VANCOUVER — Dozens of Iranian students and allies held a protest at the University of British Columbia on Friday calling for the toppling of Iran's Islamic regime.The event, organized by the UBC Persian Club, is just one of many anti-ayatollah demonstrations taking place across the city this weekend as regime forces continue to massacre civilians.Things kicked off in front of the bookstore with a speech detailing the horrors faced by those living in Iran and explaining why it's important for those of us in the west to be their voice amid widespread regime-imposed communication blackouts.."Today, we the Iranian student associations across Canada stand united in solidarity with our people in Iran who are risking their lives to reclaim our country from the dictatorship of the Islamic republic," a speaker said. "As we stand here today, an estimated 12,000 Iranians have been killed in less than two weeks while the government has shut down the internet to massacre people in silence."She went on to declare that "we as students across Canada will not let this massacre go unseen.""Iranians across all 31 provinces are demanding an end to this regime," she said. "This is not the result of foreign pressure — it is the result of decades of brutality and the ideological hijacking of an entire nation."She noted that "for nearly five decades, the people of Iran have lived under a violent, theocratic dictatorship imposed through mass killing, repression, and fear."Protestors then made their way up Main Mall to the Engineering Cairn, which was painted red, white, and green..Along the way they chanted "Down with Khamenei," and other anti-regime slogans..Among those in attendance was Nousha, an Iranian-Canadian student at UBC who was last in Iran during the Green Revolution and saw first-hand how brutal the regime can be."Unfortunately, people are very uneducated about Iran," she told the Western Standard. "Prior to Mahsa Amini in 2022, people didn't even know the difference between Iran and Iraq when you would ask."Nousha pointed out that while Iran is "very misunderstood in the first place," the conflict between Israel and Palestine has added another level of confusion for westerners."The Islamic republic in Iran is supporting Palestine, so for the western audience who don't actually understand the deeper political context and the strategic moves that the IRGC is making, that makes them think, oh, they must be good people because they want to liberate Palestine," she said. "What people need to understand is just because the IRGC is supporting Palestine and Israel is now supporting the Iranian movement for freedom does not make either side 'good' or 'bad'."Nousha also drew attention to the media ecosystem, where posts are amplified regardless of whether the content is true or not."I think all of these situations are much more nuanced, and the average population, unfortunately, doesn't have the education and historical background stuff to understand these contexts," she said, "so it's very easy for people to adopt other people's opinions off of seeing videos on TikTok and Instagram and like, 'oh, I agree with this person mostly of the time, so if they're saying this now, I agree with them too' and then they just keep repeating that information to other people and it just grows from there.".'CLOSE TO COLLAPSE': Pahlavi calls on int'l community to help people of Iran topple Islamic regime.Across the world, Iranians have been calling out one man's name — Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown prince. Nousha explained why."The thing with Reza is that he is the only central figure that all the different ethnic tribes of Iran recognize that can unite all of us," she said, highlighting the diversity of those in attendance at the protest. "You have Kurds here, Lors here, Turks, here, Persians, here, all kinds of different backgrounds, but they've all come here because the shah has been able to unite us, and that's why people are currently supporting him, even people who don't necessarily want a monarchy or necessarily want him in power."Nousha added that many are supporting him simply because he's "managing to get western attention, as well as a foreign aid for us.""He's currently in talks with Trump," she said, "and although you can dislike Trump and dislike his domestic policies, if he comes to help Iran, I'm all for it — and same with Israel. People are f*cking dying.."To people who are currently upset with Israel and America getting involved, I promise you, we're not going to let them come and take over," Nousha continued. "People are giving up their life … That goes to show how much they've had it, and they will not willingly go under another kind of dictatorship or be controlled by another nation that they don't believe in."Pahlavi has repeatedly made it clear that if the people overthrow the regime, he would come back to Iran — but only to oversee its transition from theocratic dictatorship to democracy"He is simply going to come and create the grounds for us to be able to have a democracy where we can have fair elections and have representatives from all of the different ethnic tribes in Iran and have a real democratic government," Nousha explained. "He's never said, 'I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna be king,' and that's what people don't understand."Her sentiments were shared by Faraz, a 25-year-old Iranian-Canadian who was born in Vancouver but spent his teenage years in Tehran."It's strange to come out here today and know that you're gonna be safe in this protest," he told the Western Standard. If I was in Iran, I would be having to make the decision whether I'm going to risk my life tonight.".Faraz urged non-Iranians to understand that the situation there under the regime is worse than anyone in the west could possibly imagine. He cited the violently-enforced theocratic laws, lack of women's rights, and the fact that since the currency has lost so much of its value, life has become even more difficult.The Western Standard also spoke with Hasti, one of the organizers, following the protest."The energy was great, and I'm really happy with the number of people that showed up to show their support for Iran," she said, "especially really proud of our non Iranian community for showing up to show their support."When asked what westerners get wrong about the situation, Hasti pointed to claims that foreign nations are fuelling the protests in Iran."There's been some talk about the protests being backed by external forces, and I think it's really important to know that the movement that's happening in Iran is being led by and for the people of Iran," she said. Whatever geopolitical issues exist, I don't have a comment on, but it's wrong to say that the revolution started with external forces."
