‘They are fighting for freedom’: Winnipeggers rally for Iranian protesters

Zhaleh Parsaei struggles to hold back tears describing the violence her family in Iran has faced through what she describes as a “terrorist regime” while she watches and waits helplessly from her home in Winnipeg.

Tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets since Dec. 28 — first over Iran’s economic issues, now challenging the Islamic Republic government — in the largest uprising in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The government crackdown in response has resulted in the deaths of thousands of protesters and an internet and telephone blackout.

Parsaei’s family is among the injured protesters. She said a relative lost an eye after protesters were shot at, and other injured family members have been afraid to visit medical centres.

“To think that my 70 year-old dad and mom have to go to protests, and they get pellets in their bodies, it just hurts,” she told the Free Press Sunday. “It just hurts so much.”

Parsaei and around 250 other supporters held a car rally Sunday afternoon to express solidarity and raise awareness of the unrest in Iran. Holding Iranian flags and signs with numbers of people killed and injured in the protests, the group drove from Polo Park down Portage Avenue in what Parsaei hopes is a demonstration that helps educate Manitobans.

“I just want Canadians (to) know that this is different, what Iranians are fighting for. It’s not that they have war, this is totally different,” she said. “They are fighting for freedom. And I think a free Iran can make (the) world a better place.”

Local supporters have formed a group, the Iranian Monarchists of Manitoba, named after the group’s support of transitioning Iran from the current government to a monarchy.

Saeid Ghavami, a spokesperson for the group and a professor at the University of Manitoba’s faculty of medicine, said the group has been asking protesters keep signs with information on the rising death and injury tolls in Iran on their cars to educate others.

“We do this rally to be the voice of Iran… We hope each car is acting like, actually, a small social media,” he said.

His siblings currently live in Iran, as do several scientists and academics he has collaborated with in the past. His only connection with them, he said, is when his sister has been able to reach him: just a few times in the past weeks, and less than a minute each time before they are disconnected again.

“This is a very violent situation, and they try to stop the people… the people in the street clearly want the regime changed.”

Last week, the Iranian government said 3,117 people had been killed since Dec. 28. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll was 5,459 counted as of Jan. 24, but thousands more are believed to have been killed. More than 40,000 people in Iran have been arrested.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca