In the 1980s the Iranian government named the Street in Tehran in which the British Embassy is situated after the Irish Martyr Bobby Sands, who died whilst on hunger strike demanding that he and his comrades be recognised as political prisoners, after having been imprisoned for fighting for the British state to withdraw from the whole of Ireland.

It has been reported in the media that the UK government is now, in these difficult days, attempting to put pressure of the Iranian government to change the name of Bobby Sands Street, as it has caused offence to its diplomats who are stationed at its embassy in Tehran. A petition has been launched on the net by the Bobby Sands Trust in opposition to any name change. It can be found at PetitionOnline.

Please consider signing it and circulating it.

Best Regards

Mick Hall

 The full text reads:

To:  His Excellency Hojjatoleslam Sayed Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran 

BOBBY SANDS STREET, Teheran, Iran. 

THE name Bobby Sands is known throughout the world, symbolising the heroism of an Irish prisoner and his comrades who died on hunger strike in their unequal fight against their British jailors. Over the course of the past two years British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has been lobbying Iran’s Foreign Minister to change the name of Bobby Sands Street, where the British Embassy is situated, in the capital Teheran. (It was formerly known as Winston Churchill Street.) 

Bobby Sands was an Irish patriot and martyr and an elected representative of the Irish People. 

The British government has no right to be in Ireland, just as it has no right to be interfering in the affairs of any other nation. 

We appeal to the Iranian government and its people not to bow to requests from the British government to rename Bobby Sands Street.