cleo creech

Last night there was a candle light vigil held in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park for those who have fallen in the recent violence in Iran. It’s interesting as an outsider (non-Iranian) to bear witness to the pain and suffering felt by this community. I feel though that as an activist it is important to uphold basic human and civil rights wherever they are at risk. This struggle is important to any who care about basic civil and human rights.

It was an interesting group, organized by students from some of the local universities, as well as members of the local Iranian community. At it’s peak there were easily 350-400 people. It was an evening of community bonding and outreach as well as solemn remembrance to those who had fallen in the violence. It was covered by most of the stations, but mostly by support teams, so I’m not sure what ever made it to the air. Neda photos, posters and candle memorials were very much present. She’s become a rallying point even for Iranians in this country.

While I know a few Iranians, this is not a community that I’m that familiar with, so it was interesting to observe this group in action. You have the older guard, those who used to actually live in Iran, who fled the revolution and obviously despise the current government and it’s dictatorial and repressive ways. Then, since the Islamic revolution is some 30 years old now, there are a whole new generation of younger adults and students who are American born and thoroughly Americanized and only know of their home country though their parents. In addition there was a strong presence across the board of some very strong-willed dynamic women. They seem particularly engaged in this debate, probably since they have so much at stake in these cultural wars. In many respects, the generation divide, the role of women, it reminded me of the Cuban exile community, which it shares a lot of similar history and characteristics with.

This generational divide was most evident at the rally when the student’s tried to rally a chant of “Allahu Akbar” as a show of support and solidarity with the nightly roof chanting in Tehran, the old guard wanted nothing to do with it, some actively booed it down and the attempt faded quickly. Though “Allahu Akbar” is a safe way to stealth protest in Iran and avoid seeming anti-revolutionary – free Iranians here in the U.S. seem to want no such reminder of the Islamic Revolution.

 There was also a split in the group between whether this was a candlelight vigil and memorial or a protest. In honor of the non-violent spirit of the Iranian protests, the occasional “death to Khamenei” or “death to the dictator” chants were always met with pleas to not stoop to their level, and to honor the spirit of the protestors and those who had fallen. (Note to Self: When organizing a candle light vigil, schedule lots of speakers, singers, poets, clergy.)

It’s hard to keep these emotions bottled up, and tensions and emotions were running high. There got to be a split between the “we want peace” camp and the “we want freedom” camp. Words were exchanged, someone threw a drink in someone’s face, but cooler heads prevailed and stepped in. This was a split I quite honestly didn’t understand. I think the freedom crowd was seen by some to be too militant and out for blood, while the peace crowd was seen by some as perhaps naive. I was reminded again, that this is a community that is new to this sort of thing. I’m not quite sure they’ve worked out for themselves what they do want, or that sometimes freedom, justice and reverence for fallen victims all sort of goes hand-in-hand.  It was all a reminder though just how charged this situation is. These people have a country and possibly relatives and friends that are suffering at the brutal hand of a repressive country. They’re experiencing a bloody crackdown in the middle of a commutations blackout so it’s understandable that nerves are raw.

I definitely came away with a new respect for this community though. I wish more non-Iranian’s had been there to show there support. It’s always good to put real individual faces to a community. It also humanizes and brings down to a very human level what can be admittedly overwhelming world events and issues.