at least 5,000 confirmed dead. 

Fara Pourshariati, a protester and organizer, fled Iran as a child and has been living in the United States for 34 years. She works as a real estate agent in the Triangle area and helped to organize the protest with a new organization called Persian Vibes. Pourshariati spoke to the crowd and led chants over a loudspeaker, calling for the fall of the Islamic Regime. 

“We are here to extend and echo the voice of the Iranian people,” Pourshariati said. “They want regime change. They want new regime to come.”

The protest, entitled “Stand With Iran,” was composed of every demographic of Iranian, from students to families to elderly couples. People greeted each other in Farsi and exchanged hugs before joining the larger group and hoisting the pre-Islamic Revolution lion and sun flag and homemade signs.

“There are not that many Iranians in the Triangle area compared to amazing D.C. or California, other places that you have seen people coming out,” Pourshariati said of the group.

Similar protests were held Saturday in Seattle, New York City and Chicago.

The current unrest in Iran is the deadliest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which saw the Shah dethroned and the Islamic Republic of Iran installed. Iranian citizens are reporting automatic weapons being shot into crowds of protesters and the executions of all suspected of opposing the regime. Though the Islamic regime has been repressive for many decades, economic instability has prompted country-wide resistance.

Maral Shariatkhah is a Raleigh resident who fled from Iran after being imprisoned for protesting. She led chants through a megaphone and had the Iranian colors painted on her cheeks. In an interview, she spoke about her family in Iran, who are under constant threat of execution. 

“[The government] still is killing, still is shooting,” Shariatkhah said. “I was talking to my dad just for one minute, with someone between us, actually, not directly talking, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, we are okay, but everything is bad.’”

Farhad Hafshejani, who held up a large banner with the lion and sun flag, has been living in the United States for thirty-nine years and is a proud citizen. 

“We’re trying to show the people of the world: we are Iranian, we are peaceful people, we are not terrorist people,” Hafshejani said. “Iranian people are generally good people. They want freedom, like people of the United States, and to have a country. They want, when they leave in the morning from their house, to come back home alive and see their family.”

Hafshejani called for the United States to support the Iranian people in their resistance to the regime.

“The United States is a great country and one of the most powerful countries in the whole world. So while they help the others, if you could help Iranian people, any support will help the Iranian people,” Hafshejani said.

Signs and chants at the protest mimicked MAGA slogans, such as “Make Iran Great Again.” Pourshariati said they are calling for President Trump’s attention because the country needs international support. 

“We want the U.S., we want President Trump, to come and help us,” Pourshariati said. “He’s been saying, go in the street, don’t give up. And we are waiting. We are here to let them know that please, please, any day, any minute, you can [take action and] save lives.”

Shahram Mazhari was another Iranian who spoke to the crowd in English and Farsi. He called the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran genocidal against its own people.

“We have to come together, whether you agree or not, to get rid of the Islamic Regime. We have to be one voice. We do not want an Islamic Republic. We do not want to have a dictator,” Mazhari said in Farsi.

“The Iranian people are extremely educated people, they are resilient, they are strong, they have been withstanding 1,400 years of religious persecution, religious brainwashing and religious cultural change,” Mazhari said to the crowd. “They have tried to take our language away from us. They’re trying to take a culture from us. You know what? I have news for these people. They have not been able to do that.”