A message from a friend in Iran

I got an email yesterday from one of my Iranian friends.  My fears have come true; he wound up hospitalized, along with a couple of his family members, after having taken part in one of the June 20th demonstrations.  Here’s his story:

I am writing this email to let you know all that what is taking place in Iran and especially Tehran is a barbaric crack down of the people who want nothing but their very basic rights. So many people have been killed and injured and you can easily find out the picturtes on the cyber social networks worldwide. All commmunication systems are blocked in Iran and Iranain people can hardly be heard overseas.

Yesterday, June 20th, was one of the most terrible days in the history of democracy in Iran. The central Tehran looked like a red carpet of blood. I personally witnessed so many people were shot dead or beaten by the savages who call themselves as “the owners of Iran”. These hardliners are a very limited minority of Iran who hold the power and have no fear to slaughter the Iranian students, women and children. They have stolen the Iranian votes and announced Ahmadinejad as the president. As an Iranian, and as your friend, I am trying to tell you all that the supreme leader of Iran (Ayatollah Khamenei) and his servant (Ahmadinejad) do not represent the reality of the Iranians who look for peace, friendship and bright future for everyone.

Yesterday, I was beaten on my head and back and my brother mother were beaten too. We spent the night in a hospital which was full of injured people. Among the people who were killed in the last few days, there were many students and some of them were from the University of Tehran. The regime have overtly denied that they have been killed and do not deliver their bodies to their families. The ironic point is that people try to demonstrate silently (no slogan, no violence), but they receive very brutal response from the riot police and the milita. The state-run television calls millions of people as “terrorists” and “hooligans”!!!!

What I explained about is a domestic unrest and the consequences of an Islamic Fascist regime in power. But, the global consequences of such regime in power will definitely affect the lives of people worldwide either directly or indirectly. The regime who does not fear to slaughter its own people, have no mercy on  other nations. As an Iranian student who has so many restrictions to get his voice out of Iran, I do kindly ask you all to inform your families, friends and colleagues in every possible way about the awful situation in Iran. This Islamic Fascist regime is not to be officially recognized by the world.

This is exactly what President Obama was referring to in his statement yesterday:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

I wrote back to my friend last night asking him whether he was sure he wanted me to post his message, and got this in response:

That would be great if you post my message on your blog. Don’t worry, I’m a tough cookie. What hurts is not my own injuries or my family’s, but the people especially very young people who lost their lives on the streets. I saw a teenage girl die in the arms of her father. I don’t know really what to say. I feel so bad. Any attempt to spread the information about Iran is well-appreciated. The world needs to know.

I don’t know what else I can do at this point except act as a conduit and hope other people read this.

Filed under: Thing of the Day