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Iran’s youth in Facebook revolt
The Facebook revolt of the youth of Iran is not over yet. Iran’s long-repressed young people seemed to be on the brink of freedom and then came the election result.
Thousands of young Iranians meandered through the streets of Tehran blowing whistles, waving green balloons and throwing campaign handouts into the air like confetti with a background of pop music. Tehran had never seen anything like this before. The people of Iran were joyous because it was the first election in which women played an important role thereby demanding an end to the inequalities they have endured for centuries.
Under Islamic law in Iran, a woman’s word counts only half as much as a man’s in court; a woman can inherit only half as much as her brother; and it takes a woman ten years to obtain a divorce and she will lose custody of her children. For four years, the moral police have not only cracked down on any dress or behaviour they deemed unIslamic, but have also closed newspapers, blocked websites and arrested bloggers and human-rights activists.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the 67-year-old main opposition candidate was prime minister during the 1980s. His wife, Zahra was the first political wife to appear on the campaign trail with her husband, giving speeches. Unsurprisingly, her most fervent supporters are young women.
“The hijab should not be forced on anybody. That is a private decision. They should leave young women alone. Our women are mature enough to decide for themselves,” she said.
She would also work on ending legal discrimination against women. And, as a writer and academic, she said, “Most important to me is the freedom of expression, the freedom of the pen. We have lost four years of freedom of speech [under Ahmadinejad].”
“Ahmadinejad is a good man,” said Mehri Moradi, 38, a school teacher wearing a black chador. “He has kept our money from being stolen by the [religious] mafia.” The economy was bad, she said, but Ahmadinejad deserves more time to correct it. “He has had only four years.”
After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s overwhelming victory of 66% of the votes was announced on 13th June 2009 angry crowds in Tehran broke into shops, tore down signs and smashed windows. The worst civil unrest in Iran for over a decade took place as protesters set fire to tires outside the Interior Ministry building and others formed a human chain of around 300 people to close off a major Tehran street.
By June 14 the protests had grown more violent turn. Cars were being parked in streets and highways in Tehran, and the highways leading to the city, blocking traffic heavily along with burning buses and trash cans. Protesters started attacking shops, government offices, police stations, police vehicles, gas stations and banks. Large protests which escalated into riots also broke out at Tehran University, Amirkabir University and Shahid Beheshti University where students started burning and destroying various buildings and items around the campuses. There were beatings by riot police and closure of universities.
The police had installed a barricade around Mehrabad Airport and Imam Khomeini International Airport fearing that the protesters were planning to attack them and had also blocked all streets leading to the Interior Ministry, where protesters were burning tyres outside of the building, and were throwing rocks. In an attempt to quell the protests, many internet sites have been blocked, especially any social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, foreign broadcasting websites, and reformist websites as well. Political activists use these sites to recruit protesters.
Text and SMS and international calls from Tehran were blocked, and by late Sunday, the cell phone services had been shut down. Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes. Also several BBC cameramen were beaten and arrested by IRGC officials and had their tapes confiscated. Several people have reportedly been killed and as one journalist Michael Totten reports "Tehran almost looks like a war zone already.
Historically reformers have always backed down in Iran when challenged by hardliners, in part because no one wants to relive the horrible Great Terror of the 1980s after the revolution, when faction-fighting produced blood in the streets.
Protests have been held in other cities of the world including outside the United Nations in New York, the Iranian Embassies in London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney and in a public square in Toronto. Protests also occurred in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai as a result of the election which is believed to be rigged.
Mousavi’s supporters believe that he would be able to turn around Iran’s faltering economy, battered by low oil prices and Ahmadinejad’s populist economics. He is credited with successfully running the economy during his time as prime minister from 1981 to 1989, one of Iran’s toughest eras, as it waged war with Iraq.
Besides the high unemployment, high inflation and lack of freedom of expression, the main concern of the young is Iran’s isolation from the West. They are particularly angry about Ahmadinejad’s confrontational international politics, particularly over Israel, and Iran’s nuclear programme.
Although the president elected by Iran’s 46.2m voters is the public face of the nation, real power lies with Ayatol-lah Khamenei, the supreme leader, who is in charge of foreign policy, the armed forces and the state-owned media.
Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the election result to the Guardian Council, made up of twelve men selected by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatol-lah Khamenei, on 14th June and on 15th June Khamenei announced their would be an official investigation into vote rigging which would take place over the next week. Iran will have to await the result of this meeting to see what happens next. Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Add your comment below. Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Add your comment below. Not a Citizen? Sign up
*Image taken from http://http://www.novinite.com/media/images/2009-05/photo_verybig_103914.jpg
