“Down With Khameni! Up With Rajavi! Free Iran!”

Those were just some of the chants heard at the reflecting pool outside the U.S. Capitol Saturday as thousands of Iranian expatriates rallied to call for the downfall of the Ayatollah Khamenei and his near-half century old dictatorship in their homeland.

Rajavi is Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the largest resistance group of the largest Iranian resistance group known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In remarks broadcast to the marchers from her headquarters in Paris, Rajavi noted it was also International Women’s Day, and declared that “women are the force for change” and the overthrow of the theocratic regime “will be achieved through women’s leadership.”

Read more at Newsmax© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.