Westwood Again Hub of Iranian Protest

Westwood (myFOXla.com) - While the eyes of the world are on Tehran, voices were raised among the sizeable population of Persians in Los Angeles Sunday.

Gigi Graciette has the video report.

The graphic Internet video of a teenaged Iranian girl named Neda -- which means "voice" or "call" in Farsi -- became a rallying call in the "Little Tehran" section of Los Angeles.

"She wasn't even in the demonstration," said a grieving Kia Saleki, himself 16 years old, as he waived a tricolor Iranian flag near the corner Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue. "She was standing by a side street, as she was slaughtered by five Basigie (government militia soldiers)."

About 150 people gathered in front of the Federal Building today, the first arrivals for what appears to be a large demonstration against the election widely perceived as rigged, which is planned for tonight. "The whole idea of us protesting here in the United States is to get acknowledgement of the genocide that is occurring in our (Iran) country," said a 29-year-old student who identified herself by her first name only, Shahrzad. "Our votes were stolen from us.

"And we want out to speak out against it and the Basigie militia that was deployed by the Islamic Republic that started, en mass, to kill people." said Shahrzad, one of the protest organizers and a 29-year-old student who refused to give her last name for fear of family members still in Iran.

Shahrzad said she refused to give out her last name because her brother, Ali, a student at a university in Iran has been in hiding for the past two days, since his involvement in protest.

On June 11, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pronounced himself re-elected as president, with 63 percent of the vote, defeating Mir Hossein Mousavi and other candidates considered more pro-Western.

"We're (Iranians) struggling to achieve the democracy that America has," Saleki said. "I've been here (in America) for 30 years so I know how beautiful it is to go out and have your vote count. But it doesn't count in Iran."

One 17-year-old girl named Roya, wearing a bright green sleeveless T- shirt and waving the Iranian flag, said she visited once Iran, the country where her parents were born.

"I've been there (Iran) once and it sucks," said the Clark Magnet High School senior. "Everywhere you go, you have to shut up.

"And those Basigie, I swear to God, are all terrorists," Roya said. "They take them out of jail, pay them, and they go kill people."

"I got family out there (in Iran) dying for democracy, for the right to vote," Roya said. "Not only was it not a free and fair election, it's basic human rights that (were) being ignored.

"I can't believe a country like America that voted for (Pres. Barack) Obama for change won't do anything. It's our responsibility as human beings to watch out for each other."

The unrest in Iran is being called the largest since the Iranian revolution of 1979, and is potentially a threat the stability of the Islamic state. Iran has enforced a foreign news media blackout and is blocking cell phones and Internet access.

"Everything, right now, is coming through Youtube. There are no foreign press there" Saleki said. "All the news is through Youtube and Facebook," he said. "So far there are about 300 people dead by government agents."