URBANA — Dozens of students and community members gathered at the Main Quad at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Friday March 6 to show their support for the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran.
The gathering marked seven days since Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by an attack led by Israel and the U.S. It was organized by a community group known as UIUC Iranians for Revolution.
“This is, in fact, not the beginning of a new war,” said Vesal Razavimaleki, a physics graduate student at U of I, one of the organizers of the event. “In fact, the Iranian people have been at war with this regime for decades.”
Razavimaleki said he believes intervention from other countries is necessary to end the regime.
“The Iranian people have tried everything. They’ve tried reform, they’ve tried peaceful protests,” he said. “Even peaceful protesting is met with gunfire and mass killing, so this is the final stage as far as the Iranian people are concerned.”
The group posted a graphic on Instagram promoting the gathering, saying, “Iranians have paid for this freedom with their blood. Now we must be their voice.”
Many who gathered said they have family members who are still in the Iran. U of I graduate student Malika Shekari said she has only been able to talk to her parents in Iran for a few seconds at a time due to internet blackouts. She said she’s stressed, but for the first time she believes the Iranian people will have a chance to get rid of the brutal regime.
“This is the first time in my life that I have hope. And I think a lot of people that are standing here right now, and a lot of people inside Iran also have this sort of hope,” Shekari said.
Shekari said she spent the first 22 years of her life in Iran, and when she first moved to the US, she worried she wouldn’t be able to return.
“You can imagine how hopeless I was all these years that I’ve been here, thinking that I might never be able to go back and visit my family…and visit where I grew up,” She said. “Now I finally am seeing some hope of going back and visiting and I mean, what’s better than that? That’s my top priority in life right now.”
Negin Valizadegan, a U of I instructor and Urbana resident, said she lived under the Islamic Republic for most of her life and said that many anti-war people don’t understand how dangerous the regime is.
“We’re trying to let people know what’s actually going on, because… this is our lived experience,” Valizadegan said, “So the situation is not that we just want some luxury, it’s just to have a normal life.”
Several members of the registered student organization Students Supporting Israel also attended the event to show their support.
“Our mission is to support Israel, and part of Israel, right now they’re campaigning with America and taking down the Iranian regime and taking down their nuclear weapons,” said U of I undergrad Claire Eisenstadt. “So of course, we are supporting that fight.”