“I got shot in the face:” Kalgoorlie-Boulder Iranian community shares grief over tragic humanitarian crisis

This is the pink and yellow plastic bullet that was used to shoot Mohammad in the face as he protested last month in his home country, Iran. The shooters aim for the eyes, he said, to try and blind those who speak out against the extreme Islamic government that runs the country. Mohammad, Mona, Anna, Susan and Nima are five Iranians living in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. These are not their real names – they have asked that their identities be hidden to protect their families back home. Mohammad was spending Christmas with his family in Iran’s capital, Tehran, when the protests broke out. They were sparked by the country’s economic crisis, ballooning inflation levels and currency collapse. They evolved to demand an entire regime change and the end of the Islamic Republic rule in Iran. With protests in more than 400 cities, Mohammad joined the crowds in a suburban area of Tehran for one of 100 protests in the capital city. “I was there when protests started. I was in the streets,” he said. “When I came out, I saw lots of my school friends, lots of my previous neighbours,” he said. “We all knew each other, and we all came out for protest, but it was very severe, and it was very brutal. “Tear gasses came from everywhere. I could count more than 50 tear gasses – just one of them would be enough for that many people. “The elders didn’t know what the tear gas was, and they couldn’t breathe. “They were shooting noise – a sound gun. “After this, all phones are black. No one could even send a text message. “Some elders volunteered to come forward, because they said, ‘we have lived enough’. “The next day in the government news, they said that if everyone comes out, we cannot guarantee their life.” The protests continued the next day, and Mohammad said they went out knowing it would be even more dangerous. “They started shooting people. We tried to run away. I got shot in the face, luckily it was plastic,” he said. “In those days – the eighth and ninth of January – 10,000 people were blinded in just my city. Just in my city, over 12,000 people died.” “After that, we had to cut off our trip and come back to Australia.” Anna, a local engineer, spent her childhood growing up and attending school in Iran. “We were forced to follow Islam,” she said. “They say to us, ‘if you don’t follow this policy, you will go to hell, and they will burn your body.” She said the students were told that they would be hung for eternity in hell by whatever strands of hair were uncovered by their hijabs. “We grew up with this trauma and fear,” she said. Susan, a Kalgoorlie-Boulder doctor, said she thinks it would be hard for Australians who have grown up in a free country to understand how restricted Iranians are. “We just want to get rid of this Islamic regime and tell all the people of the world that this is what Iranians want.” “Maybe 90 per cent of the population in Iran don’t want them. But they don’t have a weapon, they don’t have power. They can’t do anything. That’s why we are shouting for help from outside of Iran.” Nima recently saw on social media that an old school friend of his was killed in the protests. “He was brave enough to stay in that country and raise his voice to get things right…but I wasn’t brave enough,” he said. “He was brave enough, and he was killed. I cannot live in peace.” Nima said he knew a war in Iran was the only way his people could be free from oppression, but he found it hard to wish war upon his country. “In the past two weeks, I haven’t been able to have contact with my family because of the internet” he said. “I couldn’t sleep at night thinking Iran is going to be in a fight with the USA, and I was just thinking about my family being killed – being shot in the street. “There will be consequences of a war – you can’t have a war without consequences – and the consequences will be on people. “They will pay for this war. We will pay for this war. But there is no other way other than a war for our people to have their basic rights. “They have ruined people’s lives. That’s the simple explanation of what they have done to people, and they need to go. They will go one day. I know. I’m sure. I’m just not sure when.” For Mona, a Kalgoorlie-Boulder nurse, watching the systematic killing of Iranian civilians from a distance has been one of the most distressing experiences of her life. “I have dedicated my life to protecting and caring for people. In Iran, human life is being treated as a disposable – injured protesters are afraid to seek medical help because the hospital may report them to authorities, and health care workers themselves are under surveillance and pressure,” she said. “This is a direct violation of medical ethics and basic human rights… No government should be allowed to kill its people to maintain control.” “I ask the people of Kalgoorlie and Australia to listen, to care, and to remember that behind every statistic from Iran is a real human life, a son, a daughter, a parent and a family that will never be the same again.”