- 3 November 2009
- 4 Comments
- Events in Iran
Protesters ask themselves- “Where do we meet?”
3 November 2009 Posted By NIAC
Tomorrow is a much anticipated for Iran watchers- but for the protesters taking the streets, it is filled with uncertainty. They don’t know how the police will respond but the bigger problem that has plagued the opposition since their mass arrests is uncertainty of where to protest.
Facebook, Twitter, e-mail communication and telephones are all off limits as the government is thoroughly monitoring them. Students at Tehran University turned to what now seems like an ancient form of organizing- flyers. Each night, they put up flyers, only to see the police clean them up in the morning before class started. Teachers have been put in an uncomfortable position as the police have asked them to turn students who have been engaging in anti-government activities. Although as one teacher jokingly responded when asked by an officer if she knew anything, “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.” Pleading ignorance seems to be the best excuse for teachers.
So, despite the opposition’s best attempts to organize and inform supporters of where to meet, people are still confused. The police have given permission for people to protest in front of the old US Embassy and have warned that they will arrest gathering anywhere else. Mehdi Karroubi is planning to make an appearance at 10:30 am, supposedly at Haft-e-Tir Square…but who knows obstacles may thwart his plan.
4 Responses to “Protesters ask themselves- “Where do we meet?””
There were similar obstacles in Iran, 1979, which we overcame. Of course, it was a little easier as the opposition in general claimed a larger share of support than it does today.
Similar obstacles were overcome here in America, from 1965 to 1972, where we also faced off against police batons, mass arrests, and sometimes National Guard bullets.
Back then there was no internet, no twitter, no facebook, no text messaging, no cell phones. Just pamphlets, hand drawn signs, songs and protest slogans. And back then, all of it was original! Not any of this hand-me-down stuff.
Thanks Pirouz for screwing our country over and over coming your obstacles. Those of you that bought this regime to Iran should be ashamed.
Long live secular democracy in Iran. Down with Basiji, hezbollah, and anyone who gives this regime a lifeline harliner or reformist.
I seem to recall that a certain turbaned revolutionary leader living not too far from Brigitte Bardot in the suburbs of Paris made numerous speeches and issued communiques to his followers in Iran that were widely covered by the BBC, French media, and other decadent Western mouthpieces. Safe in Paris and surrounded by his Western-educated advisers (Yazdi, Bani Sadr, and Ghotbzadeh), that turbaned leader did not have to worry about being imprisoned or killed, as he himself was to imprison and kill so many thousands when he came to power himself.
“Just pamphlets, hand drawn signs, songs and protest slogans. And back then, all of it was original! Not any of this hand-me-down stuff.”
And when that didn’t work, the Islamist revolutionaries set the Cinema Rex in Abadan on fire killing about 400 (or more) people in the process.