Her trembling voice rippled through the air, wrenching the hearts of millions listening, as she explained the gruesome events she had witnessed at Baharestan square, Iran.
The protestor’s voice aired on CNN as she said, “I was going towards Baharestan with my friend. This was everyone, not just supporters of one candidate or another. All of my friends, they were going to Baharestan to express our opposition to these killings and demanding freedom.
“The black-clad police stopped everyone…We went on until Ferdosi then all of a sudden some 500 people with clubs came out of [undecipherable] mosque and they started beating everyone. They tried to beat everyone on [undecipherable] bridge and throwing them off of the bridge, and everyone also on the sidewalks. They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband, he fainted.
They were beating people like hell. It was a massacre. They were trying to beat people so they would die. They were cursing and saying very bad words to everyone. This was exactly a massacre… I don’t know how to describe it,” she continued.
“You need to help us. You need to help the people of Iran who want freedom,” she added.
The young woman is not alone in her plea for assistance and support to bring democracy and freedom to Iran.
President Obama has been cautiously playing the role of a bystander since the June 12 election and uprising in Iran. Although most understand his standpoint and dilemma in regards to U.S. and Iran foreign policy relations, many are not certain if the United States fully comprehends the position of Iranians behind the uprising.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution, followed by the Iran-Iraq war, caused the Persian Diaspora, leaving Iran with a small percentage of the elite as the majority of its population included the less privileged and the lower class.
Iran’s cream of the crop fled the country and most turned to the United States and Europe. By 1996, there were 1,560,000 Iranians in the United States (Farsi Net “The Persian Diaspora”).
It is the same small percentage of the elite population that has taken the streets of Iran today demanding democracy and freedom as they are being harassed, attacked, killed, and as of today, ordered to be executed by the hands of the lower class, under educated, religiously phonetic, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen.
Certain Iranian-Americans expect United States to step in, and assist the courageous Iranians at home to reach their dream of democracy as they see it nearly impossible for them to do it without military support.
“Iranians abroad presented their hard work, knowledge, culture, history, morals, and values in return for safety, security, freedom, and equality. It is their brothers and sisters who are dying in the streets of Iran fighting for the same democracy the rest us take for granted,” said an Iranian-American demonstrator marching the streets of Los Angeles.
As the United States position is respected and understood by many Iranian-Americans, and even appreciated by most, some still feel the need for assistance from outside sources.