Mick Hartley

Tonight at King's College, I felt as if I were under Islamic regime occupation again.

At an event where I, as a Muslim Iranian, voiced Iranians' will for regime change, a pro-Palestinian mob shut it down when I mentioned Iran Lion & Sun flag.

Unacceptable in the UK academica. https://t.co/qBJlz1Qw6A pic.twitter.com/5TeFYiwdiN

— Faezeh Alavi (@SFaeze_Alavi) February 27, 2025

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A group of pro-Palestine students interrupted a talk hosted by the King’s Geopolitics Forum (KGF) at King’s College London (KCL) yesterday in protest of an Iranian speaker who, they claim, “promoted Zionist behaviour”.

The speaker, Iranian activist Faezeh Alavi, wrote on X before the event that a conversation about “Iran’s situation, people’s views on Israel & their vision for the region’s future” represented “an opportunity to reverse the course of history in Iran & the Middle East”.

Scheduled to start at 6 pm at the Nash Lecture Theatre, the talk with the title “From Conflict to Connection: Israelis and Iranians in Dialogue” was attended by some 40 people. Among them, there were about a dozen pro-Palestine protesters.

Twenty-five minutes into the event, one heckler stood up to question Alavi: “There has been a genocide happening for 15 months. How are you not going to talk about that?”

To question? She was heckling like a deranged idiot, stopping Alavi from speaking. She had no interest – as ever with the pro-Palestine crowd – in debate. Just shouting and chanting.

Security was called to the venue and Alavi exited the room….

After Alavi left, the pro-Palestine protestors started shouting “Shame!” and “Free Palestine,” causing all attendees to leave the venue mid-event….

Alavi has also voiced her support for Israel on X in the past.

She told Roar:

“I hope what happened at the event makes one thing clear: there are extremists who are silencing the voices of Muslims and do not want to see a prosperous Middle East. They once came after the Iranian nation in 1979, and now they are coming after Israel.”

The topics to be discussed at the event included the difficulty of living within the Islamic Republic of Iran, the treatment of women there, the line between safety and freedom of expression, and Iranians’ view of Israel.

The Pahlavi era flag with a Lion and Sun emblem, mentioned by Alavi, was replaced by an Islamic emblem with the Takbir written across the flag after the Revolution of 1979.

In their statement, KGF wrote: “In an event that is supposed to foster unity and conversation between two opposing sides – Israel and Iran – the instigators have shown their true colours through an aggressive form of silencing.”

Alavi recognised a bigger threat. She said: “Unfortunately, this destructive ideology has already reached the UK. I am frequently attacked by these people even here. This should alert the West to how dangerous it could become.”

How dangerous it already has become. The flag reference makes it clear: this was an Islamist silencing of debate. Which worked. In a UK university.