About 100 people gathered on the lawn near the Los Gatos Library on Saturday to recognize the deaths of protesters in Iran and call on the US to support the country’s revolution.
Protests erupted across Iran in December and January, exacerbated by the country’s inflation-driven impoverishment crisis. Many of the protesters want to change the regime. Iran is an Islamic republic with an Islamic-based, theocratic constitution following the 1979 revolution. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused the Iranian government under Ali Khamenei of human rights abuses including discrimination against women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ people; systematic enforced disappearances and killings; and impunity for government officials. The protests were met with Khamenei’s violent decisions.
On January 8, internet and all communications were cut off, and thousands of people were killed as the government tried to quell the protests. The government has reported only 3,000 dead, but human rights groups estimate the number to be higher. Doctors inside and outside of Iran estimate that 30,000 people and more have died, their bodies disappeared from overcrowded cemeteries and families are forced to pay high prices for the bodies of their loved ones.
The protest was hosted by Iran’s San Jose, said organizer Nahal Curvelo. The group hosted a DJ to play Persian songs, and attendees raised the tricolor Iranian flags with the Lion and Sun symbol, the country’s flag before the 1979 revolution. They have called the killings in Iran the “genocide of the Iranian people,” with some people comparing Khamenei to Adolf Hitler. Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho! The Islamic State must go!”
Editor Rashel Alexin said he lost contact with his cousins in Iran for four or five days after communications were cut off in the country. He said he is afraid that their lives are in danger because they are Christians.
“We tried to contact (the church) to find out what their situation is, but they couldn’t even give us any information, so it’s very painful and very hurtful. But at the same time, we are angry with the state and we want something to be done,” said Alexin.
Alexin said he confirmed that his cousin was safe last week. As an Assyrian Christian, he criticized the Iranian government. She recalled that before she and her family moved to Germany and later to the United States, she had to wear a headscarf and was unable to read the Bible as a kindergartener in a Catholic school.
“It’s not just about being able to wear whatever you want,” Alexin said. “It’s about everything: about the economy, about freedom of speech, freedom of rights and being able to speak.”
The group handed over leaflets to the Iran Novin Party, a conservative political party founded in 2023. The party sees itself as “the offspring of Iran’s constitutional revolution” and supports the return of Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah.
They call for a free Iran that will be defined by the laws of the land and democracy; investment in infrastructure, health and technology; and economic independence.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution ended Pahlavi rule. The Pahlavis are known for modernizing and centralizing Iran based on Western models of industrialization, according to a Stanford University article. The royal government was also known as a dictatorship by banning political parties, suppressing rebellion and political opposition, controlling the media and having its own secret police force called SAVAK. Despite this, Iranians still enjoyed many freedoms, including freedom of religion, business and travel and study abroad. The 1979 revolution was driven by economic turmoil, just like the current protests. When Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the shah, he took control of the government and suppressed dissent with executions, repealing civil laws and implementing new dress codes to support an Islamic state.
“I lived in Australia and (America) too,” said editor Bita Hamidi. “I appreciate the freedom and liberty offered by both countries, but I would like to see the same freedom, a basic human right, in our country, Iran.”
Deputy Mayor Maria Ristow spoke at the protest, acknowledging the impact of Iranians in the US. She also acknowledged the resilience of Iranian women, noting the oppressive laws against them. He paid tribute to the women and men killed in Iran last month and called on California and the national government to support regime change in the country.
“The unjust, brutal, dictatorial government of the beautiful country of Iran is clinging to power in the face of protests from its citizens, pleading, pleading, demanding freedoms: freedom of speech, religion, gender equality, access to education – freedoms that shape the bright future of a country like Iran with a long, rich history,” Ristow said.
