Politics takes center stage at Seattle Iranian festival

The author of "Funny in Farsi" read her work. Musicians serenaded with Persian pop, hip-hop and folk songs. Dancers in resplendent costumes traced ancient movements from Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Tajikistan and elsewhere.

But it was politics, not culture, that took center stage in the minds of many people who turned out for the third annual Seattle Iranian Festival on Saturday at Seattle Center.

The festival got under way just as the unrest in Tehran took a new, violent turn as Iranians defied the country's supreme leader and continued protesting the results of the June 12 presidential election.

"I'm proud of the people. They've been repressed for so long," said Nahal Ghoghaie of Seattle.

The U.S.-born Ghoghaie used to work with Iranian refugees fleeing religious persecution, many of them Baha'i and Zoroastrians. Her mother, Elahe Ghoghaie, remembers Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution when citizens were free to marry across religions and fashionable young women paraded in miniskirts.

Today, women in Iran must cover up with hijab and beaches are segregated by gender, Elahe Ghoghaie said.

"The young, educated Iranians are paying the price for this regime," said Elahe Ghoghaie, of Dallas, whose family left Iran shortly after the 1979 revolution that deposed the Shah of Iran.

Effat Mirnia, a painter from Vancouver, B.C., who had several works for sale at the festival, was a 22-year-old university student in 1979 when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the secular monarchy ruled by the Shah.

The events in her homeland the past week have the same portentous feel, Mirnia said. She believes that Iran may be caught in a tide of yet-to-be determined history.

"It brought back memories of 1979," Mirnia said, as festivalgoers browsed amid vendors selling jewelry, scarves and Iranian food.

Mirnia believes that the election results declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor over opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi were rigged.

Many Iranian Americans say they fear further bloodshed.

Arash Oliaei, 24, left Iran as a 10-year-old. Now he sits on the board of the Iranian American Community Alliance — Seattle. Oliaei, along with his fellow board members, scrupulously avoided voicing opinions about the Iranian election. He said he worried about the human toll exacted by the unrest. Beyond that, he would say only that the Iranian diaspora is a diverse community, including supporters of both Ahmadinejad and Mousavi.

Elahe Ghoghaie had no reservation about saying that the disputed election may be the best thing that's happened to Iran in 30 years. Even if Ahmadinejad's victory is allowed to stand, she believes that protesters have ignited a fire for lasting reform.

"I'm really glad to see this happening," she said.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com