Heciel Nieves Bonilla, News Editor
Several demonstrations occurred in Richmond over the weekend in opposition to the conflict in Iran, which began on Feb. 28 with a joint American-Israeli aerial attack.
The two countries’ strikes and bombing operations over the weekend have killed several leaders of the Islamic republic, including its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Many Iranians in the country and abroad have celebrated, while some have denounced the unilateral intervention or fear further violence, according to The Guardian.
Wide-scale conflict has since spilled out into the region. Iran has executed retaliatory attacks throughout the Middle East, striking U.S. bases and declaring the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway which moves over a fifth of the world’s oil.
The conflict has caused massive disruptions in life across the Middle East and gulf region, including for VCUarts Qatar students, who have been sheltering and attending classes online since Saturday.
In Richmond, several protests since Saturday have expressed anger at the strikes on Iran, the latest of which occurred on Monday at Monroe Park. Over 100 people showed up despite cold and rainy weather.
Speakers at the demonstration hailed from the Virginia chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL, Starbucks Workers United and Virginia 50501. They decried the United States’ expensive military actions with chants such as “not a penny not a dollar, we won’t pay for war and slaughter.”
Speakers denounced what they called imperialist and unjust violence and broadly tied Iran to other United States military actions and the experiences of people in Venezuela, Gaza and at home.
PSL member and frequent protest organizer Violeta Vega noted similarities to the domestic actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she said have targeted people who look like her.
“ICE agents snatching children, snatching brothers, snatching fathers, snatching children, snatching fathers, taking away children, ruining lives — that’s the same force, the same aggression that is being given away to a country thousands of miles away,” Vega said.
At least 175 people, mostly children, were killed at an Iranian girls’ elementary school on Saturday in a strike by either the United States or Israel, according to the New York Times.
PSL member Reed Baldwin spoke against both the foreign policy of the Trump administration and against U.S. leadership and elites, broadly condemning the “pedophiles” at the helm of economic and political life.
“We have to be aware of these things and we have to fight against them,” Baldwin said. “It’s Iranians today, it is you tomorrow.”
Black Alliance for Peace member Taylor Clemmons promoted a petition to bar the U.S. and Israel from participating in international sporting events. She asked Richmonders to come out to future protests as the weather gets warmer.
“Tell people, ‘I know that the kids that are dying don’t look like you, it doesn’t matter,’” Clemmons said. “I used to work in education. So when I see that 50+ kids are dead, I think about the children that I used to teach, that I used to counsel. They will do the same thing to my Black children, my brown children and my poor white children.”
Reynolds Community College student Sylvia Radoulov said she is concerned the conflict could spiral into more global violence. She called herself a “born and raised Richmond protester.”
“I think every person matters when it comes to a protest, especially when it’s a day like this one,” Radoulov said. “I think the situation is depressing and you’re allowed to sit in that and be sad for a while, but then you’ve got to come out and show some action.”
Political science student Kasra Sanatkar was born in Iran’s capital Tehran and expressed frustration at fellow politically left Richmonders over their reaction to the situation, particularly through the anti-war protests.
“That same crowd was completely silent last month when my friends and family were in the streets protesting and watched thousands of people get massacred,” Sanatkar stated. “But now all of the sudden when the U.S. and Israel are involved they have a lot to say.”
He described a situation in which, when faced with a choice between a repressive regime and violent intervention by the United States and Israel, many Iranians choose the latter.
“I hate to see my country at war and civilians die but the people inside of Iran have called for foreign help,” Sanatkar stated. “Even as an Iranian living in exile it’s not really my place to choose for them what they want under a dictatorship.”
VCU political science professor Bill Newmann told The CT a notable aspect of the war is the many goals the Trump administration has set out for its military action — with regime change, nuclear capability and ballistic missile destruction and degrading Iran’s military among them. Those tasks are individually difficult but could take weeks or longer to achieve as a whole, if at all possible, Newmann said.
“Iran’s government institutions and military structure are deeply institutionalized and won’t shatter easily,” Newman said. “There aren’t really alternatives to it, so destroying the regime may result in a chaotic situation.”