BOULDER, Colo. – The ongoing war in Iran is sparking demonstrations throughout Colorado, including a vigil held in Boulder last week, where activists drew attention to the connection between Boulder and weapons used in Iran.
A New York Times photo analysis identified at least one missile component displaying the name "Ball Aerospace Technologies." This Boulder-based company manufactures weapons. The analysis linked the component to a Tomahawk or long-range missile used in a recent strike that hit a school.
After the report was released, Students for Justice in Palestine and several other community groups gathered at Scott Carpenter Park on April 6, to hold a vigil honoring the lives of children killed.
“On the first day of the war, on February 28th, the U.S. and Israel struck a girls' school in the south of Iran in a town called Minab, and 168 young school girls were killed in that attack, and that attack was through a Tomahawk missile,” said Marie Ranjbar, University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of women and gender studies. “The vigil in downtown Boulder was drawing attention to the tragic cost of war and also the importance of connecting weapons that are manufactured in our communities to this geopolitical conflict that seems so far away.”
Ranjbar is an Iranian American and has done extensive research on social movements in Iran.
“Closer to home, we already see the impacts of this war in terms of increasing inflation, increasing cost of goods. We've had 13 service members who have been killed in this conflict. We can also think about American citizens and military personnel that are stationed in the Middle East,” said Ranjbar.
As peace negotiations resume this week, Ranjbar and other experts worry about the potential outcomes.
“We really do have to give diplomacy a chance. We need our diplomatic corps from the State Department to be present, and we really need to be critical of which voices are at the table as well as which bad actors are trying to unsettle both the ceasefire and prospects for peace,” she said.
Ranjbar and many other Iranian Americans in Colorado have reported not being able to get in contact with their family members who still live in Iran.
“I haven't been able to reach my family since the second day of the war. The Iranian government has imposed an internet blackout, and so it is actually quite expensive to circumvent these internet blockades. So that reveals a bit of a class divide, who's actually able to reach the outside world versus who goes silent? And I think that the silence is indicative of not only the brutal repression of this authoritarian regime, but how war compounds the precarity of everyday citizens,” said Ranjbar.
Ranjbar said Iranians want peace and freedom, and she hopes U.S. leaders involved in peace talks consider what an internationally brokered agreement might look like.
