Students Just Like Us: Support Free Speech, Pro-Democracy Activists in Iran

One week in Hawai'i and I confess ... I didn't pick up a single newspaper. I learned of the situation in Iran the night I got back. It appears that while I was soaking sun and admiring Wainae, my homeland had caught on fire.

Attacks on freedom of speech, thought and expression in Iran are nothing new to those who follow events, as they unfold in a country that bears the heavy stamp of terrorism on its shoulders. Recently, however, the responses backfired, and the world noticed.

The Islamic Parliament passed legislation further limiting freedom of expression, which lead to the banning of the independent newspaper, Salam, by the Special Court of the Clergy. University students chose to protest, and they were brutally attacked. For six days, students engaged in on-campus sit-ins and off-campus demonstrations.

The "unrest" was not tolerated. Quite the opposite - they were arrested, beaten and some were even killed.

Immediately I was reminded of April 14, 1999, 2 p.m., Barrows Hall. "What do we want? Ethnic studies! When do we want it? Now!" Images of the protests all over Barrows, outside California Hall, and the marches through Sproul Plaza rushed to my mind.

Like the ethnic studies ordeal last April and May, I am outraged by the silencing of students in another part of the world. Simultaneously, I am overwhelmed by feelings of solidarity; solidarity with a student movement. I am a student. An Iranian student. But not an Iranian student in Iran.

I could not begin to imagine the pain, anger and terror these students have faced and continue to face as they struggle to protect their fundamental human rights. Although thousands of miles away and unable to stand side by side with them, one can still be in solidarity and show support.

I remember how much stronger I felt each time I would see a new face at an ethnic studies rally, or would talk to someone who understood why we had to struggle to save the program. As students who place value on students' rights to freedom of speech, assembly and press (as well as freedom from violence), it seems only natural to be in solidarity with movements that fight for these causes in different lands.

Members of the Iranian community in the Bay Area have organized weekly gatherings on Sproul Plaza every Saturday in order to oppose the arrest and possible execution of hundreds of students by Iranian authorities. UC Berkeley students should come and show their support. In Iran, they are students just like us.

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