Chico State’s Arash Negahban opens up about his family’s struggles in Iran, where communication shutdowns add to the fear.
CHICO, Calif. – Thousands of protesters have been reportedly killed in Iran. The unrest, which began in December, has been fueled by economic collapse and the devaluation of the national currency.
Arash Negahban, a Chico State professor who is from Iran, shared insights about the situation and his family’s current experiences there.
“There has been many protests especially over the last several years that happened and this time it was mostly due to the economic collapse and devaluation of the national currency and that is on top of all the suppressed demands of the Iranian people over the last four decades,” Negahban said.
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“We are hearing that, you know, the police goes inside people’s homes to get access to the roofs and to be able to shoot at people,” Negahban said. He expressed concern over the safety of everyday citizens, stating that even those not directly involved as protesters could be at risk.
Negahban said he wants people here to keep something in find: “I feel the biggest misconception is the separation… making sure that people of the world understand there is this big difference between the Iranian people and the Iranian regime,” he said.
Communication with family members in Iran has been challenging for Negahban. “Not only the internet was shut down and this was one of the hardest crackdowns of the internet,” he said.
“I haven’t been able to hear from my family for over 10 days and I’m hearing that there is also an internal shutdown of the communication. So even the landlines and mobile phones within the country is shut down and people can’t communicate and this has always been what the regime had done in order to prevent people to be able to communicate and organize,” he said.
Negahban also commented on Iran’s political system. “It’s an election but you can’t have free candidates coming in,” he said, emphasizing the lack of democracy.
The ongoing unrest in Iran remains a critical concern, with limited communication and reports of violence against protesters. Negahban said the government has all the military power. “People are standing bare hands against bullets… They need some international support, but the form of the support, how that happens, that is very complicated… and ensure that at the same time the replacing government that comes in is not going to be worse than the current one,” Negahban said.