[Reader-list] Hope in Iran?

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

The protests at what is rapidly unravelling as the 'stolen election'  
in Iran are showing us a different face of Iran today. Hundreds and  
thousands of peaceful men and women, assembling to denounce  
Ahmedinijad as a dictator, all night long rooftop assemblies in  
neighbourhoods that say 'death to the dictatorship' and a visibly  
nervous 'Guardians Council'. Perhaps the next few days will show  
which way Iran will turn.

There are already reports of attacks on dormitories in Tehran, and  
the regime's thugs have already killed several people, which has  
unleashed another wave of mass protests. The BBC, which has an  
excellent Farsi service (much better than many of its other bureaus)  
has been doing a good job of reporting from Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz  
and elsewhere in Iran, and you can follow more links at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8108115.stm

I am appending a matter of fact report that appeared on the AP wire  
earlier below.

I'd like to thank Paul Miller, who forwarded us Naeem Moaheiemen's  
text, and the statement of the Tudeh Party. I hope that list members  
will take the trouble to trawl through Iranian websites and blogs and  
send us more material, and if anyone knows Iranian friends who can  
write to the list directly, it would be great

Hopefully, the Ahmedinijad regime, drunk for years on high petrol  
prices, and now suffering from a recession induced hangover, brutal  
and callous as it is, is on its last legs, but we have seen people in  
Iran move close to liberty and then be crushed again, and again,  
before. Let us home that Tehran does not echo Tienanmen.

Many years ago, our own Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, wrote a nazm  
dedicated to Iranian students (Irani tulba ke naam), who were  
protesting against the Shah's tyranny. And it goes something like this.
.
Yeh kaun jawan hain
arz-e-ajam
Yeh lakh lut
Jin kay jismon ka kundan
Yun khak main raiza
raiza hay

(Who are these young men,
O the land of Ajam
These large-hearted
The jewel of whose bodies
Is scattered on dust in pieces)

Let us hope that the jewels of Iran do not get scattered on the  
streets of Tehran this time. Let us hope that Ahmedinijad and the  
corrupt theocracy that backs him, meets the same fate that the Shah  
did. Let us hope that what unfolds in the next few days in the  
streets of Tehran leaves us smiling and not in tears.

crossing my fingers,

Shuddha





Tehran protests stretch five miles
By ANNA JOHNSON and BRIAN MURPHY
The Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran | In a massive outpouring reminiscent of the 1979  
Islamic Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Iranians streamed  
through the capital Monday, denouncing President Mahmoud  
Ahmadinejad’s claim to victory in a disputed election.

The huge rally — and smaller protests across the country — reinforced  
what has become increasingly clear since the election: the opposition  
forces rallying behind reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi show no  
signs of backing down.

The rapidly spreading unrest also has pushed Supreme Leader Ayatollah  
Ali Khamenei, the state’s most powerful figure, into the high-profile  
role of political referee. Much of the real power in the nation rests  
with the 70-year-old cleric, who reigns over Iran’s Islamic system  
and functions as a one-man supreme court.

In a dramatic turnaround Monday, Khamenei ordered an investigation  
into election fraud allegations, just two days after he had urged the  
nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad.

The probe by the Guardian Council, composed of clerics closely allied  
with Khamenei, illustrates the supreme leader’s desire to avoid a  
drawn-out political battle that could endanger the stability and  
legitimacy of the country’s Islamic theocracy. At the very least, the  
intervention could buy time in hopes of reducing the anti-Ahmadinejad  
anger.

Khamenei is a hard-liner who has battled reformists in the past, and  
whose support helped Ahmadinejad first get elected in 2005. But  
analysts say he is also a political realist, and in the past he has  
made concessions to ensure his main goals — his own survival and that  
of Iran’s cleric-run system.

It appeared that Khamenei had opened the door for Monday’s  
demonstrations in a possible bid to avoid more street clashes and  
seek some breathing room.

But a single moment could change all that. Gunfire erupted from a  
compound used by the Basij, a volunteer militia linked to Iran’s  
powerful Revolutionary Guard. An Associated Press photographer saw at  
least one demonstrator killed and several others with what appeared  
to be serious wounds. The protesters had tried to storm and set fire  
to the compound on the edge of Azadi Square, also known as Freedom  
Square.

Some reports put the death toll higher, but they could not be confirmed.

Angry men showed their bloody palms after cradling the dead man and  
the wounded, who had been part of a crowd that stretched more than  
five miles supporting Mousavi.

In his first public comment on the Iranian election, President Barack  
Obama said he was “deeply troubled by the violence I’ve been seeing  
on TV.”

Although he said he had no way of knowing whether the election was  
valid, Obama praised protesters and Iranian youth who questioned the  
results.

“The world is watching and is inspired by their participation,  
regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was,” he said.

Police and other security forces stood by quietly — some sitting on  
stoops with their batons and shields resting behind them as the  
marchers swallowed the streets in parts of Tehran.

Mousavi made his first public appearance since the polls closed, and  
he launched his claims that the vote was rigged to re-elect the hard- 
line president.

Brief clips of the march were shown on state television in an  
extremely rare nod to anti-government protests.

“Respect the people’s vote!” Mousavi cried through a hand-held  
loudspeaker in Azadi Square, where Iran’s leaders hold military and  
political gatherings.

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net