The Iranian Election a ‘Legacy of Martyred Flowers’

international | politics / elections | feature

Saturday June 20, 2009 15:23

by Azadi

Protesters Beaten on the Streets of Tehran

The Iranian government’s campaign to mold ‘model’ Islamic citizens has not only fashioned a profound crisis of loyalty to the religious ‘ideals of the revolution’, it has nurtured action that many have silently prayed for - as the public sphere, the last bastion of the religious elite's grip on power, was shot open by their own guns Sunday.

Legacy of martyred flowers committed me to life,
Legacy of martyred flowers,
Don’t you see?
--Forough Farokhzad, Only the Sound Will Last

Since the close of polling late Friday, and the hasty confirmation of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s second term in office, protests have broken out across Iran. Many Iranians, who consider the landslide victory for Ahmadinejad a symbol of their country’s deeply corrupt political system, have endeavoured to force the government to nullify the results and hold another election.

In what can only be considered a classic case of state-repression, police and Revolutionary Guards have soaked the streets in blood; shooting into crowds of peaceful protestors, arresting scores of demonstrators, and targeting constituencies known for their criticism of the government. Just yesterday, the Guardian conservatively reported that as many as twelve students from universities throughout the country lost their lives as they courageously and openly opposed state forces.

In a brash attempt to validate the legitimacy of the political structure in Iran, those in the Guardian Council and Ministry of Interior (its civic counterpart) confirmed Ahmadinejad’s ‘win’ and congratulated ‘democracy’. Ahmadinejad seized the opportunity to describe his ‘election’ as a ‘mandate from the people’, before the people unequivocally mandated a recount!

The Western-language media would have us believe that the crucial issue concerning the recent election ‘results’ in Iran centers on the question of whether or not the election was rigged. While general curiosity and speculation around this issue is a healthy aspect of the debate, it cannot moderate the far more profound lessons to be learned from the mass protests throughout the country.

Were the elections rigged? Probably. It is more than likely that the higher voter turn-out for this election came in favour of change. This was not true in the 9th Presidential Elections, four years ago, where an unknown, conservative, Tehrani mayor, Ahmadinejad, was ‘challenged’ by the highly controversial cleric-turned-businessman, Rafsanjani. The election was mostly boycotted or dismissed by many reformist-minded voters, and the aspect of its ‘rigged results’ by way of the candidates having been hand-picked the Guardian Council (as is policy), was ignored in Western-language press.

This new eruption of protest over the still hotly contested election outcome has animated the already decades long debates within Iranian politics over civil and political rights, participation and inclusion. Just like many other countries, specific issues and rights in Iran are held like hostages to particular names on the ballot.

For example, a vote for Mousavi is a vote for greater freedoms for women. A vote for Ahmedinejad is a vote against the liberalization (privatization) of Iran’s economy. Though many Iranians remain sceptical of all the candidates that were allowed to participate in this highly contested and unusual style of electoral engineering, the elections are not entirely hollow, as the protests demonstrate. Iranians, like many of their counterparts throughout the world, were made to choose between issues and candidates that did not represent the broad spectrum of their politics, concerns, or aspirations.

However, it is not the engineered outcome of Iranian elections that is at the heart of the protests, though this is certainly a concern. These protests, dissimilar to the swell of similar outpouring in the late 1990s, are made up Iranians from many different backgrounds, and varied political, religious and social opinions. This is precisely the reason the executive levels of the Iranian government have, with its decades of training in repression of domestic discontent, met the protesters with the full force of state power.

Though the validity of the elections is disputed, what protesters, Ahmadinejad and the Guardian Council seem to all recognize is that the immediate future of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains insecure. The ‘democratic dilemma’ that the state has ensured through its dubious electoral processes is kindling increased opposition not just among the ‘parents of the Revolution’, but most pronouncedly in those twenty-somethings born after 1979 who represent the manifest ‘success’ of the Islamic Revolution.

It appears clear the government’s campaign to mold ‘model’ Islamic citizens has not only fashioned a profound crisis of loyalty to the religious ‘ideals of the revolution’, it has nurtured action that many have silently prayed for - as the public sphere, the last bastion of the religious elite's grip on power, was shot open by their own guns Sunday.

This is not to make the mistake that Iran is moving towards, or desirous of, a secular revolution, very much the opposite! However, the iron-clad grip on power that many of the religious elites have enjoyed since the Iran-Iraq war is gradually unravelling at all ends.

Today, reformist-minded voters in and outside of Iran, who watched as their political aspirations were dashed time and again by during Khatami’s tenure, vigilantly braved the vast, violent and manipulative forces of the state and dared not be silent once again in the ballot box. Those who bravely opposed the regime objected to the misuse of religion for political ends – and so the protests continue.

In the thirty years since the fall of the Shah and the gradual instillation of an Islamic theocratic government in Iran, opposition movements have bravely attempted to reclaim spaces in the political landscape of the country. These movements have nurtured democratic ideals in an attempt to assert the human and political rights of the poor, ethnic minorities, and women amongst others.

Over the past two years Iran’s women’s movement most commonly known as the One Million Signatures Campaign has sought to amplify the disparities felt by women on every level of Iranian society. Prior to the Saturday protests, this campaign was the largest and most vocal dissident movement in Iran.

For those of us concerned over securing some notion of ‘the truth’ about what happened in Friday’s elections, or who continue to be confused over the myriad of political mud-slinging in the media over ‘what the protests are really about’, we can be assured of no easy answers.

Iran is a country struggling to sustain vast differences of opinion over political allegiances, social policies, and the fine lines that govern the ‘morals’ of their state system. Do not mistake the events currently taking place in Iran as a fight for democracy, or even a ‘better representation’ of the will of the people. What is happening in Iran is a fight for a slightly fairer electoral process. If political pundits, Western-language journalists and solidarity activists wish to support Iranians in their fight for freedom, they should take notice of the few who have been executed and exiled, whose lives have committed the many you see in the streets today to life.

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Hamid Dabashi on Iran Protests: “This is Not Another Revolution. This is a Civil Rights Movement”

by DEM NOW!

Mon Jun 29, 2009 18:10

Hamid Dabashi on Iran Protests: “This is Not Another Revolution. This is a Civil Rights Movement” (June 24, 2009)
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/24/hamid_dabshai_on_..._this

... He writes, “I see the moment we are witnessing as a civil rights movement rather than a push to topple the regime.”

AMY GOODMAN: We continue on Iran. We’re speaking with Hamid Dabashi. He is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Among other books is Iran: A People Interrupted. He was born in Iran himself.

Your piece in the New York Times today is called “Looking for Their Martin Luther King.” Explain.

HAMID DABASHI: It’s based on my reading of what I believe is happening in Iran. This, in my judgment, is a post-ideological generation. My generation was divided into third world socialists, anti-colonial nationalists and militant Islamists. These are the three dominant ideologies with which we grew up. But if you look at the composition of Iranian society today, 70 percent of it is under the age of thirty—namely, born after the Islamic Revolution. They no longer are divided along those ideological lines.

And if you read their newspapers, if you watch their movies, if you listen to the lyrics of their underground music, to their contemporary arts, etc., which we have been doing over the past thirty years, this, to me, is a civil rights movement. They are operating within the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. They don’t want to topple the regime. If you look—come outside, from the right of the right, in the US Senate to the left, is waiting for yet another revolution to happen. I don’t think this is another revolution. This is a civil rights movement. They’re demanding their civil rights that are being denied, even within the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. From their chants that they are doing in the streets to their newspapers, to their magazines, to their websites, to their Facebook, to their Twitters, everywhere that you look, this is a demand for civil liberties and not—

There are, of course, underlying economic factors, statistically. The unemployment in the age cohort of fifteen to twenty-nine is 70 percent. So this is not a class warfare. In other words, people that we see in the streets, 70 percent of them, that a majority of them are young—70 percent of them do not even have a job. They can’t even rent a room, let alone marry, let alone have a family. So the assumption that this is a upper-middle-class or middle-class, bourgeois, Gucci revolutionaries on the side of Mousavi and poor on the side of Ahmadinejad is completely false...

Will

by Chicherin

Mon Jun 29, 2009 17:41

Will the difference is that Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was democratically elected. The presidential elections in Iran now are restricted to those approved by the clergy.

Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh had the backing of the unions. Now in Iran all unions are banned apart fro scab outfits run by the State.

All of the Free Unions are calling for democracy.

Here is what the Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers are calling for:

1- Immediate increase in the minimum wage to over 1 million tomans [$1010] a month.
2- An end to temporary contracts and new forms of work contracts.
3- The disbanding of the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils as government organisations in the factories and workshops, and the setting up of shoras [councils] and other workers’ organisations independent from the government.
4- Immediate payment of workers’ unpaid wages without any excuses.
5- An end to laying-off workers and payment of adequate unemployment insurance to all unemployed workers.
6- The immediate release of all political prisoners including the workers arrested on May Day, Jafar Azimzadeh, Gholamreza Khani, Said Yuzi, Said Rostami, Mehdi Farahi-Shandiz, Kaveh Mozafari, Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, and an end to surveillance and harassment of workers and labour leaders.
7- The right to strike, protest, assemble and the freedom of speech and the press are the workers’ absolute right.
8- An end to sexual discrimination, child labour and the sacking of foreign workers.

What progrssive person would oppose these demands?

Revolt

Mon Jun 29, 2009 17:32

But its not their government. Its a dictatorship. Only those approved by the clergyare allowed to stand for election. Unions are banned and strikers are flogged and imprisoned.

Are you really suggesting that the CIA & Mossad got millions of people on tothe streets of Iran? Only a charlatan would suggest such a thing and only those of low intelligence would believe it.

The Free Iranian Trade Unions have pleaded for support.

Are you on their side?

Or are you on the side of those who shoot down demonstrators in the street?

Its possible to oppose both US Imperialism and to oppose the Theocracy.

Revolt?

by EddieL

Mon Jun 29, 2009 16:41

I agree with "Will" above. Iran has American, Israeli, British and EU soldiers on nearly all sides, iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, even Georgia. So it is very strange that, when the country is in so much danger, some "citizens" should be so loyal to "democracy" that they would play into foreign hands by being so keen to overthrow the government.

Iranian embassy in Dublin

by diarmuidh - none

Sat Jun 27, 2009 14:29

Iran Iranian Embassy in Dublin, Ireland
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran send edits
72 Mount Merrion Ave.
Blackrock Co.
Dublin, Ireland
City: Dublin
Phone: (003531) 2885881/(003531) 2880252
Fax: (003531) 2834246
Email: iranembassy@indigo.ie

Friday Protest at Budapest's Iranian Embassy

by redjade

Sat Jun 27, 2009 14:02

June 26 Protest at the Iranian Embassy | Lehet Más a Világ!

About 30-40 people protested for democracy and human rights at the Iranian Embassy in Budapest for two hours yesterday Friday afternoon... (my photo series at link)

http://lmv.hu/node/4100

by Will

Fri Jun 26, 2009 23:14

Hi,
I don't want this to seem off hand or simplistic in what is a very serious situation but I can't help but feel that this is a bit of a carbon copy of so many other occasions when people with ulterior vested interests try to undermine the anti western ruling governament and install one more sympathetic to their own means. I'm just thinking of what happened in Iran in the 1950's when Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was democratically elected & began to insist on foregin oil companies paying more for Iran's publically owned oil reserves. This did not go down well in the west and as a result a crafted smear campaign was undertaken which resulted in him being overthrown by public revolt and the Western sympathetic Shah instated who reverted these policies......

Waste of time

by Steodonn

Wed Jun 24, 2009 01:56

Moussavi wont do Iran any good and wont end the oppression. He might be a little less extreme on the anti-western talk but that is the only real chance that will happen

Waste of time

European / US liberal market freedom mobile surveillance technology kills the "tweeter revolution".

by gurgle tweet - (iosaf)

Tue Jun 23, 2009 17:11

* First off the workers of the Iranian state are moving to a general strike with or without mobile phones or youtube - the BBC or Canada.

* It is really curious how what ought have been obvious from the very onset - that the Iranian state counted on surveillance technology developed and supplied after much competition by listed public companies in the west - never merited a "article" or "info page" in our newspapers or on the BBC until yesterday.

Very curious that.

In other words since twitter accepted to play along with the soft power demonstration of the western alliance and extend its refresh pages, and despite there only being 2000 pre crises tweeter, facebook or other social network users in Iran, the whole word swallowing the notion of a "tweeter revolution" nobody amongst the press corp thought to ask -

If every single email, phone call, sms & fax goes through the US of America's NSA and for many years every phone call made in Ireland went through the British GCHQ Cheltenham - and even the poor (& I mean poor) Moldovans could archive all the tweets made during their "election protest crises" (C/F the case of Natalia Morar who was house arrested for supposedly starting a flash mob after the Moldovan elections in April 2009 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92069 )

- 0then why didn't anyone bother telling the Iranians (via a tweet for example) that they really were heading into a cul-de-sac of Tech inspired Martyrdom but not immediately - nope - with time - later on - when we're not interested in the suffering of photogenic women whose veils slip off as they die on stage. How long with that be? In the case of Susan Boyle it was less than 28 days. & that is why I have used throughout my monitoring of twitter the comment author name "gurgle tweet". Guess what readers!? There are hardly any more tweets to read.

_________________________

at link the Chatham House, British Thinktank (riddled with MI6) report which honestly very convincingly provides data based on the 2005 election results, the Iranian census and the official 2009 election results are utter bollox. But the real danger as I have continuously highlighted in my comments this week is not to be found with Tehran young people who now wonder (As many of us do on occassion) what did they write in their text messages when all excited. Nope. The real manipulation of results came on the ethnic fringes of Iran. Read the pdf file from Chatham and pay attention to the irregularites in the areas of the Kurds, Lurs, Azerbaijani and the frontiers with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Communication War... more infos

by d

Tue Jun 23, 2009 14:30

On Todays Democracy Now TV show (link soon), one of the main features was about the somewhat unknown but hugely important area of surveilance, government control and manipulation of all communication systems; net, phones, vids... (big brother-esque). DN! interviewed Josh _____ from FREEPRESS.NET.

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2009/6/23
http://www.freepress.net/node/61690
http://www.freepress.net/files/Deep_Packet_Inspection_T...t.pdf

Free Press, on their recent report from their site state;

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran and China are likely using Deep Packet Inspection technology to monitor and control the Internet.

This spring, a Free Press report, Deep Packet Inspection: The End of the Internet as We Know It?, argued that DPI technology poses a major threat to the open Internet, giving network providers unprecedented power over Internet users. The use of DPI by U.S. companies like Comcast and Cox has already sparked widespread concern about abuses of Net Neutrality and online privacy.

Wall Street Journal article; Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

The "monitoring center," installed within the government's telecom monopoly, was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile-phone networking technology, Mr. Roome said.

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," said Mr. Roome...

FREEPRESS.NET on Iran, US, China... Deep Packet Inspection: The End of the Internet as We Know It?

War of communication?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:37

RTE Morning Ireland:
Evelyn McClafferty gets the reaction of Iranians living in Ireland to the turbulent aftermath of the presidential election
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0623/iran_av.html?2567312,n...l,209

good audio interviews with Iranians in Dublin about dynamics in and out of the country...

Politics.ie commentry; http://www.politics.ie/foreign-affairs/77129-ahmadineja....html

Democracy Now; yesterdays headlines

Iran’s Guardian Council Admits to Vote Irregularities

Iranian authorities have acknowledged some irregularities have been found in Iran’s presidential election results. The influential Guardian Council admitted the number of votes collected in fifty cities surpassed the number of people eligible to cast ballots in those areas. Authorities said the discrepancies could affect as many as three million votes. According to the official results of the disputed election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad beat Mir Hossein Mousavi by about 11 million votes.

Mousavi Calls for More Street Protests

Meanwhile, Mousavi and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami have defied Iran’s Supreme Leader and urged protesters to continue street demonstrations calling for a new election. Iranian state media reports that between ten and nineteen people were killed during protests on Saturday. Iranian police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters. Iranian state radio reported 457 protesters were arrested. On Sunday, Iranian police briefly detained five relatives of former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a close ally of Mousavi. Reporters Without Borders says Iran is now jailing thirty journalists and cyber-dissidents, including Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who has been held since Sunday.

Iran’s Web Spying Aided by European Firms Siemens and Nokia

The Wall Street Journal reports European telecommunications companies have helped the Iranian government develop one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the internet. The monitoring capability was provided at least in part by a joint venture of the German-based Siemens AG and Nokia, the Finnish cellphone company. Using the technology, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities not only to block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/22/headlines

We Are All Neda

by Neda

Mon Jun 22, 2009 20:42

A new website commemorates Neda: We Are All Neda
http://weareallneda.com/

Her death may have changed everything

Mon Jun 22, 2009 19:16

Neda, The Face of a Revolution
http://gawker.com/5299414/neda-the-face-of-a-revolution...e&s=x

Just like the image of a man standing in front of a tank brigade became the lasting image of the Tiananmen Square protests in China, the video of Neda, her eyes growing ever more vacant by the second as her spirit leaves her body and climaxing with blood pouring from her orifices, is destined to become the image that few of us who saw/see it will ever forget. What happens next in the movement is the question. Will Neda's death galvanize the Iranian revolutionaries who've spent the past week protesting against the religious conservatives who control their government and rigged the recent presidential election in their favor, or will Neda's death scare enough of them into submission to allow the government to effectively squash the movement?

In Iran, One Woman's Death May Have Many Consequences (Time)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906049,0....html

Although it is not yet clear who shot Neda (a soldier? a pro-government militant? an accidental misfiring?), her death may have changed everything.

'Neda' becomes symbol of rebellion (Irish Times)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/images/200...93702

Distressing footage depicting the death of a young Iranian woman at a demonstration in Iran has turned her into a galvanizing symbol for the country’s protest movement.

The young woman, known as Neda, believed to be 16-years-old was shot dead while attending a protest with her father in Tehran on Saturday.

Footage of her death was captured on video and has been watched by thousands on social networking sites including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Amateur video turns woman into icon of Iran unrest (Associated Press)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jeJnP...PEOG0

Amateur video of a young Iranian woman lying in the street — blood streaming from her nose and mouth — has quickly become an iconic image of the country's opposition movement and unleashed a flood of outrage at the regime's crackdown.

The footage, less than a minute long, appears to capture the woman's death moments after she was shot at a protest — a powerful example of citizens' ability to document events inside Iran despite government restrictions on foreign media and Internet and phone lines.

Iran in crisis: live (Guardian online)

An uneasy calm has settled over Tehran as the government and reformists ponder their next move
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/22/iran-ay...menei

3.50pm:
An acquaintance of her family said Neda worked part-time at a travel agency in Iran and that the government barred the family from holding a public funeral today, according to AP.

It comments:

The bloody imagery [of Neda's death] alone could have an important impact on public opinion in Iran, where the idea of martyrdom resonates deeply among a populace steeped in the stories and imagery of Shia Islam, a faith founded on the idea of self-sacrifice in the cause of justice.

Neda - Her death may have changed everything

Neda the icon & martyr has a surname : Agha Sultan, she studied philosophy.

by iosaf

Mon Jun 22, 2009 19:07

-Neda Agha Sultan was 26 years old.

She was born in the year 1361 of the Persian calendar which corresponded to the year 1404 after the Hegira or flight of the prophet Muhumad (pbuh) from his enemies in the Islamic calendar.

http://fmortaz.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post.html

We probably better understand all that cultural stuff as "1983 of the common era".

It was the United Nations "year of communication" and the year that the Irish government confirmed the Gardai were scandalously bugging the telephones of journalists and politicians. She was 26 years old. Gerry Adams was elected an MP, there was a new ireland forum and Don Tidey was kidnapped and a racehorse named Shergar disappeared.

I bet you my unsavoury reputation the forthcoming CNN biopic of Neda will be short of the ironic comparative chronological details & perspectives of a short life.

___________________________________________________________

* one of the other three losing presidential candidates, the Islamic cleric & former chairman of the parliament Mehdi Karroubi has described Neda Aghasoltan as a martry on his Canadian hosted website ( “she died as a martyr and did not have a weapon in her soft hands or a grenade in her pocket but became a victim by thugs who are supported by a horrifying security apparatus.”

aint that sweet?? He's asking for amnesty of the "political prisoners".

Of course his voters aren't found in Tehran & Neda quite probably wasn't one of them. His support is the ethnic minority of the Lurs in the south west of the state. Behold the seams and stitching. They are not coming apart -but the fabric is stretched irreversibly.

http://www.karroubi.ir

Dying Neda on front page of Spanish papers

by dunk

Mon Jun 22, 2009 18:35

That same horrific picture of Neda is on the front page of Spains paper ABC, link to english version of their online version with that equally horrific vid on their web; http://translate.google.ie/translate?prev=hp&hl=es&js=n...ate0=

Link to incredible images of the uprising in Iran

by polly tix

Sun Jun 21, 2009 21:34

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed....html

Khamenei is reponsible for Neda's murder

by Maryam Namazie

Sun Jun 21, 2009 18:45

Neda, a young woman who was watching the protests in Tehran yesterday morning was shot dead by the regime’s baseeji militia. Yesterday, along with Neda, 30 others were killed and 300 wounded. There are reports that the security forces were arresting the wounded from their hospital beds.

Ali Khamanei is personally responsible for Neda’s death and the death of protestors.

Yesterday, the people’s solidarity was truly immense. They provided support, gave shelter and offered food to the protesters all day until late at night. Demonstrations took place, in many parts of Tehran, Shiraz, Rasht, Isfahan.

Neda

"Neda was my sister" - a flower in her youth, martyred & dead.

by gurgle tweet

Sun Jun 21, 2009 17:04

* Mousavi's letter of yesterday translated into English http://tehranbureau.com/reporting-essays/mousavis-defyi...tion/

* An interesting blog entry in a mixture of English and Persian on the death of Neda the young woman whose last moments were diffused on Youtube in the last 24 hours. CNN has now picked up her story and in the finest tradition of western media is putting together a touching biopic. Dead young women make good copy. She had gone to the street, for her civil rights, maybe to bear witness, perhaps in an emotional response riding on the tide of nightly chanting of such powerful words and then she fell, shot, her veil slipped, she died. The comments in Persian [use http://translate.google.com/ ] are significant for their characteristic love of poetry and their continued references to the Islamic tradition of martrydom.

http://mediusoriens.com/2009/06/20/neda-was-my-sister/

Both sides are polarising - where the regime runs to its usual anti-zionism and anti-British rhetoric the other increasingly turns up the tone of rightous religious revindication. How anyone can see this bringing the workers or women, homosexuals or ethnic minorities of the Iranian state closer to peaceful coexistence is beyond me.

* On which note the Kurdish trade unions have announced a general strike for next Tuesay.

* Also on which note it might be noted that within Iran, official media blames the Bahai religious minority for the "perversion" of the BBC. http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/4019

* The Dubai-based television channel Al Arabiya said on Sunday that its Tehran bureau has been ordered to remain closed indefinitely for "unfair reporting" of last week's disputed presidential election. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/06/21/76600.html

Caption: Video Id: pr7d-N0bgVs Type: Youtube Video
the death of Neda

Tehran Bureau on TWITTER

by Tehran Bureau

Sun Jun 21, 2009 15:05

http://twitter.com/tehranbureau

Iran's Twitter Revolution

by TWITTERer

Sun Jun 21, 2009 15:02

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I’m looking on Facebook at sites calling for cyberwar on the Ahmadinejad government.

NAHID SIAMDOUST (TIME magazine correspondent in Tehran): Well, yeah, Facebook and other social networking sites, including Twitter, have been instrumental to what’s been going on, because a lot of the—you know, a lot of the sort of communication, as far as internet, has been working—and again, that’s been sort of hampered lately, as well—has been going on at least prior to the election. A lot of the organizing was going on through these social networking sites.

And they’ve sort of taken on the role that the cassette tape had during the Revolution. That’s how the message was being passed on, you know, during the Revolution, through cassette tapes that were recorded here and there and then multiplied and distributed around town. And whoever has access to Facebook, you know, will receive those messages and call up their friends, because some people have better internet connections. Some people are able to actually break those filters. Not everyone can. And those have become sort of a port of communication to a wider tree of people.

...From Democracy Now: Hundreds of Thousands Protest in Tehran Accusing Ahmadinejad of Stealing Election; Guardian Council Orders Partial Recount
June 16, 2009
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/16/hundreds_of_thous...ehran

The Nation: Forget CNN or any of the major American "news" networks. If you want to get the latest on the opposition protests in Iran, you should be reading blogs, watching YouTube or following Twitter updates from Tehran, minute-by-minute.

Iran's Twitter Revolution

IRAN'S TWITTER REVOLUTION - Ahmadinejad's Fear of the Internet
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631170....html

Iran's Twitter Revolution
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/443634

Iran Elections: A Twitter Revolution?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion....html

Iran's Twitter Revolution? Maybe Not Yet
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/...0.htm

Media across the globe have been focusing on a "Twitter Revolution" in Iran as hundreds of thousands of street protestors purportedly mobilized their demonstrations using the microblogging service. So great has the notion of Twitter's role in the Iranian protests become that the U.S. State Dept. reportedly asked the company to defer some maintenance. Twitter says it rescheduled maintenance work from June 15 to later the next day, or about 1:30 a.m. in Iran. "It made sense for Twitter…to keep services active during this highly visible global event," the San Francisco company said on its blog.

Wikipedia: 2009 Iranian election protests - Use of social networking

The Internet and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental to organizing many of the protests in Iran. Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places for protesters to gather and exchange information. Twitter has also been used to organize protests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_election_protests

What is TWITTER?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Video - Twitter in plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8y79gnc35E

Book for business, interesting to read the ideas of efficient flow and use of ideas: Twitter Revolution
How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Twitter-Revolution-id-1....aspx
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So, whether or not we are witnessing a revolution in action, due to, in a large part, communication tools, like this little thread here on indymedia ireland, things are moving in Iran, who knows where it will lead...

Democracy Now features on the goings on:

Hundreds of Thousands Protest in Tehran Accusing Ahmadinejad of Stealing Election; Guardian Council Orders Partial Recount
June 16, 2009
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/16/hundreds_of_thous...ehran

Protests Continue in Iran; Government Cracks Down on Foreign Media
June 17, 2009
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/17/protests_continue...racks

And most recent update from...

Al jazeera: Deaths confirmed in Iran unrest

Iran's state media has said at least 13 people were killed amid unrest in Tehran on Saturday, as thousands of protesters clashed with police in the fallout of the disputed presidential election...

Iran's government has repeatedly denied accusations of election fraud.

The contested result gave Ahmadinejad a tally of about 63 per cent, to Mousavi's 34 per cent.

Iran's highest legislative body, the Guardian Council, has offered a partial recount of ballots in order to appease protesters.

"Although there is no legal duty on us, we are ready to recount 10 per cent of the whole ballot boxes around the country randomly with presence of the respected representatives of the candidates," Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the council said on Saturday.

However, a partial recount is unlikely to end the more than a week of protests, with fresh calls being made for a general strike on Sunday.

"We want [a] revote, not [a] recount," Mohsen Makhmalnaf, Mousavi's spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

He said Mousavi had been on the street alongside his supporters on Saturday night.

"We ask all people around the world not to confirm Ahmadinejad as our president," he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096218....html

Over and out from this TWITTERer
http://twitter.com/fuspey

Last note; I like the word TWITTER, it works, the bird chirping idea is simple, If we were using the German or Japanese version of the word, would it be the same? The music of the word works, is that onomatopaia?

With or Without TWITTER - theres something happening on the streets

Caption: Video Id: _8y79gnc35E Type: Youtube Video
Twitter in plain English

The Ayatolah did not attack the USA in his Friday sermon.

by civil rights - (iosaf getting passionate)

Sat Jun 20, 2009 23:05

Sorry Mr/s Freeman but the Ayatolah didn't attack the USA during his Friday prayers nor did he make mention of Israel. Significantly he didn't even use the usual shorthand or codewords. Instead he specifically mentioned the UK. Immediately afterwards the UK FCO (foreign and commonwealth office) in London demanded a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Britian. The ambassador declined and sent a lower ranking official in his place. The Iranian diplomatic corp have been meeting with other states all week at their own suggestion or in response to queries, though it has not been clarified if the Irish legation has done so. Anyone who reads the Iranian material on this newsite at the moment has no excuse not to read the transcript of the Ayatolah's Friday prayers. I have linked to them many times not only that but in a version which has a "word cloud" so you can see at a glance how many times he said each key word. http://blog.beliefnet.com/cityofbrass/2009/06/live-tran....html It is worth noting these words importance to not only the supporters of the current regime but voters for all three other candidates. The prayers were reported live on the BBC Persian service (which is less than year old) as well as with summary subtitles on the BBC World TV service and summary transcript translation subtitles to Urdu and Arabic on the Al Jazeera network. It is the first time such Friday prayers outside of a religious holiday (to celebrate the great martyrdoms) have been so widely broadcast and examined.

why?

Coz there was an awful lot more in those prayers than the usual great satan, zionist entity, right to fuck up the environment with nukes, potential to make A-bombs, paying cheques for Hizbollah are deciding to end the divestment of one of the richest economies and most strategic petrol producing states from western banks and thus return all the lovely gold and money from Singapur and Chinese controlled finance holding groups.

What united the people of Tianamen square, whether they were in tanks, on the street, in charge or waiting no the day they could manufacture "made in US" consumer durables and own a BMW was not religion nor a religious culture but_________ Yep. You're missing the wood for the trees. God didn't play a part in Tianamen square. Nobody quoted God, nobody invoked God, nobody appealed to God, nobody had God's twitter acount, nobody actually cared how it fitted into God's plan.

You're getting nowhere in understanding Iran or the Iranian state which contains many ethnic groups and religions without accepting that god is spellt in whopping big letters that by simply getting shouted from rooftops bring a whole society to the brink.

We all want, on Indymedia, in Human Rights networks, HOPI and others - to see civil rights and liberties for the Iranian people. Just coz they're on your telly screen getting bloodied and being interpreted in western ways to western ends, doesn't mean they're moving anywhere closer to civil rights.

¿ Wouldn't it be a shame if they were moving further away ?

echoes of Tiananmen

by A Freeman

Sat Jun 20, 2009 22:26

The images coming from Iran bring to mind the tragic events of 20 years ago in Tiananmen square, we can only hope that the Iranian hardliners won't follow the example of their Chinese counterparts and conduct a massacre of the young protestors. It's hard to see an outcome that would annul the election results though, as the supreme leader (Khamenei) in the theocracy seems to be supporting Ahmadinejad and threatening the use of even more violence against the protesters. It was back to the usual attacks on USA, UK and Israel in his sermon at friday prayers yesterday, the same old hatemongering of fundamentalist Islam.

Protests in Budapest Hungary

Sat Jun 20, 2009 20:46

complete photo series and mp3 audio at http://lmv.hu/node/4077