Iran’s Uprising: Global Citizen Activism and Iranian-Montrealers’ Hunger-Strike

By Afsaneh Hojabri, July 29, 2009
Photographs by: Afsaneh Hojabri, Shahrzad Arshadi, Yasaman Ameri

Like most Iranians living in exile, for the past 40 days I have been watching the news of the people’s uprising in Iran with such intensity and emotional involvement, at such high speed and large volume I could claim to have survived at least 40 nervous breakdowns! Like many other Iranians since the disputed presidential election of June 12th, I have been living in front of my computer and television while taking my hopes and fears with me to sleep. I momentarily emerged from the encapsulating wave of news only during the two-day hunger strike I attended with 19 of my friends on July 24th & 25th at Place Du Canada to silently scream the crimes that the Iranian government is committing against its own people, and to ask my fellow Montrealers to “Stand With Us”.

Starting on June 12th, every Iranian I know abruptly turned their attentions to the news of home far away. Even those of us who did not invest in the idea of a reformist government within an Islamic Republic, those who did not ride on the “green-wave” of Iran’s pre-election euphoria, hope and celebration and those who did not even think about Iran much, were suddenly glued to the internet, news stations and telephones. We all stopped in shock to hear and read about a massive election fraud – a coup d’état backed by the most reactionary faction of the Islamic regime in support of its hardliner Ahmadinejad, against the “defeated” reformist candidate Mousavi. We watched millions of angry Iranian protestors immediately filling the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities shouting “where is my vote?” and “Death to dictator”. And we watched all foreign journalists being kicked out of the country while over forty Iranian journalists, in addition to tens of human rights activists, and hundreds of peaceful demonstrators being imprisoned only within a week.

Since last month’s Iranian Presidential Election, we have not stopped watching Iran. We have followed the news not only through social networking, the “twitter revolution” and the citizen journalists who risk their very lives in order to document atrocities committed by the government, but also through credible sources. Amnesty International for instance, compiled a partial list of 700 dead and missing from Tehran alone and warned the extent of the arrests, torture-induced “confessions” and crackdowns to be far greater than generally assumed in the West.

Over the past month we have watched the heartbreaking videos of the plain-clothes basiji militia and security forces brutally beating beautiful young women and men in broad daylight, shooting into the crowd, and destroying peoples’ properties. We have seen images of women with bloody clothes, and bruised swollen faces, men with tortured bodies; we have watched heart wrenching torture-induced “confessions” broadcast on the state-controlled Iranian television for local misuse; and we have even seen a young woman called Neda dying quietly right in front of the camera on a Tehran street.

We have also watched heart warming videos of a people whose courage, dignity and resilience has cracked one of the world’s most savage regimes and shaken the entire world. We have seen videos of millions of people- young and old, rich and poor, men and women - marching the streets in a boiling silence; demonstrators chanting “Police! Police! Support us! Support us!” while passing by the baton-whirling security guards; and in the horrifying moments just prior to an imminent attack by the basiji, we have watched the protestors chanting and crying loud to each other “Don’t be afraid; don’t be afraid; we are all together!” At the end of the day in darkness, when streets are invaded by violence against people, we have seen and heard defiant, hunting chants of “Alah-o-Akbar” (God is great) coming from rooftops across the country.

The world and the symbolic green
Watching Iran we all have, indeed; but watching her is not ALL the exiled Iranians and millions of freedom lovers around the world have been doing. Many believe the wave of global citizen activism in support of pro-democracy movement in Iran has been unprecedented. The world has gone green it seems, as its artists, singers, Nobel Prize winners, activists and ordinary citizens stand in solidarity with Iranian freedom fighters, marching, signing petitions and creating “inspired art”. Below, I have included a small selection of post-election art which has been widely used recently within social media networking (both inside and outside Iran) mostly as a means of empowerment, rather than news-exchange or documentation.

To be noted here is that green was initially the colour of Mousavi’s campaign. However, two months into the uprising, green has gone way beyond Mousavi to represent the people’s movement - a movement which is in turn, is no longer about the rigged election, but rather about challenging the very foundation of a ruthless theocracy called the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the same sense, the creative use of green (some of which is shown in the video-clips below) has become the symbol of solidarity not only with the people of Iran, but also among some three million members of the Iranian Diaspora. Green is now owned by the people who use it and it links the chain of citizen activism in support of Iran’s movement across the globe.

1. “The World unites to Support democracy in Iran: 15-19 June 2009” Early rallies and protests around the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UnXP89jlcc

2. “Iran After Election 2009”, audio slide show created by three Iranian-Montrealers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coO1R7rpsr0

3. "The Beautiful people of Montreal united in soul and song, 21 June". One day after the tragic murder of Neda was captured in a hand camera, the first rally held in Montreal in protest against violence in Iran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGQKpME4lmA

4. “Voice of a young woman from rooftop of Iran” link to a video which is perhaps one of the most touching pieces of footage coming out of Iran’s uprising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUZuv6_bus

5. 26 June, folk singer and activist Joan Baez sings in support of Iranian protesters - some lyrics in Farsi http://bit.ly/x1pUo http://ff.im/4teSN

6. Jon Bon Jovi, Ricchie Sambora and Andy Madadian musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran "stand by me", 28 June
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Don_Was/Stand_By_Me/StandByMewithIntro_2168...

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsSt0i5vTE A beautiful video-clip and lyrics by the Iranian-American Band, by HYPERNOVA band, called “Freedom, Glory, Be our Name” in the honour of Iranian freedom fighters, 02 July http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykyxikVRvZg

8. U2 GOES GREEN, 03 July, dedicates "Sunday, bloody Sunday to Iran" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR8d1qM-GqE

Two of the most outstanding world-wide initiatives in support of Iranian people and in condemnation of violence and crackdown in Iran have been the Green Scroll Campaign and the Global day of Action for Iran. In a time span of 20 days, the Iranian Diaspora in over 100 countries – from Tokyo, Dubai, Islamabad and Tajikistan to virtually every city in Europe and North America, made the world’s longest scroll covered with signatures of people denouncing the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad as the Iranian president. The pieces of scroll, all identical in pattern, color and width, were collected in Paris and sewn together to form a two-kilometre long scroll. On June 26th during a moving ceremony and as a symbolic gesture of solidarity, the green scroll was carried by people from Eiffel Tower to the Human Right’s Wall in Paris. Watch one of dozens of videos on the final stage of this campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEnW0lTSB7s

Unlike the Green Scroll campaign which was initiated by one individual, the Global Day of Action for Iran, held on July 25th, was organized by several international and Iranian human rights organizations, endorsed by numerous prominent international figures, intellectuals and activists and drew the world’s attention to Iran one more time. Massive rallies were held in 110 cities around the world, with the largest ones held in Sweden (4000), followed by London, Berlin and Toronto, each with about 1000-1500 participants (see http://united4iran.org for demonstration clips).

Montreal
Iranian-Montrealers, too, have been watching Iran, and much more. We have been raising funds, composing and signing petitions: we have been asking Nokia to stop helping Iranian authorities to tap on people’s phones and track them down. We, along with so many human right activists across the world have been pleading with the UN to send an envoy to investigate atrocities in Iranian prisons - to absolutely no avail! We have also been urging Canadian government, as well as all others who have economic and diplomatic relations with Iran, to put pressure on the Iranian government. In all our letters, chants and petitions, we have kept crying Iranians do not need military action, or economic sanction; we need an immediate halt to the explicit violation of basic human rights.

In Montreal, we held ten nights of candlelight vigil at Place du Canada and called it “Silent Scream”. We marched through downtown Montreal over three week-ends and chanted at the top of our voices “Democracy for Iran” and “Arrêtez la violance en Iran”. And finally, twenty of us went on hunger strike on July 24 and 25 in a call to Montreal (and the world) to “Stand with us”.

In one of the rallies I attended in Montreal, I overheard a man who was walking behind me and saying to the person next to him: “What [protesters in Iran] did was to restore our name as Iranians here abroad,” he went on “The world no longer identifies us with the lunatic, hateful Ahmadinejad; they know us now in the name of courage, serenity and strength that our youth have displayed, and for that we will be forever indebted to them.” I turned back to the man behind me with an approving smile and a knot in my throat only to detect tears welling in his eyes as well. In that moment, as I was eyeing the large crowd behind us, I also detected a light in my heart which was lit not only due to the pride I felt towards the courageous people of Iran, but also for the remarkable and unprecedented solidarity that the Iranian community had shown in the wake of unrest in Iran.

The last time I was among protestors out in street was thirty years ago back in my hometown, Shiraz against the Shah’s dictatorship. True, the gravity of the situation we were in during those months and days, and the sheer number of those demonstrators (always over hundreds of thousands), which made any fear from Shah’s anti-riot army go away, made the experience quite different from the current rally. Nevertheless, for the Iranian immigrant community of Montreal (numbering about 12,000) so political and therefore so divided along ideological lines, the number of people who came out in that first rally in Montreal (2000, according to Montreal police) was indeed indicative of a remarkable unity. For this unity I was feeling proud, and the two-day hunger strike only cemented that feeling.

The hunger strike
On July 24th, at 9:00 am, a group of 20 Iranian-Montreaers started a hunger strike at Place du Canada that went on for 35 hours till 8:00 pm on July 25th. The group, which I am honoured to have been a part of, consisted of 20 individuals who belonged to no specific ideological, political, religious or other similar categories and quite possibly held differing, even contradictory views with respect to many such convictions. What brought us together was a call of initiation by two of our group members and one single principle upon which we all agreed: That we invite everybody to join us in a protest in form of a hunger strike in order to ask the international community for the:

- Immediate release of political prisoners,
- Immediate end of torture, and
- Abolition of the death penalty in Iran.

We did not exclude anyone from this collectivity. Although only 20 of those who heard this call agreed on the above principle, or were able to go on a hunger strike, 80 more supported the move by signing the statement (we continue to collect signatures of endorsement with the aim of submitting them to the UN by a certain deadline).

During the 36 hours of our hunger strike under the collaborative and nice weather we achieved so much public attention and support, and we all felt so enriched by peer sympathy and empathy that hunger did not even get a chance to pose a serious problem! For the major part of the two days and evenings we were accompanied by over 200 supporters who kept dropping by in small and large groups for a few hours here and there. They ran errands for us, kept us company and helped in numerous others ways: they helped us to set up tents and loud-speakers; to connect to the internet and write up short reports and send them off to various news agencies; to energize us with a song, lyric and music through the CDs and videos they brought in, or in one occasion through a short live concert that two musicians performed. The supporters also helped us wrap the trees around us in green cloths, and to install demonstration pictures of Iran on the trees. They literally stood with us, each time we stood still facing the sidewalk and street, and all along the way as well.

Every three or four hours we stood still facing the sidewalk and street, some of us with painted faces. No one passed by us indifferently during these episodes and the majority stopped to have a closer look at the pictures we had hung or to accept the statements we were handing out. A good number of cars honked their horn in our support while flashing and waving “V” sign with their two fingers.

We gave out about 1000 green wristbands to pedestrians, using the occasion to engage them in a conversation about current unrest and repression in Iran. The inscription on the ribbons read “freedom for Iran” in Persian and in English or French.

We had some media coverage, the way each media chooses to cover a story – some more ethically or fairly than the others. But more importantly we received a lot of the public’s attention, as well as public support, in ways that no other form of protest, such as a rally or a candlelight vigil could possibly receive. For the long hours that we were out on the street, we had a chance to engage with people, answer their questions and discuss the situation in Iran and explain our expectation and wishes about what is happening in Iran. This is by no means to suggest we were able to convert every xenophobic fellow-Montrealer into human rights advocate! It is simply to highlight the fact that those who stood to take note did listen and express concern and support. And this is, I believe, an enormous achievement and cause for celebration.

In conclusion, Montreal hunger strike accomplished what it was set to – to invite the public to stand with the people of Iran in their fight for democracy, and to achieve this support albeit in a very small way. But even if it had failed to do so, the hunger strike would still merit a credit for achieving a goal none of us had expected or predicted it would. It helped the strikers and their supporters practice our democratic values and work towards perfecting it before advocating them for our fellow Iranian brothers and sisters back home. We were able to put aside our differences and work, weep and laugh together for 36 hours! Let me quote my fellow-strikers on this:

“Je viens d'une génération qui s'est vu imposer de l'injustice et de la cruauté pour beaucoup trop long temps; Je suis si heureuse de pouvoir finalement briser ce silence et raconter au monde ce qu'on subit”.
C.H. In her early 20s

“I am so privileged and honoured to have been a part of this event and in your company. ... I'm understanding the many ways in which [this event] was remarkable. One of them extends beyond us and into what is happening at such a breathtaking scale---that so many Iranians who were divided in the past, and suspicious of one another, have begun to find a common point of unity from which to stand. And it is so powerful that it can light up the whole world.” N.K. in her late 20s

“I cannot find words in any language to describe how [I feel] ... In all 30 years far away from Iran I have never felt more proud of my heritage as an Iranian than during the past two days ... This friendship will stay with me until the end of my road.” B.J. In his early 50s.

“Je n'ai jamais vécu une expérience comme celle du 24 et 25 juillet depuis que je vis à Montréal. Quelle belle expérience! Nous avons bien travaillé en concert et en harmonie pour l'Iran, notre pays natale.” F.R. In her early 50s.

“ I just want to add my voice in saying how proud I feel to have been a part of this event. I hope to be able to take another small step in the future towards the liberation of my homeland.” N.K. In his 30s (translated from Persian)

Despite my intention to close with the above bright insights, as I am typing these words the horrific news of the extraordinary abuse in one of Iranian prisons, Kahrizak, is sweeping the opposition media. Some of the 140 prisoners released by the regime on July 27th, have revealed and described the degree of savagery that is being practiced in this prison - a savagery which seems to have unsettled the regime itself and intensified the rivalry among its different factions. Please read about it at the following link. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/world/middleeast/29iran.html?pagewante...

We keep watching as Iran’s unrest spirals; stand with us!