French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday met a delegation of prominent exiled Iranian rights activists, later hailing the women-led protest movement in the country as a “revolution.”

The delegation included Roya Piraei, whose mother Minoo Majidi was killed by security forces at the start of the protest crackdown, US-based activist Masih Alinejad, Shima Babaei, who has campaigned for justice for her father who has disappeared in Iran, and Ladan Boroumand, the co-founder of a Washington-based rights group.

The event was a unique and important recognition of Iran's civil society not just in exile but also in support of Iranians back home.

However that is not enough in the face of the obstacles facing Iranians in their struggle for freedom. 

One way of turning this french endorsment into a more rubust

support is to rally a huge number of demonstrators as in Berlin.

One of the difficulties in doing so is that Iranians in France are very much divided along political lines and rarely join protests.

France has an Iranian community amounting to approximately 62 000 according to website FarsiNet.

A major demonstration in Paris could be a strong signal towards the French government and medias to take our community seriously.

The ball is in our court and we should live up to that expectation.