The display of silent children this morning in front of the United Nations building, before Ahmadinejad’s speech. The picture shows 140 figures of blindfolded children holding a black balloon symbolizing the number of minors executed in Iran.

The waves of protest against the address to the United Nations by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran are broadening. The loud cry of hundreds of Jewish protesters, who stood Monday in front of the United Nations building, was replaced yesterday by the profound silence of those who cannot cry out—the youths in Iran who have been condemned to death.
According to data provided by Amnesty International, 140 juveniles have been executed in Iran since 1990—26 of them since Ahmadinejad came to power—with a further 71 on death row. According to the protest organizers, “Stop Child Executions,” these executions violate international law, which establishes prison as the maximum sentence for minors. “I look out at the streets of New York and see Christians, Buddhists, and Baha’is who all openly display their faith; I see women with heads uncovered and people protesting government policies. In Iran, they would already have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed.” The organization’s founder, Iranian expatriate and former Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam, said, “Change in Iran will not come through war and bombs; that’s exactly what Ahmadinejad wants. Change will only come from a revolt by the Iranian people, backed by the West, which needs to cry out today on behalf of these children and against Iran’s violation of human rights.”
During the past several years, those executed in Iran include not only minors, but also women and men accused of homosexual acts, opposition to the Revolution, corruption of the Earth, and standing in the way of God.