Roughly 50 Persian students and community members held a vigil in front of the UC Santa Barbara Library to honor the protestors killed by Iranian security forces on Jan. 22. Attendees, many of whom have family from Iran, hoped to spread awareness about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s violent suppression of dissent.
Community members wanted to take action following the estimated 12,000 to 20,000 protesters killed by the regime. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
The vigil was largely organized by professor of Persian language and literature Aazam Feiz. She said members of the Persian Student Group came to her and expressed that they wanted to take action following the estimated 12,000 to 20,000 protesters killed by the regime, as well as enacting a full internet blackout.
“They are mostly heritage students and sometimes people with no background in [the] Persian language, and they know about this news and they worry for their families. So they came to me and they told me, ‘we want to do this,’” Feiz said.
Once the vigil began at 4:30 p.m., participants lit candles around a sign that read “12,000 KILLED IN 2 DAYS.” Attendees held signs reading “stop execution in Iran” and “Reza Pahlavi,” the name of an exiled Iranian opposition figure who has heavily criticized the Islamic Republic, among other signs.
Feiz first spoke to the crowd about the crackdown on ongoing protests in Iran and read the names of several people who were killed by Iranian security forces. According to Feiz, over 100,000 people have been arrested in Iran, and the government is denying access to any information regarding detainees’ cases, making it difficult for citizens to communicate with family members who have potentially been arrested.
“There is no record of those who have been arrested. As a mother, as a father, I don’t know where my child is,” Feiz said. “If I go anywhere, they say we don’t have any records. So these people are kept in different prisons, and they don’t have enough space for them. We worry for those people.”
Participants lit candles around a sign that read “12,000 KILLED IN 2 DAYS.” Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Participants waved the Iranian flag, while chanting “Freedom for Iran,” “Genocide in Iran” and “Trump act now,” among others. Fourth-year financial mathematics and statistics and data science double major Sahand Ahmadi spoke on the importance of the people of Iran reclaiming their flag.
“Almost every Iranian will tell you this, this is truly an occupying force. These people do not represent Iranian culture identity in any way. And same goes for their flag, which is why it’s so important for us that we reclaim the flag, the true flag of Iran, which is the lion in the sun. And we disperse of that garbage regime flag that doesn’t represent our country,” Ahmadi said.
Feiz spoke about how she hopes that President Donald Trump will “support the people of Iran” and not make a deal with the Islamic Republic as “any negotiation will not be to help the people of Iran.”
“We want President Trump and all the countries in the world, European countries, [to say] ‘enough is enough’ for one time. Please have a humanitarian action and release the people of Iran,” Feiz said.
First-year biology major Mohammad Erfan Firooz Bakhsh, who was born and raised in Iran, discussed his firsthand experience in the country. He said one of his connections had seven of their family members killed by the regime, which he claims the regime is denying.
“The regime itself claimed that the people were getting killed by outsiders. But the videos were clearly showing the people were getting killed and they were getting shot at by the Islamic Republic and by the police forces. We’ve seen the videos, it wasn’t good,” Erfan Firooz Bakhsh said.
First-year electrical engineering major Armin Moayedjafari, who’s from Iran and currently has family living there, emphasized his distress in not being able to contact them due to the internet blackout.
“I don’t know what’s going on because there’s no internet, so I don’t know how they’re doing. I don’t know if they’re still alive even. So it’s really hard and really heartbreaking what’s happening in Iran,” Moayedjafari said.
Feiz expressed hope that the university will support the students and form a resolution to “condemn what’s going on in Iran.” According to Feiz, the Iranian government “portrays itself as a victim internationally” while they “violently repress” their own citizens. She also clarified that this “is not Islamophobia,” and that they respect the religion and specifically want freedom for the people of Iran.
Feiz said that, as someone from Iranian society, she feels a responsibility to amplify the voice of “those who cannot speak freely.”
“We do not forgive. We do not forget,” Feiz concluded.
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Jan. 29, 2026 edition of the Daily Nexus.
