An Iranian academic living in Belfast has said her people "don't want to have a dictatorship" and would like to have their "own choices" regarding new leadership of their country.
Her comments were made at an International Women's Day rally in Belfast, where a large crowd gathered.
Academic and activist Azadeh Sobout, who has lived in Northern Ireland for 12 years, spoke about what was happening in her country.
She said she was opposed to the current regime but was also against the bombardment of her country and the potential return of the monarchy.
She said the attacks of the past week had followed the regime crackdown on opponents in which thousands had been killed.
Watch: Iran being sold 'dictatorship or bombardment' - academic
"And in midst of all this, we now also have to bear constant bombardment by genocidal forces and countries who pretend that they want to liberate us.
"But what they are actually doing is they are destroying the remaining infrastructure of our societal and cultural spaces," she said.
Ms Sobout said she thinks the people of Iran should have the right of self-determination and that other countries in the region have been "constantly undermined".
"We are being sold this binary idea that we have to either choose between dictatorship or bombardment, between destruction or submission.
"We would not take on this narrative," she said.
Ms Sobout added: "We would reject this choice. "This is completely colonial. It takes away our agency as political people who can have an imagination for our own future.
"We don't want to have a dictatorship. We don't want to be slave of Imperial forces.
"So we would like to have our own choices."
Also among the speakers was former Irish president Mary Robinson.
Ms Robinson said there were a wide range of issues where women needed to challenge inequality.
She said collaborative work around the climate and nature crises was building leadership capacity.
On Iran she said the war was illegal and a breach of international law.
"Women and the civil society in Iran have been suffering over the years and suffering very badly, especially recently.
"But that does not justify an aggressive war, and the war is causing even more misery."
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