Albemarle woman returns from Iran, protests

CHARLOTTESVILLE — As Shahnaz Ghassemi walked amid the protesters in Tehran, the Albemarle County resident passed a woman holding up a poem, shielding her face, fingers painted with green nail polish curled around the paper’s edges.

The poem was a response to incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said those who did not vote for him in the recent elections were twigs and dirt. Ghassemi translated it as:

“You are the twigs, you are lower than dust. I am the excitement, I am the light and I am the one who carries the burden of love. You are the force of oppression and you are blind, you are a halo without light. I am an unafraid fighter and I am the owner of this land.”

Like the concealed woman, during her three-week stay in Iran Ghassemi was one of thousands who participated in rallies contesting the presidential election, of which the conservative Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. Her photos and videos from the trip show campaign posters and men and women marching silently, the only audible noises coming from footsteps and car horns blaring in the background.

Ghassemi, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Iran in 1978, and her family voted for lead opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi on June 12. On June 16, Ghassemi was at the rally where seven people were shot. Though she did not see anyone get killed, “from [others’] faces you could tell that something horrible had happened,” she said in an interview.

She left Iran on June 18. Though her family is from Tehran, she spent much of her trip traveling to different cities.

“I felt it was such a great time to be there,” Ghassemi said.

Mousavi’s supporters, who have adorned themselves in green and say there was voting fraud so the election should be annulled, have been protesting in Tehran for nearly two weeks. The demonstrations are the largest the country has seen since the 1979 revolution, when Iran’s shah was overthrown.

“It was really a proud moment,” Ghassemi said of the protests. She has kept the small green tie that she had been wrapping around the strap of her purse while in Iran.

“It was very energetic,” she said.

The day after the election, Ghassemi was in Isfahan, a city south of Tehran, and was in disbelief that Ahmadinejad had been declared the winner in a landslide.

“We were all shocked,” she said.

Ruhi Ramazani, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and an expert on Iran and Iranian foreign policy in the U.S., said the protest movement goes beyond the allegations of a fraudulent election. There have been other uprisings in Iran — such as in 1999 and 2003, which were started by university students — but these events, he said, are different.

“It is a popular demand for freedom and women are in the vanguard of the freedom movement,” Ramazani said, adding, “No one can predict the outcome of this uprising.”

Though voting irregularities are being reviewed by the country’s Guardian Council, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cut off any compromise last week by saying the election was valid and that demonstrators would be greeted with violence if the protests continued.

Ramazani and U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, said that President Barack Obama’s approach to the Iranian protests have been wise. Though Obama has condemned the crackdown on demonstrators, he has not taken sides, which Perriello said has made it so the Iranian government could not distract its people by shifting attention to the U.S.

“In doing so, freedom wins, and the courageous voices for victory have been allowed the space to emerge,” Perriello said.

Others have criticized Obama for not taking a stronger stand in support of the protesters.

On Wednesday, violence continued in the capital as security forces attempted to prevent protesters from assembling, using tear gas and clubs. Before Khamenei’s sermon last week, Ghassemi said the situation in Iran “wasn’t as violent.”

Khamenei has since said that the voices of opposition should be tolerated but that authorities would not yield to calls for a new election.

At least 17 demonstrators have been killed since the rallies started, according to Iranian state media. Government officials also say that 645 people have been arrested since June 13, but the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran believes that hundreds more could have been detained across the country.

Ghassemi described Mousavi’s supporters’ feelings as going through phases — they were very positive before the voting, but then felt used and cheated after the results were announced.

Ghassemi said she saw residents shout “God is great!” from rooftops and saw trashcans that had been set on fire, but the demonstrations were largely peaceful because supporters marched silently through town, holding signs, banners and pictures.

She said she only wishes she could have stayed in her home country longer.

“Something new has started. Who knows where it will go,” Ghassemi said. “Anything is possible now.”

Rachana Dixit is a staff writer for the Daily Progress in Charlottesville.