Ryan Grim

there's been a lot of talk about the geopolitical implications of the protests in iran but there has been little heard from protesters themselves uh that is not merely a failing of the media part of the reason is that the government there has shut down the internet for an extended period of time which is blocking people from uh reaching loved ones or reaching uh western or any other media outside of iran and it's blocking people from inside journalists who are inside iran from getting

images out.

There's also the phenomenon that we know of of transnational repression, that even if you are able to get in touch with one of your family members who is in Iran, if you speak publicly and they find out who you are, there's a significant risk for the family

back at home.

So joining us today will be a person who has been involved in protests for several decades at this point inside Iran and was there at the height of the demonstrations, has since left.

We're not going to talk about where she has left to or where she came from.

for her in order to conceal her identity but we're grateful that she's uh joined us today thank you so much uh for being here thank you for having me and so can you can you tell us a little bit about well actually tell us the first protest that or how did you realize that this protest movement which started shortly after christmas

was something serious.

And when did you first start participating in it?

But you had been there for weeks at that point.

But it hadn't responded to the scene.

And so what did you see when you were out there?

Yeah, how did it compare to previous demonstrations over the years?

Just awesome.

There were some reports of violence that Thursday evening somewhere around the city.

Did you see anything, though?

What was the balance between just marching and chanting versus clashes with security services?

So then Friday, January 10th, what was your experience?

And at that point, what's communication like?

You couldn't communicate out of the country, but within the country you could?