Demonstrators gathered in front of the UNM Bookstore Friday, June 19 to protest the results of the Iranian Presidential Election.
After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected over Mir-Hossein Mousavi on June 12, protests - incited primarily by university students - exploded throughout Iran.
"It started from university students and more people supported them," said protestor and recent UNM grad Amin Eizad. "It was a big election and people wanted change. They felt that Ahmadinejad was lying."
More than half of the 60 demonstrators at the UNM protest were in college or college-aged, and they held signs with anti-Ahmadinejad slogans like "Down with Dictator!" and "Where is my Vote!"
Goli, an Iranian citizen, refused to give his last name to avoid persecution when he returns to Iran in the near future. He said a nationwide uprising of this sort was a long time coming.
"I didn't think that I would live to see this huge uprising," he said. "There has been a very, very huge oppression in Iran for the last 30 years."
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Senior Golnar Doroudian said she attended the UNM protest because she thinks Ahmadinejad's Iran is an aggressive one.
"Iranians have expressed themselves through their votes, but we haven't been heard. Now we are here to let the whole world hear us," she said. "We Iranians love peace and democracy, and this is why we care more because Ahmadinejad just wanted to be more violent."
Goli said university students are often persecuted most severely by Iranian officials. He recalled an instance on July 8, 1999 when Iranian police officers stormed a college dormitory, resulting in the deaths of four students.
"They got into the dormitory and they threw the people out of the second or third floor," he said. "The same thing happened a few days back."
Of the roughly 2,000 Iranians in Albuquerque, Goli said about 100 of them are UNM students. He said these students often demonstrate to represent a relative or friend in Iran.
"Basically, they are in touch with their cousins, their friends, and most of them are actually participating in the demonstration back in Iran and they feel like they have to do this," he said.
University students in Iran often protest their government's policies, but Goli said the 2009 uprising is the first instance of the Iranian people joining them.
"The difference between the uprising of this time and of 10 years ago is that the people (of Iran) did not really help the actual students," he said. "So (Iranian police) were able to crush that in a matter of weeks."
Eizad said he and other Iranian-Americans are using communication mechanisms, like Twitter and YouTube, to give voice to the plight of their oppressed counterparts.
"Many media got kicked out of the country, because they wanted to have one-sided media," he said. "What we can do is just support them and tell them that we wish we were there to fight side by side, to fight the dictator."
Goli said he thinks the protests in Iran were inevitable.
"It was just a spark waiting to happen," he said. "I believe it just happened."
