When I woke up last Sunday morning, I grabbed a mug of coffee, hopped back in bed and turned on the television. This is my weekend indulgence. On Sundays, I watch the ABC network affiliate to catch a roundup of goings-on, mostly local and occasionally overseas news stories.
I perk up. There is a story on Iran, though I quickly see it is nothing newsworthy. The official clip released by the Iranian authorities shows an orchestrated, somber gathering of people for Ashura, a holy day commemorating the seventh century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's leading figures.
On the screen, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses neat rows of obedient women sitting in their black hijab, like blackbirds on telephone wires. The ABC newscaster says something about Ahmadinejad kissing a baby's head, but I am long gone. I have leapt out of bed and am logging onto the Web.
Something is up.
As always, the real Iran story de jour breaks on the Internet's social networking sites, building urgently throughout the day and into the night, initially via Twitter and YouTube, then in online blogs and later in print articles. I mouse-click through shared links and wall posts on Facebook.
Chaos reigned in Iran on Sunday.
In addition to the Ashura holiday, December 27 was also the seventh day of mourning for the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a critic of the 2009 Iran Election who died of natural causes.
The reformist movement took advantage of the combined religious holiday and day of mourning to come out in cities all over Iran, including Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tabriz.
Neither the use of force (opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's nephew died during the unrest) nor the threat of arrests could stop the mass protests, which appeared to be the largest since the disputed June 12th election.
Foreign press was banned as usual.
Iran's citizen-news-corp, however, filled in the media gaps. They showed the Green Movement as emboldened and strong as ever.
After fishing in a rushing stream of Tweets, I watched YouTube clips showing a police station burning, a group of Basij militia cornered but not hurt, a police van overturned. The crowd's chants included, "Khamenei is a murderer. His reign is over." and "Revolution. Freedom. Iranian Republic."
Tear gas, batons, even bullets did not end the opposition's determination to be seen and heard. If anything the use of deadly force on the Ashura holiday, which is strictly prohibited by Islam, will likely grow the reformist's grassroots ranks and sharpen their focus.
Whatever shape Iran takes in 2010, reform must happen in order for calm and unity to be restored. It is increasingly clear that the Green Movement is unwilling to back down, turn a blind eye, or otherwise disappear.
Even without the Internet, ordinary Iranian citizens have brought about dramatic change throughout Iran's turbulent history, including the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Today Iran is cracking apart and needs something other than a hard hand in order to truly heal. Tough threats will deepen the crevice. Violent measures will split the seam further. Harsh diversions like arresting the relatives of opposition activists -- Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi's sister was detained in Tehran on Monday -- are not the glue that will bind.
Herein lies Iran's Great Green Divide. The question remains how will it be bridged and by whom?
I expect I will read about it online.
Follow Charlotte Safavi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CharlotteSafavi
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I heard an interviw on NPR yeaterday about minorities in Iran - they compose 50% of the population but so far have not backed the green movement - it is still a fight between the majority ethnic iranians only.
Why have they not backed the Green movement?
Will they?
What roll will/could they play?
WOW!
From what I have heard once in awhile the only people trying to divide Iranians in ethnic lines are neocons on TV, inside Iran you don't see a gap and as a matter of fact and due to intermarri
What IS funny is that in some tv news propaganda the supposed Iranian "expert" of that station was claiming that the "Persians' were controllin
I fully understand the intent of that and such experts who blatantly try to misreprese
By the way I do like the play with figures, I guess if the topic was the democratic and very friendly government of Saudi Arabia, it would be claimed that 99% of Saudis belong to one ethnicity and all minorities constitute the other 1%. Go figure.
Also iran likes to protray itself as amuch more hamogenous society than it actualli is - Ahmadineja
The Link to the story is in a post above
Thanks for writing about this struggle. It deserves everyone's attention. I hope the struggle will end with the dreams of those who are fighting made real.
To struggle for recognitio
either the religious authoritie
I know that the secound option is bloddier and means alot more suffering - but I think will be for the best (getting rid of all the hardliners at once) so im hopping for that one.
Good luck Greens - You will need it and you desrve it
I'm guessing here, maybe Iranians inside Iran don't want an out of control chaotic revolution anymore, even if they were able to have one today. Maybe they are fully aware of the many ways a chaotic uprising can go wrong or be hijacked. Maybe they want longlastin
Maybe the reasons are many.
The drum beats for sanctions and war are becasue the Iranian Regime is trying to create an internatio
By the time the slow UN process actually works its way to apply sanctions the revolution will be over and the need for sanctions will have to be reconsider
Guardian / Robert Tait
29-Dec-200
Iran's Islamic authoritie
Using extraordin
http://www
by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles
28 Dec 2009 22:2516 CommentsOr a second coup?
[ comment ] Former president Mohammad Khatami called the June 12 election a "velvet coup" against the people of Iran. Now as the Green Movement gains momentum, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) seems poised to stage a second such coup.
As predicted, the Green Movement came out in force on December 27, the day of Ashura. Even before the day had ended, the IRGC, its intelligen
http://www
It worked wonders then, it's the American thing to do, so it's quite frankly jaw-droppi
...The United States joins with the internatio
For months, the Iranian people have sought nothing more than to exercise their universal rights. Each time they have done so, they have been met with the iron fist of brutality, even on solemn occasions and holy days. And each time that has happened, the world has watched with deep admiration for the courage and the conviction of the Iranian people who are part of Iran's great and enduring civilizati
What's taking place within Iran is not about the United States or any other country. It's about the Iranian people and their aspiration
As I said in Oslo, it's telling when government
Along with all free nations, the United States stands with those who seek their universal rights. We call upon the Iranian government to abide by the internatio
Below I include an excerpt from President Obama's address to the nation on December 28, which included a joint statement on the attempted terrorist bombing of a US airline and on recent events in Iran. Needless to say they are completely unrelated.
But the people who see more than the tweets and flickrs that these guys put out, the people who don't need foreign reporters to show them what is happening on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, who get a clearer picture, are indeed likely to start calling for change in Iran. They're going to start calling for armed police, rather than unarmed Basiji, to be deployed against them. They're going to start calling for the arrest of the people who are encouragin
Despite the claims of widespread support, the polls by people who are looking at reality rather than rhetoric shows that the causes these protesters are championin
http://www
It turns out that iranians are just as complicate
But it would indeed be interestin
BTW, I don't know if you're familiar with Gallup's Muslim Studies website, which grew out of them noticing the wide difference between the results they got when they did their World Poll, and what one would expect from a Western point of view.
http://www
http://ace
Once you know that Mousavi supporters were in just about every polling station from before they opened to after the votes were counted in front of them, it makes it hard to believe that the boxes were stuffed, or the numbers were altered, and it didn't get picked up on and the specifics reported on right away.
(Oh, Elections Canada is a partner in ACE, and it would be a good site for anyone who was concerned by all the interestin
Thank you for your post, Ms Safavi!