Hundreds rally in Los Gatos calling for change in Iran

Hundreds rally in Los Gatos calling for change in Iran

Hundreds rally in Los Gatos calling for change in Iran

LOS GATOS, Calif. - Hundreds in Los Gatos on Sunday night called for a regime change in Iran.

"It's incomprehensible. We are here to suffer together. It eases the pain," said Dr. Kourosh Kojouri, who said Iranian security forces shot his 90-year-old father and 14-year-old nephew with shotguns with pellets during the protests in Tehran earlier this month.

"My father has 23 pellets in his arm. Some in his chest," he said.

Kojouri is a surgeon in San Jose. His family called him from Tehran for advice. He told them not to go to the hospital, because they could be detained.

"Even today, they hold people on the street at check points, checking their body to make sure they don't have scars of pellets," he said.

At the rally in Los Gatos, demonstrators on the ground were portraying what they say the capital looks like right now.

"The magnitude that has happened in the catastrophe in Iran is so much, this was the minimum we could do. We are just trying to do something. Everybody is jumping in to help out. This is our way of holding a memorial," said Mark Zangeneh.

Community members prayed and set out candles for those who have died, many of them who were children. 

Kojouri is hoping for change soon.

"As far as I know, the country is not even functioning. People are afraid of coming out. Everyone is at home. That is really not sustainable," he said.

Organizers will be holding more rallies in San Jose and San Francisco every week.