Iran | >Re-PHOTO

Iran & Midwives – 2010

Iran & Midwives: On Sunday 7th March 2010 I photographed a protest marking International Women’s Day organised by Iranian women over the 31 years of repression and calling for an end to the Islamic regime who marched to a rally in Trafalgar Square. I then went south of the river to Geraldine Harmsworth Park for the start of a march back to Downing Street in support of better integrated midwifery services for all women.

Both Iran and maternity services are now still live issues. Baroness Amos’s interim review into maternity and neonatal services in England is harrowing and two thirds of maternity services are rated either “inadequate” or “requires improvement”.

Today I will be at a protest against the illegal war by Israel and the USA on Iran. Of course few if any support the Iranian Islamic regime, certainly not among those who like me will be at the protest.

The attacks on Iran, including the assassination of Ali Khamenei, are extremely unlikely to lead to regime change – and if anything are likely to lead to even greater repression, hardship and bloodshed in a country which is being pounded into greater poverty and extreme disorder, with possibly many years of destructive multi-sided civil wars. The decision to attack now appears to have been prompted by the Israeli fears that an agreement between the US and Iran might have been imminent – and perhaps also by the US feeling that a war might improve Trump’s position in the US mid-term elections.

Support the Iranian Women’s Struggle

Iranian Embassy to Trafalgar Square

Women and men, mainly Iranians, held a rally opposite the Iranian embassy in Kensington to mark International Women’s Day and protest against the 31 years of anti-women Islamic laws and repression and calling for an end to the Islamic regime.

The protest was organised by the 8 March Women’s Organsiation (Iran-Afghanistan) and they marched from there to Trafalgar Square where there was a larger rally on the North Terrace with speeches and messages from the 8 March Women’s Organisation, the European Democratic Women Movement (Turkey), Hands off People of Iran, the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Million Women Rise movement.

The speches were followed by performances by a number of artists including Iranian singers and poets.

More at Support the Iranian Women’s Struggle.

Mums and Midwives Reclaim Birth

Geraldine Harmsworth Park to Downing St

The Albany Midwifery Practice in Peckham in South London – one of the most highly deprived areas of England – was widely regarded as a model of best practice and a centre of excellence in NHS midwifery, giving support to women throughout pregnancy, birth and the post-natal period, encouraging women to make informed choices about how and where they give birth.

But at the end of 2009, King’s College Hospital terminated their contract following a critical report from the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) which King’s claim showed “serious shortcomings” over one aspect of their work, forcing the centre to close down. This report was shown to be based on incorrect use of statistics.

King’s decision was seen as an attack on on alternative ways of maternity care that provide better overall outcomes and better meet the needs of women.

Their perinatal mortality rates were well below the national average and well under half those for those in its London Borough. And far fewer of their mothers gave birth by Caesarean section – just over half of the rate in King’s College Hospital. Perhaps at the root of King’s objection to Albany was that almost half of the women chose to give birth at home – compared to 1 in 16 for the area as a whole.

More than three quarters of Albany mothers also continued to breastfeed their babies, well over twice the national average.

The march and rally was supported by AIMS (Association For Improvements In The Maternity Services), NCT (National Childbirth Trust), ARM (Association of Radical Midwives), IM UK (Independent Midwives UK) and Albany Mums.

As well as calling for a public inquiry into the decision to end the Albany contract it also called for a move across the country to replace the current doctor-led hospital services , often un-supportive and even traumatic for mothers, with services following the Albany example which provide a much more comprehensive service with better information and fuller support for women at no greater cost.

Peckham has a record of innovative medical services, with the groundbreaking Peckham Experiment in community health which began 100 years ago in 1926 and was ended under the NHS in 1950. The case of the Albany model of care echoes this, and there approach was fully vindicated in a detailed analysis published in 2017 which concluded “consideration should be given to making similar models of care available to all women.”

More at Mums & Midwives Reclaim Birth.

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Tibet Freedom & Women Rise – 2010

Tibet Freedom & Women Rise: On Saturday 6th March 2010 I photographed a march marking the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising and calling for freedom from China and then went to Marble Arch for Million Women Rise, an all-women march calling for an end to male violence against women.

Tibet Freedom March

Chinese Embassy to Westminster

Tibet Freedom & Women Rise - 2010 — *China Stole My Land, My Voice, My Freedom – the march at Piccadilly Circus*

The Tibetan National Uprising began on 10 March 1959, prompted by fears that the Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet would arrest the Dalai Lama. The protests soon developed to demand independence from China which had annexed Tibet in 1951.

As well as civilians those taking part included Tibetan guerillas who had been trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency in camps in Nepal and the CIA organised several aerial supply missions. The Agency had supported Tibetan guerrillas from the mid-1950s and even after armed resistance ended in 1962 the CIA continued to train Tibetans in the USA, returning them to stir up revolts in Tibet until at least 1972.

The National Uprising was bloodily put down by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, with widely varying estimates of the number of Tibetans killed, possibly over 80,000. The Dalai Lama and others fled to India where he and his followers were granted asylum.

In 2008 there had been further protests and demonstrations in Tibet against the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment and persecution of Tibetans which began around the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Uprising. The protests were again violently repressed, with over 200 young Tibetans killed and many imprisoned. Over 1000 were still unaccounted for in 2010 and two, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Mr Loyak, had been executed in October 2009.

The protest by around 600 people, many of them Tibetans, began outside the Chinese Embassy with a short speech and the singing of the Tibetan National Anthem was sung, followed by a minutes silence in memory of the dead and prayers.

A small delegation went with a letter to the door of the Chinese Embassy, but no one from the Embassy was there to take it so they handed it to the police officer there and the march set off down Regent Street to a rally at Downing Street.

I reported, “Near the front of the march was a large banner with the Tibetans’ message “China stole my land, my voice, my freedom.” Among the slogans chanted by marchers were “Tibetans have no voice in Tibet“, “China: stop silencing Tibetans“; “Britain: stand up for Tibetans in Tibet” and “Stop the torture in Tibet”.

More pictures on My London Diary at Tibet Freedom March.

Million Women Rise

Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square

I left the Tibet Freedom March to rush to Marble Arch where several thousand women had gathered for the Million Women Rise march, arriving just before they set off.

*Million Women Rise (MWR) founder Sabrina Qureshi addresses the women before the start of the march*

The Million Women Rise movement was founded by campaigner and former outreach worker Sabrina Qureshi in 2007. I photographed their march in 2008. It takes place every year around March 8th, International Women’s Day, when there have been other events in London for many years which I had often photographed.

Million Women Rise differs in being a women-only event and “led by Black/ Global Majority Women for all Women and Girls.” The annual march is supported by a wide range of groups and they included some left-wing organisations. But others have been excluded from speaking at the rallies or told they are not welcome on the marches.

In 2010 I wrote a little about the violence women experience:

“In this country almost 1 in 4 women are said to have experienced some form of sexual assault and on average two women are murdered each week by a partner or former partner. A third of all teenage girls who are in relationships suffer unwanted sexual acts and one in four are the subject of actual physical violence.”

“Trafficking is a large-scale global industry, with two million girls between the ages of 5 and fifteen being sold into sex slavery each year. Lack of health provision is also a major problem; one woman dies in pregnancy for every minute of the year, and most of these deaths are preventable”

Now, particularly after what we have seen in Gaza with so many women and children among the dead, I might perhaps have also written about affect of wars. Among those on the marching were Tamils and women from the DRC where wars were killing many women and children, as well as from repressive regimes including Iran.

More on My London Diary at Million Women Rise.

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Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece – 2012

Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece: On Saturday 3rd March 2012 I photographed a protest outside companies using people forced into free labour under the government workfare scheme, then a women-only march against male violence against women which I left to go to the Occupy meeting on the steps of St Paul’s which supported the protests in Greece against austerity measures imposed by the EU.

Boycott Workfare – Oxford St

Oxford St

Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece - 2012

The group Boycott Workfare came to Oxford Street to lead a protest against companies who use unemployed and disabled people forced to work without pay but just a small allowance under the government workfare scheme.

As the protesters emphasised, workfare reduces the number of real jobs available in the workplaces, giving workers to the employers by forcing the unemployed to do work at no cost to the employer on an allowance roughly one quarter of the minimum pay – and around a fifth of the London Living Wage.

The event began with some good news when they met outside BHS near Oxford Circus by praising that company for having withdrawn from the scheme since the protest had been planned before moving off to protest elsewhere.

Around a hundred campaigners had arrived and were being carefully watched by police who went with them, guarding shop doorways and keeping a path along the crowded pavements clear when they stopped to protest.

The organisers had kept their route secret and had come with two ‘Boycott Warfare’ flags on long poles, white with the letters BW, and those taking part were told to follow the flags.

Police were also guarding some shops which had previously been targeted by UK Uncut over their failures to pay tax, though most of these were not involved in workfare and so of no interest to this protest.

The first stop was a Pizza Hut, where police managed to stop any of the protesters entering – but the protest put off a number of customers entering while there were a few speeches. There we were handed a map showing the locations of some of the other businesses on Oxford Street taking part in workfare, including McDonalds, Holland and Barratt, Superdrug, WH Smith, Argos, and a little way north of Oxford St, Holiday Inn and Barnado’s.

Police just managed to arrive at Holland and Barratt before the protesters, who only paused briefly there before rushing on to McDonalds, where a few managed to go inside. Police soon ejected them into the noisy crowd protesting outside, most of whom soon moved off towards Argos, with police following them.

I soon realised that not all the protesters had left for Argos, and hurried back to see another group being ejected from McDonalds. Another small group had returned to Pizza Hut – where again they were ejected by police.

The main body of protesters turned into a shopping arcade, but were not sure which of the shops were using workfare and hesitated, allowing police to rush in and form a barrier. After a few noisy minutes they left and held a rally on a street corner with a few short speeches – including at least one by someone passing by.

At the Holiday Inn on Wellbeck Street a few protesters again beat the police and were rather forcibly ejected.

Some at least of the police who I and the campaigners talked with clearly shared their disgust at a scheme which forces people to work without payment, and were also worried about leaked plans to part-privatise the police and other cuts, but insisted that it was their job to keep order and protect property.

More on My London Diary at Boycott Workfare – Oxford St.

Million Women Rise March

Oxford St

Women were gathering in the street on the west side of Selfridges to march through the centre of London calling for an end to domestic abuse, rape and commercial sexual exploitation. They called for prevention of abuse and support and protection for women.

They came from various womens groups and organisations around the country for this all-women march calling for and end to male violence against women.

Some of London’s more active women campaigning groups, including those that have been the leaders in previous celebrations around International Women’s Day were absent from the protest, and I was shocked to learn that they had been told they were not welcome at this march, despite the coalition’s aim to be non-partisan and to bring “together women who want to highlight the continuation of all forms of violence against women and demand that steps are taken to put an end to this.”

Among those marching were women from a number of political groups from London’s ethnic communities present, including Kurds, some in traditional dress and some holding posters calling for the release of their leader Abdullah Öcalan from prison in Turkey, as well as groups opposed to the Iranian regime.

The Million Women Rise Coalition has a statement of demands for government and societies here and around the world. They demand the recognise and reflect in policies the discrimination faced by all women and those from black and other minority groups in particular. They demand that domestic abuse, rape and commercial sexual exploitation are linked together in a definition of violence against women and that support is given to support organisations for women in the not-for-profit sector.

Their long statement called for support for various groups opposing violence against women, and end to child prostitution and pornography and proper support for trafficked women and children.

They called for International Women’s Day to be made a Bank Holiday in the UK and Ireland, and oppose “the continued misrepresentation, misappropriation and abuse of the female body throughout all forms of media.”

Their statement also made clear that wars and conflicts around the world perpetuate violence against women, and on the march a group carried a banner ‘Raped, Abused, Widowed and Forgotten – Tamil Women in Sri Lanka Still In Tears’ and others highlighted the ongoing abuses against women in DR Congo.

More on My London Diary at Million Women Rise March.

Greeks Protest With OccupyLSX

St Paul’s Cathedral Steps

I left the march at Bond Street Station to report on a protest at St Paul’s Cathedral against the terms of the Eurozone rescue package for Greece at Occupy meeting on the steps there and to show solidarity with the protests in Greece.

Much more about this and more pictures on My London Diary at Greeks Protest At St Paul’s,

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Muslims, Iran, Canary Wharf & Queer is Here – 2006

Muslims, Iran, Canary Wharf & Queer is Here: Saturday February 4th was a busy day for me with a couple of protests, a trip to Canary Wharf and then the opening of a show in the Foyer of the Museum of London which included some of my work from ten years of London’s Pride marches.

The first of the protests was by Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain, a radical Muslim organisagion which was proscribed in the UK in January 2024 following a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy which called on ‘Muslim Armies’ to take action against Israel. I’d first photographed a group which had been formed by its former leader for ten years, Omar BakrI Muhammad at a protest in Trafalgar Square in 1998 and later had photographed a number of the Hizb Ut-Tahrir protests, including the one for which they were banned.

The ban was part of a government attempt to stigmatise all protests against the Israeli attacks taking place on Gaza as ‘hate protests‘ and the BBC and other media outlets aided them by failing to properly distinguish the protest by a few hundred radical Muslims from the hundreds of thousands who marched peacefully at the same time through London calling for peace and justice in Palestine. Had they thought if they could get away with proscribing Stop the War, CND and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign they would surely have done so.

Here I’ll re-post a normally capitalised and slightly corrected version of what I wrote back in 2006 on My London Diary about that and other events of the day, along with links to more pictures including the full set of my pictures used in the museum show.

Defend the Honour of the Prophet

Danish Embassy

Several thousand British Muslims turned up outside the Danish Embassy around midday on Saturday 4 February 2006 to protest peacefully about the publication of cartoons by a Danish newspaper some months ago, following their re-publication in a number of other newspapers around Europe and on the Internet. Although I understand their outrage, and support their right to protest, the world-wide reactions have seemed excessive, with violence and injuries as well as lurid threats of death and atrocities presenting a very negative image of Islam.

To the credit of British Muslims, this demonstration was peaceful and restrained, with official placards provided by organisers Hizb Ut-Tahrir, Britain saying things such as ‘we do not fear debate or criticism – but no one likes abuse‘, ‘Islam says – don’t insult other peoples religions‘ and ‘Europe lacks respect for others’, or simply praising the prophet, although some of the speeches sounded rather more inflammatory.

Stewards (and of course the police) generally kept everyone well under order, as well as making sensible photography virtually impossible during the rally. After the event was officially over it was possible to take more pictures

The problem is I think not that “Europe lacks respect” but that our tradition is a secular liberal one which respects and upholds freedom of speech and opinion (our blasphemy laws, which should have been repealed long ago, are seldom invoked.)

There are many things said and written that I find offensive (including several of the cartoons at issue) and you and I have the right to state our objections, to debate or criticise and even to stop eating Danish butter – but not to stir up hatred or issue death threats. Despite some press reports, this demonstration was generally well-ordered, and I saw none of the placards which have led to calls for people to be prosecuted.

more pictures

Support Workers in Iran!

Iranian Embassy

*Protestors hold posters about public executions, torture and imprisonment of workers opposite Iran’s London Embassy in Kensington.*

Meanwhile, a short distance away, a demonstration that perhaps should have attracted rather more support from the Muslim community was taking place opposite the Iranian embassy. Perhaps 50 people had gathered there to protest against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to support workers there who have no right to strike or organise under Iran’s draconian labour law.

*The demonstration is a show of solidarity with Iranian trade unionists and the GMB London Region banner added colour.*

In January 2004 workers staging a sit-in at the Khatoon Abad copper plant were attacked by riot police, with four killed and many more injured. Recently, bus workers in Tehran have been arrested for planning and carrying out strike action. According to Amnesty International, around 500 are still in jail, without charges being made or access to lawyers. Some of them have been beaten in prison, and their wives and children also beaten in raids on their homes.

*A letter of protest was taken to the door of the embassy but nobody came to accept it*

There are many more abuses of human rights being committed under the name of law in Iran including torture, murder and public executions (even of minors) for offences including ‘un-Islamic behaviour‘. Given the amount of news coverage on Iran at the moment over uranium enrichment, it is perhaps surprising that other stories from Iran – such as these – have not attracted more attention. And since most of those who are suffering are Muslim, I’m suprised at the apparent lack of solidarity from the community in Britain.

more pictures

Canary Wharf & the City

*West India Quay from new access bridge*

I left for a late lunch, then went on to Canary Wharf, where I had things to do. Although it was a very dull day I took a few pictures before catching the Docklands Light Railway to Bank and walking through the empty City to the Museum Of London on London Wall.

Quite a few more pictures here.

Queer is Here

Museum of London

At the Museum Of London was an event I had a personal interest in, the opening of a foyer display ‘Queer Is Here‘. I’d provided the dozen images used on the front of the large display panel beside the general text on the show, and there was also a screen beside it showing more of my images taken at London Gay Pride Parades from 1993-2002. In those ten years of Pride I took perhaps 5,000 images, and the display shows around 40 of the best of them.

*Gay Pride parade in Piccadilly, June 1994. Picture by Peter Marshall from ‘Ten Years of Pride’ , part of the ‘Queer is Here’ exhibition at the Museum of London.*

There were a few of these on My London Diary already (along with many from later Prides) but I posted the full set of pictures used in the show.

The exhibition was opened by Peter Tatchell, who I’ve photographed many times over the years, and was enlivened by a spirited performance from the London Gay Mens Chorus. After the month at the Museum Of London the display was to tour to libraries and other venues in London and possibly elsewhere around the country

More pictures from the opening

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End the War on Rojava – 2026

End the War on Rojava: Last Saturday, 25th January 2026, I photographed thousands of Kurds and supporters marching from the BBC towards Downing Street in an attempt to break the world’s silence as the Trump/USA supported Al Qaeda Islamist Syrian government forces destroy much of the autonomous mainly Kurdish region of Rojava.

After the Syrian revolution began with mass protests against the brutal Assad regime in 2011, on July 19th 2012, three predominantly Kurdish-inhabited areas of north-east Syria declared their autonomy, becoming the democratic ‘Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’ (AANES), better known as Rojava, although this later grew to include a third of Syrian territory and nearly a fifth of its population.

The area remained committed to the ideas of the Arab Spring and set up a democratic constitution with equality for all ethnic groups. It embodied the the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” – “Women, Life, Freedom” and many of the banners and placards on the protest reflected this.

Turkey has for many decaades discriminated against its Kurdish communities, with a denial of Kurdish identity attempting to violently assimilate Kurds. In 1978 Kurds founde the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, which in 1984 began a militant insurgency against the Turkish state. Following pressure from NATO member Turkey, the New Labour government in 2001 proscribed this as a terrorist organisation, making support of it illegal in the UK.

In a political show trial now taking place at the Old Bailey, six members of London’s Kurdish community are charged with being members of the banned PKK. The trail, largely unreported in the mass media, is a sign of Turkey’s increasing attempt to crush the Kurds and the UK’s further collaboration with its fellow NATO member and in line with an increasing use of terrorism charges to oppose political demonstrations – such as those by supporters of Palestine Action and others who oppose the actions of the Zionist state.

The PKK in 2025 announced an end to its military insurgency, ceremonially burnt some of its weapons and officially disbanded in an attempt by Kurds to make peace with Turkey. But the Turkish response has been to carry out military attacks in predominantly Kurdish areas of Syria and to persuade its NATO allies to take a harder line against the Kurds.

For some years the Kurds had been backed by USA air support in leading the fight on the ground against the Islamic state (ISIS) in Syria, largely ending their control of the area – and the UK had played a part in this too. But the situation changed after an Islamist group succeeded in overturning Assad and becoming the new government of Syria. And Trump and his advisers see Rojava as dangerously socialist if not communist – and would prefer any more conservative regime. The USA has a long record of support for dictators.

Since then the autonomous region has engaged with the government to come to agreement so that the advances in the area particularly in the relations between different ethnic groups and the hugely increased freedom for women can be retained. But it seems now that the government is attempting to put the clock back and impose its Islamist ideas across the country, and to fight – with the aid of Turkey -to do so.

Following a video showing a Syrian soldier proudly holding the braid of a slain Kurdish woman fighter, Kurdish women began braiding their hair in solidarity as an unusual form of protest. In London some carried hair braids and posters with the message “keziya me rimetame” – Our hair is a crown.

Other posters carried the message “2 + 2 = 1” – After the end of the First World War in treaties largely determined by England and France, the Kurdish areas were split between four countries – Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq and they were denied their own country, Kurdistan which the slogan states is a single people and country.

*London, UK. 25 Jan 2026. 2+2=1 – Kurdistan is in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran*

Many more pictures in an album on Facebook and available for editorial use on Alamy.

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Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane – 2014

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane: 1st November 2014 was apparently World Vegan Day and PETA celebrated the event, highlighting the 255 animals killed for food in the UK every second by a similar number of people lying near naked or nearly naked and smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin in Trafalgar Square. A few yards away the 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran. I walked onto Westminster Bridge to photograph the distant banner with the message ‘REVOLUTION’ held by ‘Anonymous‘ protesters, some in Guy Fawkes masks, on Waterloo Bridge – and later they brought it to Trafalgar Square where I was covering a rally supporting the Kurds defending Kobane, the capital of Rojava in northern Syria.

PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest

Trafalgar Square

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane - 2014

In 1994 Louise Wallis, then Chair of the UK Vegan Society which was celebrating its 50th anniversary, declared November 1st to be World Vegan Day and since then it has been adopted by vegans around the world. It comes at the start of World Vegan Month – which is November.

PETA believe “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way“. They state than in the UK 255 animals are killed for food and they held a protest to dramatise this in Trafalgar Square with a similar number of near naked or nearly naked people smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin.

Most of those taking part in the protest were women and a few held large posters with the message:

‘1 BILLION ANIMALS
KILLED
FOR FLESH
EACH YEAR
PETA’

Others held posters ‘CHOOSE LIFE: CHOSE VEGAN’. It was certainly a protest which attracted the interest of tourists and photographers.

I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan and I commented back in 2014:

“Nature isn’t vegetarian, and certainly not vegan, though of course some species are herbivores. But others are carnivorous or omnivores, and I can see no problem in our own species eating meat or fish though I would like to see all of the current cruel practices involved in producing food for us outlawed. Eating foie gras should definitely be made a crime!”

More pictures on My London Diary at PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women

Trafalgar Square

The 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested in Trafalgar Square against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran.

Attacks by gangs encouraged by the regime to enforce strict Islamic rules have left many women scarred and blinded.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women.

‘Anonymous’ Revolution Banner

Waterloo Bridge and Trafalgar Square

‘Anonymous’ protesters had brought a banner to hold up on Waterloo Bridge, with the message REVOLUTION but it was too small to really make an impact even using the longest lens I own and was rather dwarfed by the City backdrop.

Intended to publicise the Nov 5th ‘March Against Government Corruption’ in London it was rather more effective when they brought it to Trafalgar Square where a protest supporting Kobane was taking place.

Revolution Banner Drop

Global Solidarity With Kobane

Trafalgar Square

*Women with Kurdish Workers Party flags*

During the Syrian Revolution the government forces had abandoned Kobane to the Kurish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in July 2012 and it had became a centre of part of the autonomous Kurdish-led region of Rojava in north Syria.

From September 2014 to January 2015 Kobane was under siege by ISIS who managed to occupy much of the city. With the help of US air support and US forcing Turkey to allow Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan to come to join the fight, Kobane was finally freed from ISIS in January 2015.

November 1st was also World Kobane Day, and thousands had come to Trafalgar Square on a Global day of solidarity calling for aid for the Kurdish fighters in the YPG (People’s Defence Units), the women of the YPJ and refugees from Kobane.

*A woman talks with Mark Thomas and Peter Tatchell*

They had also come to support Rojava, which many see as an important democratic development with its constitution which enshrines equality, pluralism, democratic participation and protection of fundamental human rights and liberties.

Many were critical of Turkey which was supporting ISIS and financing its fighting by allowing it to export its oil through Turkey as well as preventing Turkish Kurds from joining in the fight while allowing fighters across its border to join ISIS.

Turkey has long suppressed the Kurds and had tried to suppress the Kurdish language and culture, and the protesters called of the release of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, kidnapped in Kenya in 1999 and held in a Turkish jail since then. Protesters also called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK to be removed from the list of proscribed organisations here and elsewhere.

On My London Diary you can read more about the rally and the speakers and there are many more pictures at Global Solidarity With Kobane.

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Al-Quds Day 2007

Al-Quds Day 2007: On October 7th, the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel I find myself thinking about the long fight by Palestinians since so many were displaced and dispossessed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the many thousands who since then have been killed by Israeli attacks.

And of course for those Israelis who have been killed – though in much smaller numbers – by suicide bombers, by rockets and during the October 2023 incursion or among the hostages, and including those Israelis killed by Israeli forces.

What we have seen since however is not a war, not self-defence but genocide, the bombing and deliberate starvation of the entire population of Gaza. It comes on top of years of siege with restrictions on essential supplies and of the bulldozing of people’s homes as well as the establishment of more and more illegal settlements across occupied Palestine.

And our country remains complicit, still supplying arms to enable the genocide despite government statements to the contrary, still labelling protests calling for peace as ‘hate marches‘ and still making false allegations about antisemitism while failing to deal with the real anti-Semites who plan and carry out attacks such at that we all condemn in Manchester.

Thinking about what to post here for today, I came across the Al Quds Day march which took place in London on Sunday October 7, 2007. It was I think only the second time I’d photographed the annual event and I didn’t write a great deal about it then.

I did mention that this event was begun in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeni declared the last Friday in Ramadan as Al Quds Day, (al-Quds being the Arabic name of Jerusalem), an annual anti-Zionist day of protest. In the UK the march has generally taken place on the following Sunday and is a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people, largely by Muslims though also by anti-Zionist Jews and some of the UK left (many of whom are also Jewish.)

In 2007 a mixture of groups came to demonstrate against the march, largely because of its links with Iran both from its founding and also as it was organised by the Iranian Human Rights Commision (Inminds) which is alleged to receive funding from the Iranian government. Unlike later years I saw no counter-protests by Zionist groups or individuals.

Back then many of the march carried flags of the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah which emerged there after the Israeli invasion in 1982 and has strong ties with Iran. As well as running schools and hospitals and other social services it has also taken part militarily in opposing the various attacks by Israel on Lebanon.

Many Hezbollah leaders have been assassinated by Israel, some in what many describe as terrorist attacks. Until 2019 when its political wing was also proscribed the showing of the Hezbollah flag remained legal though contested in the UK.

As in earlier years the march ended with a rally in Trafalgar Square, though after 2008 the GLA refused to allow them to use the square, citing insurance problems.

Many more photographs of both the marchers and the rally and those who came to protest against the march on My London Diary at Al Qud’s Day March And Protest

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Gallery Protests, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Kurds, Sewol, Sotheby’s & Black Lives Matter – 2015

Gallery Protests, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Kurds, Sewol, Sotheby’s & Black Lives Matter: Saturday 15th August 2015 was probably the day I photographed more events than any other day, covering a total of 8 protests as well as taking a few pictures of London as I travelled around.

It was the 61st day of the PCS strike against privatisation at the National Gallery, and at Tate Modern staff were handing out leaflets calling for staff who had already been outsourced to get the same pay and conditions as directly employed workers.

It was Indian Independence Day, and outside India House I photographed Sikhs calling for the release of political prisoners and Kashmiris calling for freedom.

In Trafalgar Square Iranian Kurds remembered those killed in the fight for self-determination and a monthly silent protest remembered the Korean children killed when the Sewol ferry sank.

In Mayfair, United Voices of the World were protesting in the streets around Sotheby’s, calling for proper sick pay, paid holidays and pensions and demainding the reinstatement of two union members sacked for protesting.

Finally I went to Grosvenor Square for a protest close to the US embassy against the collective and systemic unlawful arrests and killings/attacks of black people in America.

You can read and see more pictures from all of these events – and a few pictures of London on My London Diary. Here I’ll post very short introductions to the events with a picture and a link.

National Gallery 61st day of Strike – Trafalgar Square

*Cindy Udwin, PCS rep at the gallery, sacked for her union activities. The strikers were determined to get her re-instated – and eventually did*

A short rally ended the daily picket on the 61st day of the PCS strike against privatisation at the National Gallery, with speeches and messages of support.

National Gallery 61st day of Strike.

Equalitate at Tate Modern

*Vicky of Equalitate holds up their flyer calling for equal pay and conditions*

Privatised visitor assistants at Tate Modern & Tate Britain get £3 an hour less than directly employed colleagues, are on zero hours contracts and do not get the same employment rights.

Equalitate at Tate Modern

Sikhs call for release of political prisoners – Indian High Commission

On Indian Independence Day, Sikh protesters from Dal Khalsa supported the call by hunger striker Bapu Surat Singh for the release of Sikh political prisoners and for the ‘2020’ campaign for a referendum for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan.

Sikhs call for release of political prisoners

Kashimiris Indian Independence Day call for freedom – Indian High Commission

Kashmiris protested at the Indian High Commission on Independence Day, observed as ‘black day’ in Indian military occupied Kashmir. They want freedom for their country, now a disputed territory with areas occupied by India, Pakistan and China.

Kashimiris Independence Day call for freedom

Kurdish PJAK remembers its martyrs – Trafalgar Square

Iranian Kurds from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) remembered its fighters killed in the fight against Iran and ISIS for self-determination.

Kurdish PJAK remembers its martyrs

16th ‘Stay Put’ Sewol silent protest – Trafalgar Square

The monthly silent protest remembered the victims of the ferry tragedy, mainly school children who obeyed the order to ‘Stay Put’ on the lower decks as the ship went down.

16th ‘Stay Put’ Sewol silent protest

United Voices – Reinstate the Sotheby’s 2 – Mayfair

*A police office tells Sandy Nicoll to get up and off the road with no success*

The United Voices of the World marched noisily around the block at Sotheby’s demanding reinstatement of Barbara and Percy, cleaners sacked for protesting for proper sick pay, paid holidays and pensions. Several police attempts to clear the road and stop them failed.

United Voices – Reinstate the Sotheby’s 2

BlackoutLDN solidarity with Black US victims – Grosvenor Square

*Bro Jeffrey Muhammad of the Nation of Islam speaking about police targeting attacks on the Black community in the UK*

Two young women, Kayza Rose & Denise Fox, had organised a peaceful protest under the statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, close to the US embassy, in solidarity with events across the US against the collective and systemic unlawful arrests and killings/attacks of black people in America.

BlackoutLDN solidarity with Black US victims

London Views

A few pictures I made as I travelled between the day’s protests.

London Views

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Al Quds Day March in London – 2014

Al Quds Day March in London: International Quds Day is an annual event at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which expresses support for Palestinians and oppose Israel and Zionism. In particular it is a protest against the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem – al-Quds in Arabic.

A peaceful Al Quds march has taken place every year in London for over 40 years and the organisers describe it as having a “family atmosphere with demonstrators coming from all walks of life. Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths and none all march in common cause side by side.”

This is largely true, but the march in London attracts counter-protests from Zionists and others (including Iranian freedom, communist and royalist movements and UK right wing fringe groups), which have sometimes led to confrontations and delays and increased security with some marchers becoming mistrustful of photographers.

It has at times been a difficult event for me to cover in the close way I like work. Many of my pictures are made with wide angle or extreme wide angle lenses, 28mm or less focal length down to fisheye, working inside or on the edge of crowds. I want to be close to people, if not within touching distance, seldom more than a couple of metres away to give greater interaction and immediacy.

The Quds Day march and rally in 2025 was on Sunday 23rd March, but chaotic rail services that day prevented me from covering it, though I had photographed a pro-Palestine rally close to the Israeli Embassy the previous day. The organisers pointed out that it was taking place “amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza where Israeli forces have slaughtered 50,000 civilians in Gaza, most of them women and children. At the same time armed colonial settlers and troops are running rampage in the occupied West Bank, invading, looting and attacking Palestinian towns and villages with the international community turning a blind eye or actively complicit in the slaughter.”

Back in 2014, the situation in Gaza was dire. As UNRWA states, “During the 50 days of hostilities lasting from 8 July until 26 August 2014, 2,251 Palestinians were killed; 1,462 of them are believed to be civilians, including 551 children and 299 women. 66 Israeli soldiers and five civilians, including one child, were also killed. Overall, 11,231 Palestinians were injured during the conflict, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children.”

83 schools and 10 health centres were damaged, over 12,600 homes were totally destroyed and there was “a massive displacement crisis in Gaza, with almost 500,000 persons internally displaced at its peak.” The “scale of human loss, destruction, devastation and displacement caused by the 2014 conflict in Gaza – the third within seven years – was catastrophic, unprecedented and unparalleled in Gaza.”

But of course Gaza is now experiencing something far worse – and humanitarian agencies including UNWRA are being prevented by Israel from supporting the people and supplies of food and other necessities are largely being blocked. Inadequate amounts are brought in by the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and people desperate to get it are being shot by the Israeli Defence Forces.

Of course we all know this npw – even though the Israeli government has tried to hide it by preventing international journalists from entering Gaza – and also systematically targeting the Palestinians who are able to report. An article in Modern Times Review on July 15, 2025 quoted the Cost of War project as stating “more journalists have been killed in Gaza in the past 18 months than were killed in the U.S. Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and Afghanistan combined.” Early in July the number killed in Gaza had risen to 226.

On 24th July 2014, the march began close to the BBC and went to a rally outside the US Embassy, then still in Grosvenor Square. It was covered by several foreign media organisations but – as with most UK demonstrations – willfully ignored by the BBC.

Protesters called for a boycott of Israel and an end to the occupation of Palestine as well as an end to the attacks on Gaza.

On My London Diary I give a list of the organisations supporting the march – and there is a rather longer list of those supporting the 2025 march. One of the major organisations in both is the Innovative Minds Human Rights Group (InMinds). Founded in 1997 and alleged to have links to the Iranian Islamic Republic it has held regular protests in London against companies supporting the Israeli military, against the arbitrary detention of Palestinians, the torture and imprisonment of Palestinian children and calling for an end to apartheid in Israel.

In the pictures you will see many flags and posters from Inminds – and also a few images of Ayatollah Khomeini who started the celebration of Al Quds Day in Iran in 1979 as well as the current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

Also standing out in my pictures are the ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Jews who state clearly their belief that Judaism is a religion and not a state, and “Judaism rejects the Zionist state And condemns its ATROCITIES”

One contentious issue in 2014 was over the carrying of flags of the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah. In 2014 the political party, which was part of the government of Lebanon had not been proscribed and it was only illegal to carry it if there was other evidence to show support of the proscribed terrorist group. I was looking for these flags but only found a very few to photograph.

As the march made its way down Regent Street there were shouts against it from an upper floor window and vegetables were thrown down at the marchers who shouted back angrily. The march organisers asked police to investigate and urged to people to march on.

I left the march well before it reached the US Embassy and saw no other protests against the march. You can see more pictures from the march on My London Diary at Al Quds Day march for Jerusalem.

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End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel – 19 July 2025

End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel: Last Saturday, 19th July 2025, the weather forecast for London was dire. Thunderstorms and heavy rain until clearing a little later in the afternoon, with up to several inches of rain leading to some localised flooding. In the event it was a bit under two inches, with small rivers running along the side of some streets.

In this account I intend to write about my personal experiences and working as a photographer on the day rather than my views on the terrible situation in Palestine and the reprehensible actions of the Israeli government and army – and Hamas. I’ve often written about the need for peace and justice, for an end to occupation and destruction and for the release of hostages and prisoners.

Linda and I were determined to go out and join the national demonstration, to show our support for the people of Gaza, to demand our government stop selling arms to Israel and to call on the Israeli government to end its terrible destruction and genocidal attacks and to allow humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, many now starving. A little rain was not going to stop us.

As usual I checked online for our trains, only to find that our services into London were subject to delay and cancellation due to signalling problems. We dropped everything and hurried to get an earlier train than we had intended – and which actually was more punctual than usual – only two or three minutes late into Waterloo.

It was raining fairly heavily as we walked out of the station and by the time we’d crossed the Jubilee bridge to the Embankment where the march was gathering we were already quite wet.

As the forecast was for afternoon temperatures in the low to mid twenties I’d grabbed a lightweight waterproof jacket on my way out, which was a mistake. It did keep the water off to start with but was soon getting soaked through in places. I realised too late that I should have worn my poncho – or a heavier jacket that although too warm would have kept me dry. At least I’d had the sense to put on my truly waterproof walking boots rather than my usual trainers.

We joined the large crowd that was sheltering under the bridge carrying the rail lines into Charing Cross and I started to take photographs. It was dry – so long as you avoided the areas where water was leaking down from above – but rather dark.

I was working with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III (what a crazy mouthful of a name) a camera that came out over 5 years ago. It’s a Micro 43 camera with a sensor only around half the size of full-frame, but that does mean it can be significantly smaller and lighter – something increasingly important to me as I get less able to carry heavy camera bags. And, vitally important today, it is a camera that has good weather protection.

I also had my Fuji X-T30 in my camera bag, with a 10-24 zoom fitted. Had I not rushed out I might have chosen a more suitable body and wide angle for use in wet weather. Neither that camera or lens are weather sealed (the more recent 10-24mm is) and for most of the day they stayed in my bag. I did take them out a couple of times when the rain had eased off, but hardly any of the pictures I took with them were usable.

Under the bridge light was low, but the Olympus has good image stablisation and the main problem was subject movement, as people shouted slogans, jumped up and down, banged drums and more. Being very crowded also meant people were often banging into me as I was working.

I also use small and light lenses – in the case the Olympus 14-150mm F4-5.6 – equivalent to 28-300mm on full frame, going from a decent but not extreme wide-angle to a long telephoto. Its a small, light and incredibly versatile lens, but not one at its best in low light with its rather small aperture.

I started off working with the lens on the P setting, the programme choosing suitable shutter speed and aperture – with the lens wide open and shutter speeds of around 1/15 to 1/25 second. But I soon realised to stop action I would need a faster speed and switched to manual, deliberating underexposing at 1/100th second, f5.0 and at ISO 3200. The RAW images were dark but I knew that I could get Lightroom to make them look fine – if sometimes lacking in shadow detail.

Eventually people began to move out into the rain and march and I went with them, holding my camera under my jacket and only taking it out quickly to take pictures. I looked in my bag for the chamois leather I usually hold to dry and hold in front of the lens filter and it wasn’t there – I’d left it back home in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing when it last rained while I was taking pictures. I had to make do with a handkerchief instead, giving the protective filter a quick wipe before each exposure.

Outside it was a little brighter and I was able to increase the shutter speed to something more sensible, and was using manual settings of 1/160 f5.6 with auto-ISO giving me correct exposure. I was mainly working at the wider focal lengths of the lens and f5.6 gave me enough depth of field.

I hadn’t got out my umbrella, but of course many others were carrying them to keep dry. I find it hard to work with one hand while holding an umbrella in the other. But other people’s umbrellas were a little of a nuisance, with water often pouring from them onto me as I took pictures, adding to the effect of the rain.

So I was getting increasing wet – and soon retreated to the sheltered area under the bridge where different groups were now coming through. Keeping close to the end of the sheltered area I was able to keep working at the same settings, with the ISO now 3200.

London, UK. 19 July 2025. Stephen Kapos and another holocaust survivor on the march.

After a while I went out into the wet again – the rain had eased off slightly, and took more pictures. Then I noticed the banner for the Jewish holocaust survivors and their descendants and went over to greet Stephen Kapos, photograph him and another survivor as they set off on the march.

Shortly after I decided I would move to Westminster Bridge to take pictures of the marchers with the Houses of Parliament in the background, and walked as quickly as I could to there. Crowds of marchers and tourists watching the march slowed my progress somewhat.

The bridge is open to light and I was now using 1/250 second, but still with the Olympus lens at its wide-angle lens there was no need to stop down and I was working at around ISO 640.

I think around half of the march had gone over the bridge before I got there and I stayed taking pictures around halfway across the bridge for around half an hour, only leaving when I could see the end of the march coming on to the bridge. Fortunately the rain had eased off, but I was still getting wet.

I then hurried taking a short cut to get to Waterloo Bridge, taking just a few pictures where hurried past the march again on York Road. I took more photographs as people came onto Waterloo Bridge and then saw that a large group had stopped in the shelter underneath the railyway bridge and were having a spirited protest there – so I went to photograph them. When they marched off I went with them to Waterloo Bridge.

I looked at my watch. I had thought about taking the tube to Westminster and then going to photograph the rally in Whitehall, but decided it was perhaps too late to bother. I’d taken a lot of photographs and was rather wet and also hungry and decided it was time to go home.

I went to Waterloo and got on a train. Eventually, 15 minutes late, it decided to leave, and with a few stoppages at signals got me home around 25 minutes later than it should. Fortunately I’d packed some sandwiches and was able to eat them sitting at Waterloo, though the view wasn’t interesting. I’d edited and filed my pictures by the time Linda arrived home.

More pictures on Alamy and Facebook.

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