In Los Angeles, 5,000 Iranians Rally in Support of Political Prisoners and Against “Rule of the Mullahs”

By Pat and Samir Twair

They came and they kept on coming and coming and coming.

An enormous expanse of lawn surrounds the Westwood Federal Building in Los Angeles, but on July 15, it was hidden by a sea of thousands of chanting, flag-waving, placard-carrying Iranians demanding the end of the Islamic Republic of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It was the biggest Iranian demonstration in Westwood since the 1979 rallies when pro- and anti-shah demonstrators sometimes came to blows at the heavily traveled intersection of Westwood and Veteran Boulevards.

The emotions of the estimated crowd of more than 5,000 Iranians were in sync this time: “No more mullahs,” they shouted, “free our students.”

The crowd was responding to the unrest—the worst since the 1979 revolution in Iran—that erupted July 8 in Tehran after government forces injured and arrested students demanding reforms from stringent Islamic rule which subsequently were followed by riots in several Iranian cities.

News of massive arrests and the deaths of five students spurred a coalition of Iranian-American organizations to call for the rally.

“Enough is enough,” stated a voice over the sound system. “It was students who started the revolution 20 years ago and it is students who are revolting against repression today.”

As the voice chanted slogans, the crowd repeated them:

“Long live Iran.

“We want freedom for Iran.

“United Nations, pay more attention.

“We want justice.

“Stop killing our students.

“We want human rights in Iran.

“Stop fascism in Iran.

“Long Live Democracy.”

Cars driving past the milling crowds honked their approval of banners and signs that delivered such messages as “Equal Rights for Women in Iran” or “We Fight for the Separation of State and Religion” and “Politics and Religion Don’t Mix.”

A grizzled elderly man held high a sign bearing the photograph of a young man and the statement: “Assassinated by Islamic regime death squad: Capt. Shahriar Shafigh. Paris 1981.”

In a gesture of solidarity with the mothers of arrested students in Iran, two Muslim mothers, Suzy Ashar and Dokhi Abdi, had been fasting on the grounds of the federal building since July 13.

“We drank water and tea, and that was it,” stated Yashar. “We slept here at night and we sat on the grass during the day.” Their fast was to end at 8 p.m. that evening.

Abdi, who was visibly sunburned from exposure to the elements during three days of living on the federal building grounds, spoke up. “We are demanding freedom for political prisoners. There is no law in Iran. They won’t even release the bodies of the people they’ve murdered for proper burial.

“The ayatollahs are not following real Islam,” interjected Yashar, who said she fled Iran in 1979. “They make little girls of 3 wear the chador, they force girls of 9 to marry. They stone women and men to death.”

“We don’t want mullahs, we want separation between mosque and state,” Abdi concluded.

Businessman Jimmy Sedghi, who is president of the Iranian American Political Action Committee, stated: “Over the past 20 years, this regime has done nothing but commit torture, murder and the devastation of a nation. Last week, students started an uprising and five were killed trying to show their solidarity in wanting democracy.”

More placards caught our eyes: “While There is a Soul in Prison, I am not Free” and “Today Patriots Mourn, Traitors Celebrate.”

As news helicopters hovered overhead, the crowd chanted “No More Islamic Republic.”

When the Washington Report asked if order could be restored if President Mohammad Khatami were allowed to carry out his reform agenda, Sedghi replied: “He’s still a mullah and he doesn’t have power. They are trying to hold on to the reins of power. If one goes, they will all go.”

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance writers based in Los Angeles.