Since June 12, you can hardly surf the web or watch television without hearing, at least, a sound bite about Iran’s disputed election. After awhile, I began to wonder how Chicago’s Iranian American community felt about the violent events shaking their homeland. To learn about local reactions, I reached out to some people active around these current events. Hermine Valizadeh, a local attorney, mentioned feeling “helpless” in light of the Iranian government’s violent reactions against peaceful protestors. “What can I do?” she asked herself. Valizadeh, who came to the United States in 1975 from her native Tehran, answered her own question by helping organize local demonstrations and vigils.

At the same time, she pointed out that this Chicago mobilization “is about them [people in Iran] and not about us [Iranian Americans].” Hemmatior Simin Hemmati Rasmussen, also heavily involved in the local community, echoed this idea: “They [people in Iran] are the ones who are going to decide. We [Iranian Americans] show our support and solidarity through vigils.” Both women pointed to social media, mainly Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as other ways Iranian Americans show their support.

The June 20 murder of Neda Sultan at a Tehran street protest, captured on video and seen around the world, has also brought Iranians together. On June 24 and 26, the local community organized two vigils—the first at Water Tower Square and the second at the Plaza of the Americas, near the Wrigley Building. At these vigils, the local community mourned the deaths of Neda and others killed in the protests. They came to sing, to recite poetry, to give and hear speeches, and to be together. As Simin put it, “Being together gives us hope.” I attended the second vigil and met lawyers, college professors, and many students who came to Chicago from Iran only a few years ago.

People held candles, left flowers, sat quietly, and looked at images of those killed and injured during the street protests in Tehran. Unlike demonstrations in the United States during the 1979 Iranian revolution, no one chanted political slogans and the only signs people held related to Neda. I thought one of the most moving parts of the vigil took place when the crowd, in a display of unity, sang a Persian song, “Hamrah Sho Aziz.” Here are the translated lyrics:

Come join us, my dear.
Suffer not alone,
For our shared suffering
Can never be healed in separation.
The troubles of life
Will never get easier for us
Unless we fight together

Although the Iranian government has suppressed the marchers, these events have not kept the local community from protesting. On July 2, I attended a rally at the Federal Plaza in the Loop. At this event, people chanted human rights slogans and sang while again holding images of those killed in Iran. As the protesters marched north up Dearborn, I wondered what the future holds for the people of Iran and their supporters here.

> Learn more about the Iranian community in Chicago
> Learn more about recent events in Iran

Tags: community, History, Immigration, Iran, Iranian, Peter Alter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 10:18 am and is filed under History, Multimedia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.