Protesters in Costa Mesa Demand Reforms in Iran

Chanting “United Nations, pay more attention,” more than 150 people Wednesday gathered on a Costa Mesa street corner to demand wide-ranging reforms in Iran and international condemnations of ongoing political repression of Iranian student activists.

The protest was a sequel to a July 15 rally in Westwood that drew more than 6,000 and is part of an international campaign by Iranian expatriates to spotlight brutal repression underway in Iran. The current government targets are university students demanding reforms to the fundamentalist Islamic regime that took control after the 1979 revolution against the shah, organizers said.

An unknown number of students have been killed in recent weeks--some in their dormitories at the University of Tehran--and hundreds more arrested, many on charges that could lead to execution.

“It would be a crime to keep silent for anybody who values human rights,” said Fleur T. Tehrani of Anaheim Hills, an Iran native and Cal State Fullerton professor of engineering.

The rally, at the edge of South Coast Plaza, drew a predominately Iranian crowd, some of whom weren’t even born at the time of the revolution.

“We’re just trying to show our support, and to get the information out,” said Arash Shirdel, 19, of Yorba Linda, who left Iran with his family when he was 4.

Protesters said they realized that increased pressure from the U.S. probably would mean little to the Iranian government, given the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries. They held out hope, however, that international pressure could be mounted through the United Nations.

“We want to save our students who are in jail,” said Joe Lottraes, 62, of Mission Viejo, who fled Iran after the revolution. “Secondly, we want to get our freedom back.”

Gisue Lashgari of Irvine said she was moved to attend the rally both by memories of Iran--she left as a teenager just after the revolution--and by a sense of human connectedness with the students, some of whom, other protesters said, have appeared on television bearing signs of physical abuse.

“People we knew were killed right after the revolution just because they didn’t believe in the Islamic Republic,” Lashgari said. “I am a supporter of whoever is against that government. If there is a person in Iran who is being tortured, I feel that it’s everybody’s responsibility to come out and support them.”