Area Iran Supporters Announce Rally

A group of Boston-area Iranian students and supporters announced preparations yesterday for a rally on Monday, as part of the "peaceful, legal protests" they plan to continue until the Shah is extradited to Iran.

Spokesmen for the Boston Committee to Defend Iranina Students added they will hold a "massive teach-in" on Iran sometime in the next two weeks. They also demanded an end to the deportation of Iranian students and a "cessation of Carter's war threats."

Many of the Iranian students at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who last week pledged not to cooperate with Department of Immigration registration proceedings belong to the group, Houmayon Khalili, an Iranian student at MIT, said yesterday.

American Friendliness

"Many more Iranian students are afraid to speak out for fear of harassment. We are trying to show our support for those as well." Ann Chase, a Somerville community activist and member of the committee, said yesterday.

Iranian student activist Kaveh Afrisiabi said yesterday that more than 300 Boston-area Iranian students support the three demands. "We are being used as pawns to exert pressure for something going on 6000 miles away," he said, adding that many students are "very intimidated."

The newly-formed committee charged police with allowing harassment from "right-wing student extremists" at a recent Boston University rally and said they would have legal observers on hand for Monday's noon rally at Government Center.

"We can't stop speaking out just because we fear that others may become violent in response," Chase said.

While speaking at Northeastern University's African Center yesterday morning, Queen Mother Moore an 81-years old black leader from New York City, released copies of a letter she had written to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In the letter she pledged the support of many black Americans who she said were willing to fight in the Iranian revolution.

She termed the revolution the "greatest stroke on behalf of blacks" since the Emancipation Proclamation."