[Reader-list] Hope in Iran?

[Zainab Bawa]

Dear Shuddha,
Many thanks for this post. Here is an interesting link to a video which
calls on all of us saying "We are all Iranians today" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QZ-Gb1Q8Ao

Links to some photo essays too:

http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1177.html

http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1178.html

http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1191.html

<http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1191.html>Regards,

Zainab

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:57 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:

> 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
>
>
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-- 
Zainab Bawa
Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher

Gaining Ground ...
http://zainab.freecrow.org

http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories-of-the-internet/transparency-and-politics