Iranian Protests Watched By Oregonians

By April Baer | June 15, 2009 4:41 p.m. | Updated: June 16, 2010 11:58 p.m. | Portland, OR

Events have been moving fast in Iran.  Last weekend's contested election results led hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets. Protests like these haven't been seen in Iran since the late seventies, when civil unrest led to a bloody and politically complicated revolution. As April Baer reports, the sight of the protests resonates deeply with one Oregonian who's kept his finger on the pulse of Iranian politics.
Goudarz Eghtadari says he hasn't slept much the past few nights. Goudarz Eghtadari: "From noon Friday I could not sit down. I was all the time  on the computer, watching the satellite TV, Al-Jazeera English, switching to CNN, switching to whatever I could find."Eghtadari came over from Iran almost twenty years ago. He works as an engineer in Vancouver, and he hosts a Middle Eastern affairs show on Portland's KBOO Radio. But he says despite the life he's built for himself here in the United States, it's impossible not to be moved by the Iranian demonstrations.Goudarz Eghtadari: "Hearing the voices from Tehran, you want to be there. After all, I'm an American citizen, but I care for that country."Watching via the internet and satellite TV, Eghtadari has watched as hundreds of thousands protested in the streets of Iran over the weekend. He can't help but feel tense--alongside  anyone else old enough to remember the Iranian revolution, and the violence and repression that met such protests in years gone by. Eghtadari says while he's not convinced the election results will be overturned. But he thinks it's going to be very difficult for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to co-exist with the reformist forces who've gained so much power.At the end of the day, Eghtadari says he hopes the American people will see the protests as proof Iran can change on its own. The last few days show, he says, the Iranian people are not inclined to follow the country's leadership in all matters.

© 2009 OPB

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