Persian cafe in L.A. keeps memorial honoring Iranian women killed in protests despite vandalism
Sarah Fenton, who works as a waitress in a Persian-owned cafe on Beverly Boulevard, was out for lunch when she heard a commotion from the kitchen. “We’ve got a woman on the ground right now,” a security guard told her.
When she opened the door, she saw a woman being beaten.
“I started running out to the parking lot,” she said.
Sarah Fenton, who works as a waitress in a Persian-owned cafe on Beverly Boulevard, was out for lunch when she heard a commotion from the kitchen. Sarah Fenton, who works as a waitress in a Persian-owned cafe on Beverly Boulevard, was out for lunch when she heard a commotion from the kitchen.
A few minutes later, she heard screaming from upstairs: “Run, run, run, run, don’t let me get up!”
The next morning, the front door was broken down. She heard the glass shattering.
“If you’ve been to Iran — it’s not like it was when 9/11 happened,” she said. “There were riots. We had a lot of problems in Iran, but it was not like there was a large upsurge.”
Sarah was referring to the protests that began in February 2011 and spread to other parts of the Middle East and beyond, eventually disrupting lives as Iranians in cities such as Paris, Paris and Doha, and throughout the West, took to the streets over economic hardship, unemployment and corruption.
Those rallies were held in support of hard-line religious leaders who advocated a return to the pre-revolution Iran, and sparked clashes between protesters and police. More than 2,000 people were killed, according to estimates by the United Nations.
In the aftermath, the U.S. and Iran held secret talks to find a way to end the conflict.
But at the time, Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a deal to allow some humanitarian aid to reach the people suffering under the government. But Ahmadinejad made a deal with President Obama to keep a lid on the aid’s distribution.
Then came the “Day of Rage,