From the very announcement of the first official result of the presidential election, the Iranian and French-Iranian community reacted. They explained the nature and the scale of the electoral fraud and the reasons of the popular protests in Iran to the French press. Iranians spontaneously gathered every day in Paris and then started to organize events to show their support to the Iranian people. After the violent repression of the peaceful protests by the armed militia and plainclothes, more and more people joined the Iranian community of France to denounce the use of violence against citizens claiming the respect of their most legitimate rights. On Friday the 26th of June, hundreds of people gathered to release green balloons and light candles to pay tribute to the peaceful victims of the militia in Iran. The ceremony took place on the Trocadero square/human rights court in front of the Eiffel Tower. A video-art movie, IranMozaik (iranmozaik.com), showing the protests all over Iran with the slogans of the peaceful protesters was projected on the wall of Trocadero’s theatre. On Sunday the 28th of June, thousands of people gathered in the Bastille square in support of the Iranian people. French political figures and Iranian and French artists joined the gathering and the protest from the Bastille square to the Nation square. On Thursday the 2nd of July, a gathering was organized in front of the Russian embassy protesting against Russia’s haste to congratulate Ahmadinejad. On Wednesday the 8th of July, Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris joined the Iranian and French-Iranian community in front of the Paris City Hall to express his solidarity to the brave people of Iran fighting for their rights and freedoms. The video-art movie IranMozaik was officialy inaugurated on this occasion on a screen in front of the Paris City Hall. On Thursday the 9th of July, an impressive gathering took place in front of the Sorbonne University to commemorate the student revolt against the militia’s attacks on the Tehran University campus on the July 9th, 1999. Letters written by Iranian students were read during this gathering. The crowd then walked from Sorbonne to the Paris City Hall, showing the determination of Iranian peaceful protesters to the people of Paris. Paris is now getting prepared to receive the longest petition scroll ever signed in history. It says « Ahmadinejad is NOT the President of Iran » and thousands of Iranians signed it in more than 190 cities, all over the world. This scroll, made of all individual cities’ petitions sewed together, will be unrolled in Paris, on the 25th of July, the global day for Iran, in front of the Eiffel Tower. -Independent committee against the repression of Iranian citizens www.whereismyvote.fr
