Cal Poly’s Iranian Student Cultural Organization (ISCO) hosted a vigil on Friday to honor the people who lost their lives in the Feb 28 U.S. airstrike attack on Iran. The vigil also honored Iranians who had been killed by the Iran government.
Roughly 40 students, faculty, and San Luis Obispo community members gathered on Dexter Lawn at 6 p.m.
The vigil commemorated children that were killed at an elementary school in Minab, Iran. According to the Associated Press, strong evidence shows that the U.S. was behind the bombing of the school which was located near an Iranian military base. If this is true, this attack would be the largest civilian casualty caused by the U.S. government in the last two decades.
Other civilians killed by the airstrikes two months ago were also honored.
Computer Science Professor Susanne Eikan has been a professor at Cal Poly for the past 11 years and is an advisor for the campus’s Iranian cultural organization. She noted what this vigil meant to her.
“It sort of brings peace and that those lives still matter,” Eikan said “Most of them were your age, and they were just fighting for basic rights, nothing more.”
Students, professors and community members gathered in a circle around the vigil with each person holding a candle to honor those who lost their lives. The vigil was decorated with pink and white flowers, candles and the Iranian flag. It honored many different individuals such as an 11-year-old Iranian child soldier Alireza Jafari. He was killed in an airstrike in Tehran.
Many students and faculty at the vigil told Mustang News they are struggling to contact family in Iran.
“I haven’t been able to get in contact with any of my family in Iran for the last two months, and I have no idea if they are alive right now,” nutrition freshman Sufi Pak said. “That just breaks my heart that none of us know how our relatives back in Iran are doing,”
Pak noted that family support and events like the vigil have been important for her during hard times.
“I feel like me and my family, we’ve all kind of leaned on each other for support and guidance,” she said. “Because in times like these, community is what’s so important. I’ve shown up to a lot of ISCO events because I’m a member.”
Foaad Khosmood, a Cal Poly professor and alumnus, has a lot of his extended family and his mother in Iran right now. His house in Iran has also been damaged because of the U.S. strikes.
“I think we need to raise awareness about this war,” Khosmood said. “I think it is unjust. It is definitely illegal.”
The event ended with people putting each of their candles on the vigil next to those who lost their lives.
