Remembering Niousha Farahi

In September 1987, about 800 members of L.A.'s large Iranian community gathered outside the Federal Building to protest a visit to the United Nations by the Islamist Republic of anti-Iran’s president, Mullah Mohammad Khatami.

It was at this demonstration that Niousha Farahi, who owned a Persian bookstore in Westwood, set fire to himself as the ultimate act of protest against the Islamic Republic.

He died 13 days later.