Thousands rally to support government in Tehran
Huge pro-reform rally defies crackdown threats
“We are stepping toward democracy,” said Farid Asef, a Santa Rosa appliance store owner who was born in Teh-ran and moved to the United States in 1977.
Iranians who have lived under an Islamic theocracy since 1979 are yearning for an open political system with meaningful elections, Asef said.
Such a change, he said, would bring about a better relationship with the United States, a step favored by many middle-class, educated Iranians.
Following the news of street protests in Tehran “makes me want to be there to see how things turn out,” said Zhila Agahi, a Petaluma resident and yoga instructor.
Agahi, born and raised in Iran, received a college education in California and returned here so her son, Nima Banai, could get one, as well.
Demonstrations for presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi are no threat to the regime headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but could be a prelude to change, Agahi said.
“The people want to be heard,” she said. “They want to be represented.”
A Santa Rosa dentist who arrived from Iran in 1977 said he hopes for another revolution, throwing out Khamenei’s fundamentalist clerical government.
“It’s pretty encouraging,” he said. But whether dislike for the regime has reached a “boiling point” remains uncertain.
Until then, the dentist said he was reluctant to give his name for fear of retribution against his relatives in Iran.
The three Iranians agree that Friday’s election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quickly declared the winner, was fraudulent.
At best, Ahmadinejad has 20 percent public support, Agahi asserted, far from the 63 percent landslide he was given by the government.
“They just pulled something out of a hat,” she said.
Mousavi, a former pro-government militia leader, is now described as a reformist, Asef said. He is more inclined to forging ties with the West and is “less of the evil,” Asef said.
The dentist said that Khamenei, who has absolute power, might be ready to give up on Ahmadinejad to “calm the people’s rage.”
Mousavi’s success would bode well for relations with the United States, Asef said.
He criticized the Bush administration’s rationale for the war in Iraq — bringing democracy to the Middle East — saying that the Iranian people were moving that way on their own.
“You cannot bring democracy by war,” he said, noting that Bush enjoyed a close relationship with the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia.