Media coverage of yersterday's Quds rally and how Iran greeners snatched the focus from pro-ahmadinejad's was really ridiculous. i will write about it today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quds Day – My Version
1. Since the July presidential poll there have been few opportunities for protestors to gather without the fear of being tear gassed, beaten and arrested (and raped and murdered) by the crackdown apparatus. The Quds rally has traditionally been a monopoly of religious regime supporters (whether in the 1980s when Left was more powerful and popular in Iran or after Ayatollah Khomeini's death when conservatives took over the real power institutions). Ironically, throughout all these years state-run TV and conservative media have craved for a single demonstrator with a non-conformist appearance in the rally (a boy with trendy clothes or a girl with a loose scarf) to show them and say: see! Even these people support the Palestinian cause and are faithful to IRI's principles.
2. As a formality, every year reformist parties invite people to join the rally but I don’t remember a single case since the reform era when pro-reforms have attended the ceremony. The invitations had a different tone this year nevertheless, and were interpreted by almost everyone as a call to gather once again in protest to election and post-election events. Many even read between the lines of Hashemi Rafsanjani's statement, believing that the once-powerful slick ayatollah is also asking for protestors to come to the streets.
3. On the Friday prayers one week before the rally, the supreme leader had threatened those who wanted to violate the norms of the rally. Revolutionary Guards (with a more threatening tone) did the same the day before the demonstration. Protestors showed that nothing frightens them anymore when they turned in (cautiously speaking) hundreds of thousands the next day.
4. As the usual procedure, seven or eight different routes were designated for march towards the Tehran University, where the Friday prayers would be held after the Quds rally. A loose conjecture based on my personal observations says that an area of one-kilometer radius around the university was dominated by Ahmadinejad/regime supporters. But from 7th of Tir Square (see on Google map of Tehran) to 16th of Azar Street, north of Tehran University, the Greeners held absolute majority. Azadi square was also at the hands of Greeners as one friend told me. Friday prayer was a show of power for both sides indeed.
5. A few days before the rally, with all the direct and indirect threats pointed towards people, I was not really sure if any protest would take place. I had decided to go to 7th of Tir Square and only join the people if their number was considerable. But the turnout by Greeners was far beyond my expectation. The Karim Khan Street was 80 percent green on Friday and state-run TV could show no footage of this part with all the green flags and wristbands and all the placards in support of Musavi and Karrubi.
6. Pedestrian blog has a perfect coverage of Fridays protests and slogans. I just add some other slogans and additional exegesis:
a. The real Basidjis/were Hemmat and Bakeri: (both revered martyrs and icons of the 8-year war with Iraq-compared with 2009 basidjis hired to crush the uprising).
b. Idol-breaker [iconoclast] Karrubi!-break the Great idol: the original version was 'Khomeini the idol-breaker…'; and the Great Idol used to be the United States in 1980s. Ahmadinejadists modified it into 'idol-breaker Ahmadi…' Rafsanjani functioning (!) as the Great Idol. The Supreme Leader was Greeners' Great Idol on Friday.
c. Cannon, Tank, Rape (or Basidji)/is not effective anymore: originally 'cannon, tank, machingun…' used during the 1979 Islamic Revolution against Shah's attempted crackdown.
d. We are not the people of Kufa/to get a wage and stay: originally 'to leave Ali alone'. Kufa, the Caliphate center of first Shiite Imam Ali-ibn-Abutalib (as) was known for its betrayal to Ali and later his son third Shiite Imam Hussein (as). During the Islamic Revolution and years afterwards revolutionaries made the slogan to assure their leaders they will not leave them alone like Kufis. Ironic version has been used ever since the elections by Greeners implying that those who support Ahmadinejad and the Leader are mercenaries (which of course I don’t believe-they really have faith in what they do).
e. The real religious leaders/[are] Montazeri and Sane'i: the only religious leaders daring to denounce the post-election bloodshed. Sane'I was a well-known leftist and high-rank official of judiciary before returning to Qom Seminary in early 1990s.
7. The main discursive effort of pro-regime and pro-Ahmadinejad media has been to compare the post-election election turmoil to early 1980s unrests, when Marxist groups turned against the Islamic Republic, some such as the Mojahedin-e-Khalgh waging an armed conflict. The groups were ruthlessly and successfully suppressed by the regime, many turning into political artifacts. Ayatollah Khomeini's charisma, the tiny base of Marxists and their fall into armed conflict facilitated their kick-out from Iran's political scene. The present leader clearly lacks Ayatollah Khomeini's charisma, the Greeners are millions of Iranians, unlike Marxists who were a few thousand, and the current movement is a peaceful one. One that even on Friday prayers smiled to the anti-riot forces that have carried out the main responsibility of suppressing people in recent months.
8. Unlike Ahmadinejadists on Friday, who were just the stereotype of Hezbollahis everybody knows –men with (untrimmed beard) and women with chador- Greeners were a rainbow, with a significant number of religious people inside the crowd. Musavi's background let him to gain the vote of both religious and modern voters in the elections. And after the July election the Islamic Republic passed a line that even disillusioned many of its lukewarm supporters and pushed them towards the Green Movement.
9. Police and protestors entered into a stone-throwing contest at the end of the protestors, with Basidj also helping the police. A small group of 7-8 Basidjis attacked the battling people from behind (these happened in 7th of Tir Square), throwing stones and beating them with truncheons and other stuff. People ran after them, hit them back and set their motorcycles on fire. I do not know what exactly happened to the those daring bearded ruthless guys after.
10. The fissure between Iranians is getting wider and wider. A person with a brain please!
a Friday prayers to remember: Shrewd plan to dominate this week prayers, plus Musavi and Karrubi's nod, gave reformists' supporters the majority in a ceremony which has been traditionally at hands of the Islamic establishment loyalists (during the past 12 years this has been equal to supporters of right/conservative/principlist groups, largely from lower and lower-middle class) bussed every week to the venue, Tehran university (and neighboring streets in crowded times).
State-run TV coverage: since Khatami's 1997 election (and during the presidential campaign at that year) the state-run TV (whose head is appointed by the Supreme Leader) has overstretched to defy public opinion. During the post-election developments it did not stop this trend, near-completely giving no news on public rallies only bothering itself to broadcast provocative reports and accuse the protestors of conspiring against the Islamic Republic. While Iranians were mourning for the death of Neda and other demonstrators, TV showed footage of protestors beating a basiji, and showed interviews with people condemning the protests. It also provided distorted translations of American and Europeans' comments on Iranians' uprising. Last night TV airing of the Friday prayers was not any exception. It was full of shots showing loyalists holding placard saying 'My life devoted to leader' and similar slogans, while an eyewitness told me that even inside the central venue -the roofed area of Tehran University- Musavi supporters held sway.
p.s: the best job these days is done by Pedestrian who is translating posts from different Persian weblogs into English. do not lose it.
another speaker criticized Western media and said: "a woman [Neda Agha Soltan] issuscpicously killed in demonstrations held by hooligans in Tehran and all Western media show it over and over...but no photo of the murder of a Muslim Egyptian woman is published" [I think its forbidden to publish photos of a trial, isn't it?]
some demonstrators shouted against "Shirin Ebadi", Iranian lawyer, and asked the speaker to condemn her remarks.
the speaker said: "those who pretend to be open-minded and advocators of human rights and think that by parroting some Western words [huh?] they can create disunion in our country and jeopardize security like
up to one month ago, i (aware of my identity as a Persian, Shiite, urban, secular, pro-reform... Iranian) tried to regularly scan the newspapers and websites that stood in the direct opposition to my opinion. so i spent most of my time reading the most hardline, pro-Ahmadinejad websites (such as Rajanews), religious blogs, pan-Turkist blogs etc. just to know how they see the world, what their demands are and what their agenda is. i truly believed (and still believe) that we are in the same boat and no group (be it political, ethnic, social, religious etc.) has the right to marginalize the others. But today, even reading a short piece news from Ahmadinejadist websites and newspapers is a real torture for me. standing all their audacity and hypocrisy truly needs nerves of steel, and i can't understand how brazenly they can deny realities and run all this smear campaign against people who have a (sometimes even the slightest) different point of view? Pooh!
1. Armored vehicles and trucks carrying thousands of Chinese troops rumbled through riot-damaged streets of the regional capital of northwestern Xinjiang on Thursday, blaring out propaganda urging ethnic unity.
2. Zhi, Communist Party boss of Urumqi, said on Wednesday he would seek the death penalty for rioters who resorted to "cruel means" and murdered people in this city...
3. the government has blamed Sunday's killings on exiled Uighurs seeking independence, especially Rebiya Kadeer, an activist who lives in exile in the United States. Kadeer has denied the accusations.
4. 56 people were killed and 1,080 wounded on Sunday...
(from Yahoo)
While the state-run TV rarely reports about ethnic tensions in Urumqi, the Iranian blogosphere is more than happy to compare the turmoil in China and Iran. and the old question arises: why is Iran so concerned with the situation of Palestinians, but shows no reaction when it comes to Muslims of Chechnya, Shiites of Yemen and Pakistan and Uyqurs of China?
Managing Dissent in Iran and China (NY Times)
Sidewalk lyrics, the best place to follow developments these days.
Posts
All Comments
|
|
