At least 100,000 demonstrators marched silently through the streets of Tehran tonight in a direct challenge to the authority of Iran’s clerical regime.
Witnesses said that the protesters, both young and old and many accompanied by children, marched through central Tehran Haft-e Tir square towards Vali Asr square in the heart of the city.
The rally was called by the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to protest against the “shameful fraud” that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected by a landslide in last Friday’s election.
Mr Mousavi’s appeal to supporters, issued via his website, flew in the face of a declaration by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, that the former prime minister should pursue his objectives through the electoral system and not on the streets.