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About 100 people gathered outside the Colonial Building in St. John\u2019s on Saturday for an anti-war rally. They were met with some counter-protesters, highlighting different views on the Iran war. <\/p>\n
The rally \u2014 organized by Palestine Action YYT and other social justice groups \u2014 was joined by members of the Iranian community, including Elham Zamani.<\/p>\n
She said other rallies in St. John\u2019s haven\u2019t represented the viewpoints of all Iranians.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here to raise the voices of millions of Iranians who believe that intervention \u2014 military intervention \u2014 doesn’t bring any democracy for them,\u201d said Zamani.<\/p>\n
WATCH | This Iranian woman shares her perspective on the Iran War:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774184292_84_default.jpg\")
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Anti-war protest highlights different perspectives on Iran war<\/p>\n
In downtown St. John’s, anti-war protesters rallied against foreign military intervention in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon \u2014 and the world. One Iranian organizer said the demonstration displayed the complexity in Iranian viewpoints about the current conflict \u2014 all wanting peace, but by different means. The CBC\u2019s Julia Israel reports.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, members of the Iranian community in St. John’s began rallying outside city hall to show their solidarity with protests in Iran. They also cheered military attacks by the United States and Israel<\/a>, which they hoped would bring an end to the regime.<\/p>\n Zamani said those rallies didn’t represent the views of all Iranians.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish that this war ends as soon as possible, and after that Iranians can decide [for] themselves\u2026about their futures, about their governments,” she said. <\/p>\n Counter-protesters demonstrate near rally\u00a0<\/p>\n While Zamani spoke to the crowd, counter-protesters shouted nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n One counter-protester said she felt the anti-war rally supported the Islamic republic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Islamic regime is the actual enemy of my country. They are killing my people,\u201d said Azadeh Hadad.<\/p>\n Hadad lived in Iran for 32 years. She said the U.S. and Israel\u2019s military intervention is helping Iranians.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is really unfortunate, but it is the way for this regime\u2026 to be wiped out, so actual people can come to the street freely and say what they want,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘War cannot drive out war’<\/p>\n Sobia Shaikh is co-chair of the Anti-Racism Coalition of N.L. She said she attended the rally to speak out against war, and noted there were similarities between the two groups at Saturday’s gathering.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re fed up and scared of the repression that’s happening inside of Iran, and I think we’re also concerned about that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But Shaikh said she doesn\u2019t agree with military intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that war is never the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Canadian veteran Mark Nichols said he came to the rally to speak against all acts of war.<\/p>\n He said he doesn\u2019t think military action will create positive change in Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cWar cannot drive out war. Only peace can do that,” he said. <\/p>\n Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-553243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774184293_275_default.jpg\")
Azadeh Hadad counter-protests along with about five other people. (Abby Cole\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774184293_330_default.jpg\")
Sobia Shaikh, co-chair of the Anti-Racism Coalition of N.L., and Canadian veteran Mark Nichols both attended the anti-war rally to speak against U.S. and Israel military action in the Middle East. (Abby Cole\/CBC)<\/p>\n