September 14, 2005

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It was a truly hot and humid day in New York City Wednesday. Needless to say Midtown traffic was a nightmare not just because of the UN summit, but also the remnants of fashion week, :-) Wait till CMJ music festival starts tomorrow, then it will be world leaders, supermodels, fashion designers and the recording industry all crammed into a 20 block radius of midtown Manhattan, LOL.

But interestingly enough, as unusual and unlikely as the last grouping is, the combination of Iranian opposition groups like Monarchists and Mojaheds crammed into a single tight NYC block off the UN was even more amazing.

The Dag Hammarskjold Plaza was crammed with protesters of all nationalities for 'Despots Week'' at the UN. A clear majority were Iranians alongside Senegales and Chinese. The Mojahedeen, or MKO (See photos), had taken up the long stretch alongside a slight sprinkling of other Republican groups, Communists and the Green party.

The Republican section was awash with pictures and T-shirts of the Rajavis, as families mingled alongside cruising teens looking for hookups. Monarchists were splitting the front (facing 1st Ave and the UN) with MKO, and 2 dozen meditating Falon Gung practitioners from China. The Mojaheds used to get more people at their protests years ago, although they pulled together an impressively sizable group for the protests against Antareenejad at the UN today.

The Monarchist section clearly had more women and more bleached blondes, while the Mojahed group had more families and children. Altho, I have to say, the cuter guys were in the Mojahed section, ;-). Both groups were carrying and waving Sun and Lion flags (Parcham e Sheer O Khorshid), both groups had a steady stream of impassioned speakers, and both groups broke into spurts of dance music in between chants and slogans.

There were more photographers and videographers in the Monarchist section, where pictures of Reza Pahlavi were waved alongside the Sun & Lion flags. In between speakers, monarchists broke into a moving rendition of "Ey Iran" that would've brought tears to the eyes of any Iranian anywhere. I even peeked a Mojahed in a yellow MKO T-shirt cross the police barrier and join the monarchists during the Ey Iran sing along, it was a truly moving site.

I'm really sick of politics, totally sick of it, I basically O.D.ed on it, but seeing all the groups together today, Monarchist and Mojahed, was a beautiful sight. This lovely older Monarchist woman came up to me with a big bag of flags and offered me a Sun and Lion flag in English; I took one and thanked her in Farsi. She was so gracious, so lovely ....

In the end, this is the way it out to be, Monarchist, Mojahed, Marze Por Gohar, Communist, Green Party and everybody coming together to fight this death curse that is strangling Iran, everybody being exactly the way they are, changing nothing for anyone, but still uniting together as one to fight the murderous Mullah$ in this last chapter of the tragedy known as the Islamic Republic of Iran!

As for moi, I support Reza Pahlavi, and as for the rest of the groups, more power to you, be whatever you are, but lets set aside the in-fighting for now and deal with the threat at hand, because een Akhund hala hala ha vel kon neestan!

To all the groups who attended the protest today, many traveling form other states and other countries including Israel, thank-you for coming, thank-you for your care and compassion, your activism, your passion and dedication, your Meehan doosti and most importantly your camaraderie and solidarity with all the other groups including the ones you disapprove of.

PS. As for the pics, I left my other memory card at home by accident, and had very little room left on the card I had, so I took pictures mostly of the area I was in, i.e. the Monarchists. I'm sure more pics from the other side will be posted by others :-)

Spenta Mazda

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