These women are protesting the deaths of protestors in Iran.

The irony is that they are standing next to the monument to Edith Cavell, an English nurse who was arrested, tried and executed in 1915.

Cavell was convicted of aiding wounded British and French soldiers to get over the border from Belgium into the Netherlands, which was neutral in the First World War.

Before her execution Cavell wrote:

I am thankful to have had these ten weeks of quiet to get ready. Now I have had them and have been kindly treated here. I expected my sentence and I believe it was just. Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.

The men here were part of the group at Vaisakhi On The Square who read out prayers and played drums and a metal horn called the Ransingha, celebrated today in Trafalgar Square.

Vaisakhi is a Sikh festival celebrated on April 13 or 14, marking the Punjabi New Year and the founding in 1699 of the Sikh community by Guru Gobind Singh.