The aftermath following Iran’s disputed election last June was watched by much of the world online. YouTube clips showed Iranian citizens holding mass demonstrations in the streets of Tehran, and Twitter feeds streamed news of policy brutality and voter fraud.
But Roger Cohen, a columnist for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, didn’t need to watch any YouTube clips. In the 10 days following the Iranian elections, he witnessed the protests firsthand.
Cohen chronicled his experience during the Iran protests in a lecture called “A Revolution in Crisis: Iran after June 12” at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum Wednesday night. He told an audience of about 100 people that the protests were a transformative process for Iranians and that they have emerged “ready for democracy.”
“This was an immense cross-section (of Iranians), and they were united by one thing,” he said. “Not that they wanted to overthrow the Islamic Republic – although many of them did – but they wanted their votes counted. It was very simple.”
The talk was the first in a two-part lecture series sponsored by the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studiesto discuss Iran’s recent political upheaval. The second part, set to take place Nov. 5, features a lecture by Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American scholar and writer who was arrested in Tehran last year on false charges and incarcerated in Evin Prison, notorious for holding political prisoners.
Cohen’s lecture was rife with personal accounts of tragedy and courage, and herecalled Iranians he met during the protests. One student he spoke to during a mass demonstration talked to him about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attempts to suppress the protests.
“There was no end to this crowd; it was quite simply one of the most moving things and powerful things in its dignities I’ve ever seen,” Cohen said. “Ahmadinejad had gone out and called out anyone who hadn’t voted for him ‘hooligans and dust,’ I asked one young student what he felt, and he said to me, ‘We may be dust, but we will blind him.'”
Cohen also shared his opinions on a range of political issues regarding Iran, particularly America’s relationship with the Middle Eastern country.
“The U.S.-Iranian relationship is psychotic – with no other nation on Earth does the U.S. have so complete or elaborate a non-relationship,” he said.
But Cohen’s experience in Iran remains an emotional topic for him, as he found the brutality “hard to bear.”
“I’ve written and thought a lot about Iran this year; this wasn’t really planned,” Cohen said. “My obsession is intellectual and emotional. Iran crushes people with its tragedy.”
Weinberg freshman Aleah Papes said she found the lecture “informative,” but she worries college students aren’t tuned in to current events regarding Iran.
“(Cohen) was such an expert,” she said. “I think a majority of students aren’t really paying attention (to Iran).”
For other students, the level of emotion Cohen displayed during the presentation opened their eyes about the conflict.
“It’s different from reading one of his columns,” Weinberg sophomore Neal Emery said. “Where his columns might be more journalistic, I really liked hearing him respond because you could see and hear how he felt.”
Though the influx of footage shown via Twitter and YouTube provided the world with a better understanding of the hysteria that enveloped Iran post-election, for Cohen, journalism is more than posting short tweets online.
“For all the power of Twitter and new hybrid journalism that builds on images and impressions of citizen journalists, a void has been left from Iran’s banishment of foreign press,” Cohen said. “The basic truth gets lost – that to be a journalist is to bear witness.”
