Underestimating Questions

It was year 2009, during the presidential elections in Iran. The main nominates were picked and there were four candidates for people to vote for. But there were two main candidates that were dominating the news, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a nationalistic extremist for a second term, and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a reformist former prime minister. When it came to schools, family gatherings, national TV shows, magazines and newspapers, Mir-Hossein Mousavi was receiving a lot of attention and praise for his reformist ideals, while Ahmadinejad was the target for the most recent problems regarding the horrid image and new sanctions that he has caused to be imposed on Iran.

Many were still baffled by how Ahmadinejad received the votes for the first term, and there were a lot of theories and speculations that the supreme leader simply chose him. After all, the supreme leader can intervene in any government process, but people in positions such as a president, or foreign minister, can influence his thoughts for government process. Ahmadinejad’s first presidential term was a disaster for Iran. His troublesome sentiments, especially about the holocaust, caused outrage everywhere; most of all in Iran, but that also caused the extremists in Iran becoming confident in being open with their ideals. He was considered as a joke by most at the beginning, but that quickly turned serious and Iran was suffering dearly. I along everyone that I knew was hoping for anyone other than him.

The election day comes with results the next day, everyone at the edge of their seats, and of course its Ahmadinejad again, with nightmares becoming a reality. I felt like I was being choked, silence dominated all of us, and we felt like nothing could be done about it. But the night of the announcement, a surprising riot ensued, everyone hit the streets mad, protesting for their stolen votes. I had the biggest smile when I saw the movement from my room window. We, the green movement, wanted the country back. Troops were immediately dispatched to suppress the protests and it was chaos. The protests lasted for a whopping one-year, about 30 people were killed and hundreds were arrested. I was part of the protests, so were my family members, friends, school staff and etc. We hit the streets, said Takbir on the rooftops every night, went on silent marches, and we stood up to brutality for a whole year. Yes the protests wore out after the year, but they didn’t fail, since we currently have a reformist better than Mousavi in office. Some say the supreme leader is scared shitless, some say it’s a ruse, but everything is working out for the absolute better so far.

I came to United States right after the protests were suppressed, and I thought to myself, “Well, at least in U.S. I don’t have to deal with any Ahmadinejads…” Looking back now, I see how naïve I was on my expectations of United States, now with a frontrunner being even more extreme than Ahmadinejad. I still think that my expectations were fair, especially for the world’s most influential country, but I, with more than half of America, are sharing the same feeling.

Ahmad Mir Mohammad Sadeghi