Waging Peace, Page 49

Pro-Democracy Iranians Rally in Berkeley

IRANIANS have remembered 16 Azar (Dec. 7) as “Students’ Day” ever since the killing of three students in Tehran following the 1953 U.S.-backed coup d’état that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Some 100 Iranians and their pro-democracy supporters honored the day this year at a Berkeley vigil hosted by the International Alliance of Iranian Students (IAIS).

“In light of the June presidential election, it’s more important than ever that people come out to remember this day,” IAIS founder Reza Mohajerinejad told the Washington Report. “As young people continue to die and be arrested in Iran, our voices must be heard.”

Many in the crowd wore emerald green scarves or T-shirts—the symbolic color of reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi’s presidential campaign—and a few carried large green flags or the red, white and green Iranian flag.

The vigil honored the human rights defenders killed or imprisoned by the Iranian government, including 28-year-old Ehsan Fattahian, who was executed in Sanandaj’s central prison on Nov. 11, 2009. “Like countless others, Ehsan is the latest to become a symbol of all that is wrong with human rights in Iran,” said Mohajerinejad, one of the organizers of the 1999 Iranian student uprisings.

—Elaine Pasquini