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Over a hundred of Persian-speakers gathered in front of the Afghan Embassy in London on Friday in protest at the Afghan Culture Ministry's decision to reprimand a local journalist for using Persian words in his reporting. The rally was organized by the Social Organization of Afghanistan and Asia in London.

Earlier this week the Afghan Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Karim Khurram confirmed that the journalist's salary was cut for several days as he had used Persian equivalents of Pashto words for "university", "faculty" and "students". Baseer Babai, the reprimanded journalist, believes that he has all rights to use his native language on TV.

Facing the building of the Embassy in cold weather, protesters chanted "Down with Khurram!", "Sack the anti-culture minister of culture!", "We will defend Rumi's language with our blood!", "Stop Perso-phobia!" and "Stop fascism!"

Nurolhaq Nasimi, the head of the Social Organization of Afghanistan and Asia in London read out the manifest of the rally where he demanded Khurram's immediate sacking and a guarantee of equality for all existing languages in Afghanistan.

He accused Karzai's administration of aggression against the Persian language and of ethnical purge in the government aimed at shaping a monoethnic reign. By appointing unprofessional people to high-ranking positions, Kabul is increasing people's antipathy towards the government, he added.

Stating his accusation Nasimi gave a few examples of 'unfortunate appointments' to the posts of the chief prosecutor, the minister of culture, the finance minister and province governors. The government is heading towards 'a society dominated by one tribe', said Nasimi.

The Embassy officials were peeking out from behind the curtains at times before a couple of protesters knocked their door in order to hand in the rally's resolution. An Embassy official refused to receive the paper. Instead, he asked the protesters to book an appointment with the Embassy to discuss the issue together later.

The peaceful rally went on for two and a half hours.