The following is an Oregon State alumnus’ unedited account of his tourist visit to Tehran during the recent elections and subsequent period of protest. We are hoping to get updates from him as he continues his travels and witnesses the events in Iran. He has asked to remain anonymous.
Link to a slide show of our alum's Tehran pictures here.
My original intent was not to make this a story about me but rather the people voicing their disbelief. That is, after the highly suspicious election results (there are many analysis how the government results are way off the mark and at worst pure fraud, CS Monitor had a great run down) people were in full disgust – the morning after election day and on the phone my friend started to cry as she heard the results, she wasn’t alone. As I wrote earlier the days leading up to Election Day was full of passion and energy, most prominently among the young. This energy to have one’s voice heard was carried into Friday’s election when over 80% of voters came to cast their ballots.
Hence the riots/protests on Saturday and Sunday with major provocation by police of all kinds — seeing citizens walking the streets like any other day but a minute later seeing them run the opposite direction is emotional; the riot police ride motorcycles, two on a bike with the back one swinging a baton at anyone in their way — being sighted in capturing these moments (or for that matter any gathering) is an immediate arrest, an that’s the easy part. The weekend was followed by an incredibly quite and peaceful march to Azadi tower on Monday — no one knows for sure how many came, but to put the number under a million would be questionable; if you take the government’s number there were 300 people. And it’s antics like this by the government that had the people on the streets and looking for change. All they want is their vote to count, as posters among the crowds read: ‘we want an election, not a selection.’ The crowds were full of people telling their stories about the disconnect between the population and official rhetoric, they are fed up, they want an international dialogue with the west, they want more freedom — some were upset how now Iranian’s are perceived as terrorist but as one put it, it is the government that are ‘terrorists’ not the people. It is this message that people were expressing when they told me ‘the world must see this’ …they must see that people of all kinds were going against government bans and limits in order to express a democratic right, here it’s called a fight not a right.
From Youtube to Twitter and BBC News to Oregonlive sites are blocked, election night SMS was banned, and their crack down continued further by incredible bounds by completely blocking all mobile communication during most hours of the day and severely limiting access the others. This lack of communication unfortunately separated me from my friends but I had the privileged of the Iranian hospitality as strangers not only kept my bag/belongings safe while I walked the streets but afterwards took me in for a meal and a safe place to sleep.
These are the Iranians I’ve met, these are their stories, and this is what the world hardly ever gets to see. Tehran is a modern metropolis, students can be plucked straight from here and placed into any American city and they’d wouldn’t be out of beat for a second, and their numbers are large — yet their voice wasn’t counted on Friday.
What will happen next, maybe nothing, but the next movement won’t be so kind.
-A tourist that was given an opportunity to share a slice of the atmosphere here.
