At vigil for massacred protesters, Seattle-area Iranians process the start of war

Local Iranian community members gathered at a vigil Sunday afternoon at Seattle City Hall to share art, music, dance, and healing conversation.

The stated purpose of the event was to memorialize those who lost their lives during the Islamic Republic’s deadly crackdown on protesters in January, which had a death toll estimated in the tens of thousands. With the U.S. and Israel striking Iran over the weekend, the event also provided a place to process the beginning of war.

One of the artists who showcased their work was dancer Parmida Ziaei. Dressed in black and wielding a flowing red scarf, she swayed and spun, using the line of her body to show sorrow and strength.

“I wanted to share that pain and grief that I have personally been feeling, but I also know everyone, collectively, is feeling. Maybe share a moment of healing together,” Ziaei said.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson was among those watching Ziaei's performance.

“What we share with the people of Iran is wanting to be able to live a dignified life and to have a say in how we are governed, and to be able to determine our own destiny, collectively,” Wilson said.

The Seattle Isfahan Sister City Advocacy organization originally planned to hold their typical Nowruz, or Persian New Year, celebration. After the Iranian government’s massacre of protesters in January, they decided to change the gathering into a vigil, welcoming Iranian artists and musicians to share their works.

In the City Hall lobby, paintings and photographs commemorated the suffering of families and friends whose loved ones went to the streets in cities across Iran to speak out against a repressive regime, and never came home.

“My whole family is back in Iran," said Marjan, who created a slide show of names, faces, and stories of those confirmed dead in the protests. "So when there is an event with the magnitude of this, you're every day thinking, what's happening to them?”

Marjan did not want to share her full name out of concern for the safety of people in her home country.

“[The victims] are kids, [teenagers] and youth of like 23, 24. The capacity of the sorrow is unbelievable,” she said. “We need to know their stories and tell their stories, because the truth is, if you look around the world, it's happening everywhere. And if we don't tell their stories, the future may repeat it.”

Many Iranians in the Seattle area and beyond celebrated the killing Saturday of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the dictator who assumed rule in Iran in 1989.

Attendees at Sunday's vigil expressed joy at that news, but also trepidation.

“He was evil man, and many innocent people's blood is on his hands,” Mitra Freer said. “But also I'm very worried. Who's going to replace him? I am concerned for the extent of this war. How [much] more innocent life is going to be lost?”

RELATED: Hegseth: 'We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we're finishing it'

Freer said it was healing to gather with other Iranians and commemorate the sacrifice of protesters who risked their lives for freedom. But with the start of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran 48 hours prior, she was transported back to her experience living through the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

“All this memory came back… So it's been tough. It's hard to connect with my family back home right now because the internet is down right now," Freer said. "So, I've been able to talk to some of them briefly because the connection gets disconnected, but it's very hard.”

Marjan, who also lived through the war in the 1980s, recalled growing up in a climate of fear .

“Every night, when they dropped the bombs, you're happy," she said. "Oh, it wasn't our house. It wasn't me.”

RELATED: Some Middle East flights resume, but thousands of travelers are still stranded by war

Every new headline brings an overwhelming, conflicting mix of emotions, Ziaei said.

“I'm feeling hope, I'm feeling fear, I'm feeling anger, I'm feeling frustrated that my people are always in the middle of decisions that are not in our control,” she said. “I think that desperation and frustration with the current government in Iran has been so intense that people are looking for a way out, and that's very understandable. And at the same time, we know that war always has devastation behind it…We are all worried about our families. It's just really, really hard to know what's going to happen.”