Among those attending was Ali Jafari-Gh, an Iranian-born academic who teaches animal science at Massey University.<\/p>\n
Originally from Karaj, near Tehran, Jafari-Gh said he had travelled to Iran over the New Year period and witnessed protests first-hand.<\/p>\n
He joined demonstrations during his visit and was injured when security forces opened fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hit in the foot by gunfire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the people out on the streets were young and thousands came out to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jafari-Gh said the experience reinforced his decision to speak publicly in New Zealand about the situation in his home country.<\/p>\n
Shirin, who has lived in New Zealand for about 13 years after leaving Iran, said she joined the demonstration to show support for people protesting against the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople raised their voices because life has become very hard,\u201d Shirin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany innocent people have been killed or arrested. We are here to support them and show they are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several protesters said they supported international strikes against Iranian Government targets, describing them as a necessary intervention rather than a war.<\/p>\n
Dr Reza Farhour, a general practitioner who has lived in New Zealand for more than a decade, said demonstrators believed the action was aimed at helping ordinary Iranians rather than harming them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not see what is happening as a war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see it as a rescue mission for the Iranian people. People have tried for decades to change the system peacefully and were met with bullets and prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farhour said the aim of the gathering was also to bring attention to what he described as a lack of information coming out of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main aim is to echo the Iranian voice, which is shut down by the Government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no internet and no media coverage there, so we want people here to know what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Participants said communication with relatives in Iran had become increasingly difficult because of internet shutdowns and media restrictions.<\/p>\n
Amir, who has lived in New Zealand for more than 16 years, said he had struggled to reach family members in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur families are living in fear, but they are also hopeful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants their country to be under attack, but many people believe this operation could help free them from the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among those attending was Ali Jafari-Gh, an Iranian-born academic who teaches animal science at Massey University. Originally from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19271,83549,16555,16420,168147,111,43,139,69,90,37250,16189,42580,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-317411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-chain","9":"tag-diaspora","10":"tag-form","11":"tag-human","12":"tag-iranian","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-on","18":"tag-penny","19":"tag-smith","20":"tag-waterfront","21":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}