Free Iran PDX meets Jeff Merkley
On December 14th, a group of Iranians as well as one of the Free Iran PDX team members met with Senator Jeff Merkley regarding all the recent incidents in Iran. In the meeting, Senator Merkley discussed his understanding of the tragic events happening in Iran, as well as explained his own connection to Iran. Senator Merkley has had an interest in the relations between the US and Iran for a period of time now. In 1953, during the coup in Iran, is when Senator Merkley sparked his interest which resulted in his thesis statement on the relations between Iran and US. He continued to express his concerns about what is currently happening. The meeting began with the statistics of how many prisoners, arrests, deaths, and executions. As we were discussing, Senator Merkley mentioned how horrible the acts of punishment are and the fact that so many people are up for executions without trial. His concern was shown through his facial expressions and tone of voice, how concerning these statistics were.
In the meeting, he mentioned that during the Obama administration, the US didn't get involved nor wanted to but this is a different case. The 2022 revolution, has come across the US to take action as they have started with taking Iran off the women’s rights council of the United Nations. As a result, as his statement states, he stands with Iranians especially the women, and their bravery in their fight for basic human rights. Later, On December 22nd, he announced a statement in regard to the support of Iranians.
Photo by Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Free Iran PDX meets Wyden's Team
On December 16th, the Free Iran PDX team had a conference call with Lavanya Sridharan and Claire Kaliban, Foreign Affair advisors who work directly with senator Ron Wyden.
The conversation was about the recent unrests and events in Iran and the process of the revolution and how deeply concerned Iranian-Americans are for the estimated 18,000 jailed people who were imprisoned just for asking for their basic human rights. We also discussed the executions, tortures, and rapes of political prisoners by the current regime in Iran.
Both advisors voiced their empathy and shared how senator Wyden comes from a Holocaust refugee family and can relate to what Iranians currently experience. We were told how this is an ongoing conversation in Washington DC between senators and the ultimate goal is to have the conversation up in the Senate floor so supportive decisions can be made and major news networks would cover the true story. They added how this is a human rights crisis and needs to be acknowledged by world leaders.
Lavanya mentioned there are several domestic issues that the office has the responsibility to prioritize but they will be in touch with us and work on getting Senator Wyden to tweet about the Woman.Life.Freedom revolution and make an official statement supporting the Iranian people.
We look forward to hearing from them and hopefully an opportunity to speak with Senator Ron Wyden as well.
Photo by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg