Iranians holding placards in support of nuclear programme during a rally to mark the 27th anniversary of Islamic revolution in Tehran yesterday.

TEHRAN: Huge crowds of Iranians put on a massive show of support for the country’s hardline Islamic regime yesterday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution.

Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets leading to Tehran’s landmark Azadi (Freedom) Square to press on nuclear demands amid international pressure on the clerical regime to give up its atomic ambitions.

“I have come to defend my country’s rights to freedom and independence,” said Mahshid Shahsavari, 48-year-old state employee who has for the first time participated in the annual celebration of the ouster of the US-backed shah 27 years ago.

Many showed up with their teenage children, “so that they learn about the principles of the revolution”, said 54-year-old housewife Mansureh Sheikh, blanketed in a black chador, the Islamic head-to-toe cover. As mid-ranking cleric Mohammad Ali Khosravi put it, these principles are national identity, independence and religion — which “need work to be maintained as they are so fragile”.

The usual festive mood of the annual rally was slightly darker this year as it coincided with Ashura. The marchers waved banners with verses of the Holy Quran while shouting slogans such as “Nuclear energy is our inalienable right” and the ever-present mantra of “death to America”.

Among the traditional supporters of the regime and government employees, there are also many who do not sport the trademark beard and modest clothes, but have joined “to defend the national interests of the country”. Dressed in jeans with designer sunglasses perched on his head, 25-year-old Daniel Fajour said “the revolution is done and over with but the United States is still seeking to oppress other countries and disregard our rights”.

Maysam Bazargan, 20, the son of a diplomat, who has just come back from Switzerland and joined the rally for the first time, said “if they put a huge pressure on Iran people will unite and resist them”. Iran is under international pressure over its controversial nuclear programme. The US has threatened Iran with sanctions if Tehran does not halt its sensitive fuel work. For Fajour, a young IT engineer and computer parts dealer, the sanctions mean “a blow to the business but the country has to stand firm for its rights and master the nuclear technology”.