Austin floats support for Iran protests

AUSTIN - A patch of green balloons wavered over downtown Austin Wednesday, filled not only with helium, but also with hope.

Protesters gathered in front of Waterloo Records on Lamar to contest the recent reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.

The air was humid, and thick with urgency, as the coordinators of the event gave instructions on what to do if the police were to arrive.  Luckily for the protestors, no intervention came.

The crowd chanted against Ahmadinejad and demanded three main things: a reelection supervised by the United Nations, the release of all imprisoned protesters and answers about the widely-believed election fraud.

The protesters wore green clothing and donned green cloth bands around their wrists to show their affiliation with The Green Movement, a new group formed to oppose the elections in Iran.

Anousha Shahsavari, 33, says since the Green Movement arose last month, she’s become very sensitive to the color.

“Just seeing the green of the Whole Foods sign across the street makes me well up inside,” Shahsavari said. “In Iran you aren’t even allowed to wear green and black anymore.  It’s not allowed by the government.”

The crowd of protestors swelled from 140 attendants at 7 p.m., to 210 volunteers at 8 p.m., the peak of the gathering. This included spectators-turned-volunteers coming out of Whole Foods and about three drivers passing by who decided to join in.

Many protesters said they’re afraid to give out their names to the media because of killings and threats to their visas while traveling abroad, which poses a problem since many plan on traveling to Iran in the near future.

Farbod Shafier, 38, says he voted in the election three weeks ago via mail here in Austin.

“We’re doing this in a right manner, not a fighting manner,” Shafier said. “Austin is diverse town, so there’s a lot of people here that care about what’s happening in Iran.”

Mike Corwin, 28, is a member of the International Socialist Organization.

“We’re all very inspired by the many ordinary people in Iran that have taken to the streets to fight against injustice social freedom and so forth,” Corwin said. “This issue started out as a protest against election fraud, but I actually think the fact since millions of people have taken to the streets, that it actually goes beyond that, it’s transforming politics inside of Iran forever.”

In response to critics of protests such as these in the United States, Corwin says that the Average Joe should learn something from this example of ordinary people in Iran.

“Here at home we’ve got a lot of problems we’ve got to deal,” Corwin said. “I think we’ve got an opening right now… Obama’s created some space for ordinary people to demand health care and to end all this spending on war and more money for education jobs.”

At the end of the protest around 9 p.m., the volunteers parted ways and took their balloons with them, instead of letting them take flight, in order to remain environmentally-friendly.