Iranian Protester Guest (3:32)

Thank you for having me.

Interviewer (3:34)

And so can you, can you tell us a little bit about. Well, actually, tell us the first protest that or how did you realize that this protest movement, which started shortly after Christmas, was something serious? And when did you first start participating in it?

Iranian Protester Guest (3:53)

I, I went home to visit family. I had no idea that there was unrest until Thursday night, 8th of January. And we were sitting around.

Interviewer (4:11)

But you had, you had been there for weeks at that point. Yes, yes, but, but it hadn't burst onto the scene.

Iranian Protester Guest (4:18)

I didn't notice anything. And we would hear about things happening outside of Tehran, but not in Tehran. I didn't notice anything. And that's not surprising because I wasn't near anywhere near center of town or places that people would gather. But on Thursday night around 8pm we started we were January 8th. Yes, January 8th. We were sitting around just drinking, socializing with a few of my friends. And we started hearing chanting outside. So we went out to check out what was happening. And we realized that people were getting together and the chants were getting louder and louder. So we decided to go out and check it out. It's cold in Iran at night right now. So it took like a few minutes to get our clothes get ready. And we were in the streets on Thursday night a little before 8:30pm and.

Interviewer (5:34)

So what did you see when you were out there?

Iranian Protester Guest (5:37)

There was just like groups of people. We walked for a long time. So by the end of the night, we were miles away from where we started. And it was there were people everywhere, everywhere in Ali's main streets and they were moving. There were more and more people joining main streets in Tehran and they were chanting and everybody was really excited. And we were all surprised, all of us were surprised to see these many people out on the streets. People of Iran have been protesting for a long Time. And at least for myself, I can say that I've always dreamt of these many people coming out supporting each other and it happened.

Interviewer (6:31)

Yeah. How did it compare to previous demonstrations over the years? Size wise?

Iranian Protester Guest (6:36)

I've never seen anything like this on any. It never. Not in Green Movement, although there was. There was a silent protest after the election during the Green Movement that I wasn't, I wasn't there, but I heard that hundreds of thousands of people silently walking. But besides that one, I have never, never heard about anything this massive. And it seemed organic and it's. And people were joining as they were hearing chants from the streets. People were coming out. I saw an old lady, like with a cane, really old. I went and talked to her. I asked her to go home. I told her that I would do what she wants to do, she should tell me what I should chant and I would do it for her. She doesn't have to be out. And she's like, no, I'll stay. I'll just walk slowly. I'll walk behind you. And that was. Thursday night was just awesome.

Interviewer (7:46)

There were some reports of violence that Thursday evening somewhere around the city. Did you see anything though? What was the, you know, what was the balance between kind of just marching and chanting versus clashes with security services?

Iranian Protester Guest (8:03)

We did not see any clashes between security forces and the protesters and they stayed away from us. The two times that we saw any sign of government regime people present was tear gas behind the crowd. If they wanted to, they wanted us to move, they would tear gas that area and we would just walk away from that area. That was it. There was no clashes that I saw on Thursday. Thursday was pretty much people and the crowds got so big, I don't know. Besides what they did on Saturday, there was nothing they could have done. It was just so many people that the sheer number of people in the streets was unprecedented.

Interviewer (8:53)

So then Friday, January 10th, what. What was your experience?

Iranian Protester Guest (8:59)

So Friday was the same, but with more presence from police forces, militia. We saw them, they. But they wouldn't engage. There was a. Still tear gas. But I heard from other friends across town that they saw snipers on rooftops and they saw people falling. So there was some, some presence on Friday night, but it was still mainly people. And the only. I don't know what. I saw the coverage on state tv, they saw that people set fire to mosques. And I'm not surprised by that. When you use mosques to force people into a way of life, you shouldn't be surprised if that's the first thing they set on fire. But I heard other violent stories that I did not witness. I don't know if normal regular people are capable of that kind of violence, but I don't know. Like state governments have turned people into violent beings all the time. So. But I didn't witness any of the protesters doing anything violent on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday for that matter.

Interviewer (10:27)

And at that point, what's communication like? You couldn't communicate out of the country, but within the country you could.

Iranian Protester Guest (10:34)

So on Thursday night we could, I could even text outside of Iran. Okay. Up to. I don't know if it was 8pm or 9pm like between 8 and 9pm everything just stopped working. We couldn't even call each other. Okay. Internet went out. That was Thursday night calls. The only thing that we could do it was landline to landline. Landlines could call each other. But that was it on Thursday night. So there was really no way to organize at all. Friday night happened organically.

Interviewer (11:20)

So then Saturday people are back in the streets. What, what time did you go back out on on Saturday? Describe what Saturday was like.

Iranian Protester Guest (11:32)

Saturday was. I don't think I'll ever forget Saturday. Saturday was brief. I think it was around. I had to do something on Saturday for work. So. Is a little later. I think around seven or eight. I don't think it took even an hour. But as soon as we reached an area that people would gather, we started hearing machine guns. Like not just one shot, two shot, just like shots non stop. And then as we like we ran and. We heard people falling. And then I saw like two blocks away from like further away from where we were, a neighborhood just got lit up silently, just so bright that it was like it was day for like 10 seconds. I don't know what they used, but it just lit up and then went quiet. There were big groups of bikers with like machine guns and machetes just patrolling.

Interviewer (13:35)

And did they have uniforms?

Iranian Protester Guest (13:39)

No, they were like dressed in black with face masks. And my friends asked me if they were Iranian or not. And there's no way we could have. We could, we could have tell. It's just impossible to tell.

Interviewer (13:52)

They were, they were in a large group together. Like. Can you just describe these motorcyclists?

Iranian Protester Guest (13:58)

Yeah, they was, they were in. Always in large groups together, dressed in black like, like commandos or like, like movies and really scary like staring. Even the day Sunday after Saturday, I was in a car and they, they were patrolling the streets after Saturday and they came from behind like a group of 50 of them at least. And I was so Scared. I couldn't look away. And one of them was staring at me and one of my friends held my hand and was like, look at me. Don't look at them. Like, try to get my attention away from them. Just freakishly terrifying.

Interviewer (14:49)

And you were telling me that as, as you were running, you. You could hear the bullets and you could see people fall. How close to, how close to you were the people who were going down? Like, what kind of.

Iranian Protester Guest (15:03)

I have no idea.

Interviewer (15:05)

Right?

Iranian Protester Guest (15:06)

Like, I could, I could tell you, but I don't know how accurate it would be. It was shocking.

Interviewer (15:23)

How did you finally get away? Like, what, what was. What got you to.

Iranian Protester Guest (15:27)

We ran. We. We weren't that far away. Like, we got lucky because we got out late and we just ran back into the alley and people open doors. But it was just like we were close enough to get away to.

Interviewer (15:46)

To the place where you were staying?

Iranian Protester Guest (15:48)

Yes. I wasn't. We didn't even got that far on Saturday. And then it was quiet, like, silence. Thursday and Friday, like at 1 2am People would still be in the streets and they were chanting from rooftops and windows and people would support even if they didn't leave the house Saturday night after. So, like for an hour there was a lot of noise, a lot of light, a lot of commotion and then silence. Just. Just absolute. Like, even I don't think Tehran has ever been this silent.

Interviewer (16:38)

Were there and I know weren't even sirens or nothing, just deathly silence, just silence.

Iranian Protester Guest (16:45)

And I know that I, I try not to watch the videos still because, like, I don't. Yeah, I can't take them right now, but I know that videos are coming out now, but most of these videos are from Thursday night, Friday and maybe Saturday if it's super violent. There was nothing after in Tehran.

Interviewer (17:17)

So Sunday, Monday, so the rest. So that was complete, from your perspective, that was complete suppression?

Iranian Protester Guest (17:25)

Yes. Saturday night Tehran was massacred and then it went quiet. Is.

Interviewer (17:34)

Is there any. Is there any sense or is any talk of renewing them once people have regrouped, or is your sense that this is. The level of violence was significant enough that it's just completely knocked out? Like, I don't. Suppressed.

Iranian Protester Guest (17:53)

I don't know if I can predict that, but every time the people of Iran have protested, they have responded with violence, and every time, the next time has been worse for them. And I think something changed on Saturday night because they killed indiscriminately. They fired into crowds of people and they said that they were going to do that, but I don't think people. They sent text messages from intelligence services to all of the people of Tehran. That was the only text that we did, we could receive to numbers in Iran. And they warned the people, don't come out because we are going to use force if you do. And they did. Something changed. I know that there's a lot of discussion of who can hijack this movement, the freedom movement of the people of Iran. It's very possible. But I can tell you this. The way that the government of Iran has responded to the protesters, every single person in Iran would happily join any intelligence service to end this regime. We are not unified in what we want, but we are unified in not wanting the Islamic Republic.

Interviewer (19:31)

What was the talk among demonstrators about what the end goal was like? How. What. What was the step from, you know, hundreds of thousands of people in the streets on Thursday to the regime being toppled?

Iranian Protester Guest (19:49)

There wasn't a lot of talk. We were just, like, chanting. But my sense is nobody knows, and that's very scary. And I think the people of Iran know that in chaos there's risk. They know that their livelihood is going to be affected. Dollar has, like, the Iranian currency has dropped in value so much that a regular person in Tehran now makes a little less than $300, probably. Millions of families have dropped from middle class to poor. So I think they know it's going to be rough. I think they're scared of what's going to happen next. I think this government could have stopped this many, many times during this 47 years. They could have made change easier and smoother. But every time, they chose to oppress their own people, to kill their own people, hang their own people, torture their own people, disappear their own people. And there was the saying after Mahsa Amini was murdered that the rage of a grieving mother will never go quiet. And there are thousands of grieving mothers in Iran right now, and I don't know what they're going to do with that. They might succeed this time, but something changed.

Interviewer (21:36)

Now, the videos and the photos that you shared with me that you and your friends took, were those mostly from Thursday and Friday? Like, did you catch anything from Saturday, or were you in and out so fast?

Iranian Protester Guest (21:47)

No, no, they were. Yes. I had nothing on Saturday, and I meant to take a video of the bikers, but I was so scared I couldn't move. I can tell you this. They were, like, freakishly terrifying.

Interviewer (22:03)

They're moving around collectively.

Iranian Protester Guest (22:05)

Yes. And patrolling. Even after Saturday night, they would patrol and scream and, you know, just make sure that their presence is known and that they are causing terror so that people won't come out anymore.

Interviewer (22:21)

I also wanted to get your reaction to the government's response here. As you saw, they, they, they brought in a bunch of ministers from around the world and showed them footage of. Armed and masked. And people have probably seen a lot of this footage as it has kind of circulated over the Internet. On the Internet here you have people firing a shotgun and there's more of this. You know, how does this, how do you relate that to these, the dynamic that unfolded?

Iranian Protester Guest (23:10)

I, I didn't see anybody armed in the crowd and I didn't see any violence. I'm not surprised. It's been 47 years. I'm not even surprised if it turns out that there are foreign agents among the crowds. Of course I know Israel benefits from turmoil in Iran. I'm not surprised if they try to capitalize on this, if they to hijack it. But, and I'm not surprised that the government of Iran does these kind of performative like sittings with ambassadors. They have done this, it's not new. And they have a certain narrative that everybody that opposes us is imperialist agent in the agents of Mossad or CIA. And I'm not denying that Mossad or CIA are not benevolent agents in the world. But I can tell you that most of the people in the streets are the people of Iran. And I'm not saying that they are beyond being manipulated, of course they are. But any, I think anyone in the situation that the people of Iran are right now, economically, culturally sanction wise relationships with the outside world, you look at the situation in Iran from any aspect that you like, you will understand why the people of Iran would come to the street. It doesn't matter who asks them to. They want change. And I don't think these kind of having ambassadors watch videos would work anymore. Even if there are armed agents that hijack these movements, that doesn't matter. That's not the movement because this is not. This hasn't been the only uprising we have been protesting for 47 years. The mullahs are corrupt and cruel. And that's the truth. And I think as somebody who's been a leftist and a progressive, I'm actually a little heartbroken that we can't say that with our full chest because Iran has been. A presence in the Middle east that's at least a kind of obstacle for United States and Israel. But that shouldn't mean that we deny the people of Iran what they deserve, which is freedom and a dignified life. And if Iran has been an obstacle for Israel and Israel has been an obstacle for the Islamic Republic, all of that can be analyzed without being silent when people are being oppressed.

Interviewer (26:28)

Now, when it, when it comes to the American response, the Trump administration, as far as my sources are telling me, are still leaning towards airstrikes despite the fact that we are where we are. Where do the demonstrator. Obviously there are a lot of different viewpoints but like how do you see American intervention and how to, how, what is your general sense of how people in the street sense it? And it goes to that, that same question earlier. What's the step from American airstrikes to the regime toppling? Because from my own analysis, and I don't know, I've never been to Iran, I don't know it as well as people who live there, but I don't see how American airstrikes bring about regime change. I, I, I fail to see what the connect how, how that connects from one to the other. So what, so give me your take on that.

Iranian Protester Guest (27:29)

I, okay, I'm, I'm hesitant to just give you my own opinion. I'll tell you what I think and what I think people of your own think. Most of them, I am anti war. I do not like airstrikes and I do not like foreign interventions. They're always short sighted in not motivated by what I think is needed on the ground. So I, and I don't respect Donald Trump in any shape or form. So my personal opinion is I don't trust what he says, I don't trust what he does. And I don't, I wouldn't, if it was me, I wouldn't ask him for help. And I don't know how airstrikes can lead to regime change. I have no idea either. I'm just a normal person. I've never worked in politics. But inside, on the streets, I think people were as divided as the Iranian diaspora outside of Iran. I think there are a lot of people that are so done, they're so, it's been so bad that they're like anything. If they can attack and kill Khamenei, for example, without us having to pay a lot, sure, why not? And there are people that are like, absolutely not. We do not want anybody to attack us. And I don't, I'm not saying that we should take everybody's opinion and I take an average, I don't believe in that kind of attitude when it comes to making these decisions. And I don't presume that I know what's best so I'm just talking for myself. I'm just telling you what I think. And I think the best thing for Iran is for we have elites in prison, we have elites outside of Iran. We can have a group of people that would help the people, help referendums and help polling to move from this regime to a more democratic one if possible. Throughout 47 years they have tried to kill and silence everybody inside of Iran and they have done some assassination outside of Iran as well. But I still think Iranians themselves have people that are capable of steering this country at least towards a better path. I don't think we need any, anyone, particularly those who are responsible for genociding other people.

Interviewer (30:18)

Well, thank you so much for sharing your, your experience. Very much. Appreciate you.

Iranian Protester Guest (30:25)

Thank you.

Interviewer (30:25)

I'm sure that was, I'm sure that was, that was difficult and it's going to live with you for forever.

Iranian Protester Guest (30:32)

Thank you.

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