Thousands of Iranian Americans and supporters of the Iranian Resistance rallied outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, denouncing the presence of regime president Masoud Pezeshkian at the UN General Assembly and voicing support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its president-elect Maryam Rajavi. The crowd echoed a unified call: “No to the Shah, no to the mullahs—yes to a democratic republic.”
In a video message broadcast to the rally, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, saluted the crowd as the “true voice of the Iranian people before the United Nations.” She said the protests in New York echoed the uprisings in Tehran, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Zahedan, and across Iran, including inside prisons.
“The message is very simple and clear: Overthrow and democratic change—a democratic republic, with freedom and democratic rights,” Rajavi declared. She stressed that the clerical regime has executed 1,817 people in just 14 months and accused it of crimes against humanity, calling for its leaders to be prosecuted in an international court.
Mrs. Rajavi insisted that the international community must end appeasement: “The seat of the Iranian people at the United Nations must not be given to a regime of executions and massacres.” She warned that Europe was “forced to trigger snapback at the last minute” because the regime will never abandon its nuclear program and credited the NCRI’s 133 revelations for preventing Tehran from acquiring the bomb.
Rejecting all forms of dictatorship, she proclaimed: “We want neither a mullah nor a Shah. The era of all forms of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical, is over. Our message for Iran’s future is simple: the sovereignty of the people—the people’s republic.”
Here’s our message:
-The seat of the Iranian people at the UN must not be given to a regime of executions.
-Refer the case of genocide and crimes against humanity in Iran to the UNSC.
-Khamenei and those responsible for these crimes must be prosecuted in an international court.… pic.twitter.com/s3JXJdjJno— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 24, 2025
Former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey told the New York rally that the regime is weaker than ever, despite intensifying repression. “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that conditions are more favorable now for the collapse of the regime than they have been in decades,” he said.
He dismissed hopes that regime president Masoud Pezeshkian could bring change, pointing out that other physicians such as Assad and al-Zawahiri were ruthless killers. “He is simply a mouthpiece for the mullahs,” Mukasey said.
Encouraged by snapback sanctions and the regime’s worsening economic crisis, Judge Mukasey urged the world to prepare for accountability: “We should be compiling testimony and documentation of what they did — the massacres, the phony trials, the executions — so that the evidence is at hand.”
He warned against false alternatives, saying the son of the Shah and his “clique” had “no standing whatsoever to claim leadership authority.” The only credible vision, he said, is Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic.
Soona Samsami, the NCRI’s U.S. Representative, emphasized that the protest was both defiance and hope. “We are here for one reason: to reject the president of a regime that massacres prisoners, suppresses women and youth, and races for nuclear weapons,” she said. “But this is also a message of hope because there is an alternative. There is an organized resistance and a leader with a vision: Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.”
On the sidelines of the #2025FreeIranNYRally on September 23, our reporter asked Aria why he participated at the rally hear his inspiring remarks. pic.twitter.com/OoQKlgMV9S
— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) September 24, 2025
Former U.S. Congressman Judge Ted Poe told the rally that freedom is a God-given right, not a gift from dictators. Citing America’s own Declaration of Independence, he said, “Whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government. That sounds like something y’all would say.”
He praised the Iranian Resistance as a movement with deep roots: “It didn’t start with the mullahs. It started with removing another dictator, the Shah.” Judge Poe warned against attempts to resurrect monarchy: “You gave your lives to get rid of a dictator because you wanted to be free. Now some are talking about replacing that dictator with one of his family members. That is not a good idea.”
Highlighting the role of women and youth, he said, “So many young women have given their lives just for what you’re standing here for today. Woe be to the mullahs — they do not know what they’re dealing with.”
Judge Poe endorsed Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, declaring, “The Iranian people will not go quietly into the dark of the abyss. They will never yield to tyrants.”
Just as the Iranian regime’s president was speaking at the #UNGA thousands of Iranians chanted “Pezeshkian out of UN, NOW, NOW, NOW” they said, “Rajavi YES, mullahs NO; They are terrorists, they must go.” #2025FreeIranNYRally #OurChoiceMaryamRajavi pic.twitter.com/91yAjLLgPt
— Alireza Jafarzadeh (@A_Jafarzadeh) September 24, 2025
Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg told the rally that he had been standing with the Iranian Resistance “ever since my young days as a diplomat in the Carter administration, almost forty-five years ago.” He praised the NCRI’s endurance and Rajavi’s leadership: “I have stood against the mullahs, inspired by the democratic ideals of the people’s resistance and Madam Maryam Rajavi, who I respect and admire so much as a friend and as a leader.”
Pointing to the growing role of Resistance Units inside Iran, Amb. Ginsberg said, “Thanks to the Resistance Units of Iran who have sacrificed under Maryam Rajavi, your friends and your family, that axis of resistance is no longer.”
He also took aim at the so-called Iranian monarchists, stressing that the Iranian people would not “turn back the clock to the days of kings doling out little bits and pieces of democracy while they rule from the throne.”
Amb. Ginsberg hailed the MEK for its “vital intelligence that prevented Iran from already having the bomb” and described Ashraf 3 as “not just a place, it is an ideal. It is an aspiration for freedom and justice.” He said the regime fears Rajavi because “she is an iron lady whose network inside Iran has chipped away piece by piece at the edifice of this regime.”
Just some of the faces of the 120,000 brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for Iran's freedom.
We remember them as we say NO to the regime's President Masoud Pezeshkian at the UN in New York. #2025FreeIranNYRally #OurChoiceMaryamRajavi #UNGA80
CC: @NYCMayor @PressSec pic.twitter.com/CHavOYHyW3
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) September 24, 2025
Several young Iranian Americans linked their speeches to family histories of resistance. Maryam Hosseini, daughter of a former political prisoner, said: “Even in the darkest prisons, they cannot extinguish the light of freedom. No to the Shah. No to the mullahs. Yes to a democratic republic.”
Emma Vali Beigi, whose cousin Karim was executed in the 1988 massacre, condemned efforts to whitewash the Shah’s rule. “The Shah’s regime was also a repressive force. We cannot afford to choose between one dictatorship and another. Iran deserves better,” she said. “Since 2018, there have been nine national uprisings… and nine times the people of Iran have shouted: ‘Down with the dictator! Down with the oppressor! Be it the Shah or the mullahs!’”
Highlights of the second day of the #2025FreeIranNYRally: Freedom-loving Iranians rallied for a democratic republic in Iran, supporting the NCRI and its President-elect's ten-points plan. Speakers included: Amb. @ambmcg, @JudgeTedPoe and Judge Michael Mukasey. pic.twitter.com/mJVl12KDJx
— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) September 24, 2025
Mani Mansourpour, holding a photo of his uncle executed in 1988, accused Pezeshkian of representing “Khamenei and all the crimes associated with him for over four decades.” He demanded urgent UN action to stop executions, hold perpetrators accountable, and recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the regime.
Hadi Shakibanejad framed the protest as a rejection of tyranny’s normalization. “Our beloved Iran is under occupation by a murderous regime that calls itself the Islamic Republic. But this regime is neither Islamic nor a Republic,” he said. Echoing the rally’s central chant, he declared: “No to the Shah, no to the mullahs! Our choice, Maryam Rajavi.”