A protester from Iran shares her experience : NPR

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

In Iran, at least 3,000 people have died during protests, and many more have been arrested, according to the US news agency Human Rights Activist News. An internet outage has made it difficult to independently confirm this information, but images circulating across the country show a violent government response to protesters calling for reforms, regime change and, in some cases, the return of Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s king, who was deposed in 1979. We are now joined by one of those protesters. She has family in Iran and fears for their safety, so we’ll just refer to her by her initial, A. And please note that she has witnessed some disturbing scenes. A, thanks for being with us.

A: Thank you for inviting me. And it’s important that everyone, the whole world, really knows what’s going on out there. So thank you.

SIMON: You’re out of the country now, but you were in Iran last week and you were protesting, I understand. What did you see?

A: In fact, thousands and millions of people took to the streets of Tehran, Karaj and many other cities. At first I saw that the regular police, wearing normal uniforms, were attacking the protesters while we were pushing them back. And then Basij and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC…

SIMON: Yeah.

A: Most of them spoke in Arabic, okay? And they started shooting straight at people’s hearts and heads without taking into account that some of them were children, some of them were very, very young, some of them were elderly people, you know? And they were shooting into the sky, okay? And we thought: OK, it’s tear gas. But it exploded higher and higher in the sky. And about fifty bullets spread from there. And it affected more or less 50 people at a time.

SIMON: Was it like bullets were falling from the sky? Or…

A: It was exploding, and there were 50 bullets going all over the world.

SIMON: What are these protests about? It seems naive, but what are people talking about? Why do they have the courage to take to the streets?

A: The collapse of the currency, the economic situation and the lack of freedom, the lack of food, of money. I don’t know everything. People are frustrated. People say: we can’t take it anymore. We don’t want this anymore. You know? This time everyone called Prince Reza Pahlavi. They were shouting in (non-English language spoken) – this is the last stand. Pahlavi will return to the country.

SIMON: Do you hope that Reza Pahlavi, if he came back and took power, would hold democratic elections?

A: Yeah, yeah, 100%. And he doesn’t want power. He doesn’t want anything. He just wants to help with the transition, this transition period, and then we – he will hold elections. He cannot be a dictator.

SIMON: Do you think these protests are different?

A: I firmly believe that this protest was totally, totally different from those of years ago. It’s not for hijab. It’s not for votes. It’s not – it’s for diet change. It’s up to them to leave. They don’t want it anymore. People had had enough. And let me tell you about the worst part I’ve seen.

SIMON: Yeah.

A: That it always makes me cry. On Thursday, they put lasers on people, didn’t they? There were these red lights like a laser. And they scared people by telling them that they were going to shoot people, but in the end, they didn’t shoot. And it was a thing because on Friday, they did the same thing, and they shoot. With my own eyes, I saw bodies on bodies in Karaj, in Chara Golzar (ph). And they were running on motorcycles over the dead bodies, and they were dancing around them with their guns, celebrating their victory or whatever, and the street was full of blood. I don’t know. I felt like I was in a nightmare. It wasn’t real, but I was there. I was alive. It was real.

SIMON: Do you want the world to do something? Do you want the United States to do something?

A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s not like we want them to change the diet or anything. The Iranian people will sooner or later, but we need help. We are empty-handed, in front of the ball. If they have to kill us all, they will kill us all.

SIMON: What would you like the world or the United States to do?

A: Well, Trump has said a few times that help is coming and you’re not alone, and when he didn’t do anything, it’s a little disappointing. We need the United States to target IRGC bases. And if the world wants to remain silent and do nothing, it simply says one thing: they are with them. They support this regime.

SIMON: Do you have any hope right now?

A: For the change of diet?

SIMON: Yeah.

A: We have never been closer to freedom than we are today. If the United States wants to do something, it must do it now.

SIMON: A, that’s what we call her, one of many Iranians who have participated in the protests there in recent weeks. Thank you very much for speaking with us.

A: Yes, of course. Thank you very much for listening.

(SOUNDBITE OF ORIGAMIBIRO’S “FRACTURE”)

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