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TechnoratiIranians Flex the Power of Nonviolence
What we’re witnessing in Iran over the last several days is the power of nonviolence.
Unarmed Iranians by the hundreds of thousands, and across all ages and classes, have flocked to the streets of Tehran, defying bans and brutal paramilitary squads, to demand one simple thing: that their votes be counted fairly.
The democratic longing, and the democratic thronging, shows no signs of letting up.
“Every day, the number of people attending the protests is increasing,” says Camelia Entekhabifard, author of Camelia: Save Yourself by Telling the Truth—A Memoir of Iran. “It’s drawing people from all generations and societies, from the very cultured to the very traditional. This is a national movement.”
Entekhabifard, speaking to me from Dubai, says she’s concerned about the safety of her family back in Iran. “My mother, my sister, and my brother, they’re hearing gunshots every night in Tehran,” she says. “They tell me that people are going to the rooftops to show their solidarity with the protesters and chant, ‘God is great.’ But then the civilian-clothed militia smashes down their doors. This is unheard of.”
Entekhabifard says the protesters don’t trust the government to do a fair recount, since the guardian council that is supposed to do it is packed with Ahmadinejad supporters.
“There is no option other than to repeat the election in the near future,” she says.
She believes that the most powerful man in Iran, the head cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will not be foolish enough to crack down harder.
“Today, there isn’t word about toppling the regime of the Supreme Leader,” she says. “But within a weak of a crackdown, the slogans will be against the Supreme Leader. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that.”
An Iranian-born friend of mine, Homi Moossavi, is not convinced that things will end peacefully.
“It is hard to gauge the events from outside,” he says from San Francisco. “Even those living in Iran are having difficulty predicting the future. At this moment, there seems to be still some chance for change, but there is also great potential for more violence and severe repression.”
But he feels uplifted by the massive, spontaneous nonviolent protests.
“It is the wave that I am inspired by,” he says. “Watching the sea of Iranian people demanding accountability and asking for their basic human rights, freedom, and democracy is truly moving. It indicates that some real political maturity has taken hold among the people whose only unifying slogan thirty years ago was ‘Death to the Shah.’ ”
34 Comments so far
Show AllSeems to be a lot of inside baseball going on here. I can't figure out who's attacking whom.
I agree with the article, though, about the power of non-violence. Non-violent protests in the U.S. got civil rights legislation passed and made the American non-violent leader, MLK, a national hero (who would have thought that possible back in the early 60's?).
This is the first time I've witnessed a sense of connection between a Muslim movement and the American civil rights movement.
Iran seems to be missing someone of the stature of King or Gandhi, unless we've underestimated, or been misinformed about, Mousavi. Maybe someone else will emerge.
The connection is emerging, it's about people not authority figures. I think some may already be there, we just don't know who they are are can't make them out in the crowd. Iranians will do it their way. Maybe it won't look like King or Gandhi, people for their time and place. Iran is a different place and this is a different time. Let's not hold them to our standards. Given that the power structure has had to pause there and take notice, unlike what the progressive movement in the US has been able to accomplish, maybe we should hold ourselves to their standard.
Source of info: woman in Dubai on the phone to her mom and sis and bro.
Solid!!
Fraud did occur. Unfortunately the Progressive is taking part in it. This is a disgrace. I can't understand someone with Mathew Rotthschild's intellect going for this kind of thing. Please do read Paul Craig Roberts on this one. He's got this one down to the T.
AD
I was very inspired and uplifted by this report. Much less so by several of the above comments.
Regardless of his surname, Rothschild's credibility is very thin with me. For example, recently, he wrote an article about 9/11 "conspiracies" http://www.alternet.org/story/41601/
In this piece of shoddy journalism, Rothsschild attemtps to smear anyone who does not believe in the official conspiracy theory, rather than dispute the actual facts. His article is nothing more than a polemic against anyone who dare think that our dear leaders would lie to us.
While I don't have the expertise to determine which theory is more correct, the circumstantial evidence is so strong I am willing to bet my life savings that the official storyline about 9/11 is essentially false.
I would have expected Rothschild to at least admit this, he writes as if he is an expert on it, and yet resorts to cheap shots, smears, lack of context, claims of anti-Semitism etc. to support his claim. Very little "fact" can be found in the article. Very disappointing, the article is more suited to appear in the WP, rather than a progressive web site or magazine.
Pot to kettle, come in kettle. Over.
did I step on a sore toe?
Not really, but when I hear of complaints about unsubstantiated commentary, well, this comment area is full of it. I see nothing here that independently supports the claims being made. No big, it's nothing new. I've been touring around the Common Dreams comments for a while today. This is really the first week I've delved below the end of article line to see the comments. Really, quite sane stuff being said in most other areas, and i find people commenting here who are commenting about Palestine, about Peru, about other stuff, and weirdly, it's all sane. Over here in the Iran posts, it's just off the deep end. It's like people just stopped thinking for a while.
did he step on a sore toe again?
An interesting catch was made by some other regarding a report issues by the BBC.
This showed a panned view of a massive crowd in Iran with the caption "Iranians mass to protest Election Fraud" or some such.
A viewer recognized the photo, searched elsewhere and found the photo had been cropped. In the foreground was Ahmanijeed waving to the crowd. The crowd was in FACT one out en masse to SUPPORT the election results.
Whether fraud occurred or not is still in doubt.
That there a massive proaganda offensive being launched by the Western media is NOT in doubt.
It was a good catch, digging up the LA Times correct version.
Has the BBC apologized yet . . . for reporting WTC7 collapsing twenty minutes before it collapsed?
The BBC will not even acknowledge who gave them that information.
No link, no screen grab (probably trying to master PhotoShop right now to create it), no verification no actual person. Just "some other." How perfectly vague for your purposes.
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2009/061809_iran_propaganda.htm
You look more and more the idiot and the troll that you are every time you challenge people. What Happened to Jakenewton? They ban that name?
This the same tactic used by the BBC when Saddams Statue toppled.
In the future I will ignore all your requests for "links". It very clear to me what YOUR purpsoe here and it has nothing to do with learning the truth.
You are the single most uninformed person left posting on these boards. Enjoy your ignorance.
Just looked at it. Not the same photo. Find me the guy who is standing up backwards and facing the crowd in one photo (he's not in the other one) find me the corner of pavement in the one photo that doesn't seem to show up in the other one as the gates were lined with speakers and a lower stage area. The square is a popular area for staging all sorts of rallies. These don't look like the same photo cropped, but two different photos from different angles of the event. On the BBC website, the correction is given:
"Update 19 June 2009: an earlier version of our caption was incorrect. We wrongly stated that this was a pro-Mousavi rally when in fact it was a pro-Ahmadinejad rally."
Pro-Ahmadinijad rallies have happened. No one is denying that. Robert Fisk in the Independent has been reporting on them, citing the number of busses hired to bring people in. I remember people trying to use these tactics to claim that almost all the carnage in Lebanon after the Israeli bombardment was the work of photoshop trickery, or the work of "Hezbollywood." It was the result of a pair of photos that looked doctored, and people on a number of right-wing blog used those to build their entire case. Most reasonable people didn't believe that, either.
Yes the BBC issued a correction after they were caught out.
Now why is it you first denied such a photo existed and claimed that I was busily making one up myself.?
Its not the same Photo yet the BBC acknowledges they captioned it wrong?
Do you read how what you type?
You are uninformed and respond to everything with a knee jerk response much like our old Friend Jake newton did.
You insist on being spoon fed like some little child and are unable to have an opinion that is your own.
The President of the USA signed a signing statement calling for the CIA to destablize Iran and we have a person who considers himself informed pretending that such never happened.
We have a person calling himself "logical" who insistes iranians would twitter each other in ENGLISH to tell each other where to rally and meet.
I asked you to show your source. And you did. It showed a mistaken cutline. I know not how the mistake was made. It was corrected. That's the public record.
Probably Thomas More again
Thank you for not responding.
Can you read? Is plugging a link into your browser beyond yoru capabilities?
Babies have to be spoon fed because they are helpless. What is your excuse?
Zero trust for anything said by anybody named Rothschild.
bligh4
Yes, any Jewish name on an article immediatly indicates a Zionist plot, and should be rejected. JEWS should not write articles!!!! Any opinion that the recent Iranian election was not a fair and does not reflect the will of the majority of Iranians is a Jewish Zionist Plot!
Hell! I think I am finally getting this.
It's your fantasy; you're free to go with it.
You picked up on that, too?
Notice no media is presenting Mousavi's background.
Google : Mousavi Executions
Mousavi was Prime Minister 1981-88 and Presided over the execution of 30,000 jailed Political Prisoners.
Prior to that he personally ordered the closure of all Universitys for four years.
Israel to Obama destabilize Iran and we will not nuke Tehran..
Heck of a job Barry destabilization and death from Palestine to India !!!!!
Oh do not forget the CIA funded terrorists out of Baluchistan.
It is good to see 1953 back again, look, there is the ghost of Kermit Roosevlt.
Or google Khamenei executions.
Or google Khamenei Montazzeri.
Or google Ahmadinejad gays.
Etc. None of them are saints. All of them were and part of the repressive regime.
Under Ahmadinejad gays, only claims they hang gays( no statistics or dates).
Amy Goodman had a fluent Farsi speaker on her show who said the no gay statement was a mistranslation.
I do not mean to defend Ahmadinejad, but only to point out that it is foolish to think supporting Mousavi is a good thing.
With Mousavi we have clear documentation of 10,000's of executed political prisoners with Ahmadinejad there is no record of any mass slaughter.
My point is I feel the pain to come if the supporters of a mass murderer,Mousavi, destabilize Iran with the instigation and assistance of the USA.
The Rothschilds destroyed Europe twice. Please don't let them touch any other continents.
Oops, too late.
And your name is?
"And your name is?"
If it was Matthew Hitler, would you be interested in my sage advice and eye-opening reporting?
Not particularly, but it would explain a lot, I guess.
More easily figured out than you think.
Because "sneaker" is so much more trustworthy.
Coward.