As I watched the Iranian presidential elections unfold, I immediately felt a compulsion to write. I blogged and I tweeted. I even wrote summaries of the relevant history for my friends in countless online conversations.
I held a sign that said, “Freedom in Iran.” It wasn’t my sign. Some old lady handed it to me.
But now, after reading a few hundred articles, viewing YouTube videos and listening to the desperate cries of Iranians the world over, the writing comes slow.
The situation in Iran is roughly as such: A presidential election occurred amid million-person-strong rallies for reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Tehran and other cities. The result of this election was announced within hours ““ a 2 to 1 victory for embattled incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
It was a result that shocked the world, prompting Iran scholar Reza Aslan to describe the situation as “bald-faced election fraud” in one of his articles for TheDailyBeast.com ““ one of the best sources for information from Iran and analysis from scholars all over the world.
Since then, protestors have rallied all around Iran. Friday’s national prayer sermon featured the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, condemning the protestors and demanding they stop.
Saturday brought more protests and more despicable acts on the part of the Basij (Iran’s plainclothes militia of thugs). Beeta Baghoolizadeh, a fourth-year international development studies and Iranian studies student heavily involved in the Iranian community, centers in on the terror Iranians are facing at the hands of their own government.
“Bruins should care,” she said. “We are privileged to know that if we go back to our dorms at night, no SWAT team is going to rush Dogwood and wake us up from our sleep with a baton.”
Her statement is not hyperbolic; Iranians have been sprayed with water, tear gas and bullets as they try to peacefully protest a fraudulent election. Reports of doors being marked by the Basij for later attacks are tragic but not surprising.
As Aslan notes, “There is a general fear among groups that Iran is beginning to resemble Egypt or Pakistan, countries in which the military controls the apparatus of government.”
It is this moment, the point at which Iranians are attempting to lay a claim to agency and seize an opportunity for reform that requires support. If we Americans value democracy and cherish freedom, then this is our opportunity, too ““ we must stand with peace.
This week has simultaneously offered the world inspiration, heartbreak, hope and despair. Those watching have been inspired by the seemingly endless courage Iranians younger than myself and older than my father have displayed in the face of strikingly increased tyranny. We have been stricken to grief by the government’s assault on peaceful protestors. We have been hopeful for a free Iran, and we have despaired when we consider the forces with which the protestors in Iran must reckon.
But it is not enough to feel. Sentiment is a powerful tool only if it is the first step. The world must stand united with the people of Iran on just that level ““ the people level.
This is not a situation in which any foreign government has a say; as President Barack Obama has rightly noted, any Western involvement will ultimately be to the grave detriment of the Iranian reformist movement.
Anyone who disputes this point is ignorant of history (Paul Wolfowitz included). As Richard Wolffe of The Daily Beast writes, “The easiest way to marginalize and even demonize the reform movement is for the United States to align itself with the opposition.”
Instead, extend messages of individual and community support through the same media Iranians are using to subvert their oppressors: Facebook notes, Twitter messages, green flags. I’m told support rallies such as the ones occurring daily in Southern California are a great source of strength for those risking their lives in Iran.
As I walked around Saturday’s morning rally at the federal building on Wilshire, I felt pride and shame.
I was proud that the Iranian people in America were lending their voices to their brothers back in Iran. But I couldn’t help but wonder how many of us stayed silent with Rwanda, how few us of have spoken out for Darfur.
It is thus with the awakened voice of a humbled child of conflict that I ask the world to support all those who fight against tyranny, forget none of justice’s children who have died for peace, and stand with equity in the face of oppression.
E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.