Nazy (a pseudonym) is an activist with the Voice of Freedom and Democracy in Iran, which organised a protest outside the Iranian Embassy on July 9. She came to Australia on July 6 after attending the pro-democracy protests in Tehran that were organised in response to the Iranian regime's repression of the mass demonstrations alleging vote-rigging in the June 12 presidential elections.
She spoke to Green Left Weekly's Peter Robson about her experiences of the mass protests.
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What are the main things drawing people into action?
They wanted their votes. [The regime] didn't respect our votes, it changed our votes.
The people are angry. For 30 years, they arrest people [who oppose the government] and they say the regime of Ayatollah Khomeni is best for you. They don't like us to be educated.
They changed the votes to make it seem like they have the support of the people and show to the world that people respected them. People tried to vote for opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, not current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, so [the regime] changed the votes.
People protested against the government because they don't like it. For 30 years, this government has been committing state terrorism, it has stopped information by jamming mobile phones. And so people voted for Mousavi, that's how it started.
The people overall haven't liked this government for a very long time. It is very oppressive, it has been destroying lives, it doesn't allow women's rights. They lie to the people — big lies not just little ones.
People used Mousavi as a diversion to come out onto the streets and express their anger. Because if they went out against the whole regime, they would turn Mousavi on themselves as well as the regime, and then they would have no help.
They have used Mousavi to create a wall between the system and themselves.
How have the security forces responded?
There were more than 3 million people gathered against the Iranian government, but they attacked the protests.
First, when we were walking, they attacked us with boiling water. When we came back again, they attacked us with pepper spray.
They could see that the numbers were getting higher and people were getting more and more angry. In order to scare people, they grabbed someone and beheaded him in front of the crowd with a machete.
If people looked them straight in the eye, they would just hold up a gun and start shooting.
They would enter houses, without any permit or jurisdiction, and break everything and destroy people's cars. They would break the windows, the TVs, the computers — they would damage everything.
When protesters fought with police, one was half-dead. The police forcibly attacked the protesters and quickly picked up the body and threw it in the back of a truck. They took him away, so that there would be confusion and people would not know what happened to such, and they could keep the [official] numbers of deaths low.
People lost count of how many were killed.
A lot of people who were arrested or killed, no one has any idea where they are. Some of the people who were disappeared, they said, "If you want the body back, you have to pay [US]$5000 and we will give the body back".
And on top of that [relatives or friends] would have to take part of the body as well. In Iranian culture that's a big insult.
[I saw] a seven-year-old boy with a green ribbon in his hand as part of the protest, walking in the street. The police were watching him. The police shot the little boy.
Because people were so angry, they ran at the police. The police had acid pumps and started throwing it at the people and people ran back.
When the people returned, the body was gone. All of this, I saw myself.
Has there been much participation from trade unions or other organisations?
It doesn't only affect the unions. Ahmadinejad attacked all people.
In fact, we don't have proper unions for workers because they are all controlled by Ahmadinejad. There is no freedom in the country, it is a complete dictatorship. It is impossible to have a body that is freely elected, or a left-wing party or a workers' party or anything like that without massive corruption.
They try to kill whoever stands up to them and have a group of their own. If there is a group [allowed], it's completely corrupt and it's for [the elite's] use. They create it for a purpose.
It's name might be workers' union, but in actual fact, it is their own government organisation.
For 30 years, they change our votes, but this time there were so many advertisements to get the people to vote, and many did. Previously, very few voted. So it was clear that Ahmadinejad won by an incorrect vote. This time, more people came to vote for Mousavi not Ahmadinejad. In the past, Ahmadinejad paid people to vote for him.
This is why people were angry because [the regime] looked them in the eye and lied to them and everyone knew.
It was just propaganda, just a big lie. They said that the protesters were organised by the CIA and you can see how big a lie that is.
I want the Australian government to cut ties with Iran and fire the ambassador. We don't want Western governments to protect this government.