Iran's Green Movement opposition organized mass street protests on the 4th of November (13th of Aban), taking advantage of the official rallies being held on the same day to mark the 30th anniversary of the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran. The opposition protests were met with a violent crackdown by security forces.
As has come to be expected, Iranian citizen media recorded “history” on their mobile phones.
Protesters in Tehran trampled on a portrait of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an act that would have been unimaginable a few months ago.
A message to Obama: Either you are with us or with them.
Mehdi Karoubi, an opposition leader, among the people.
Security forces attack protesters
Written byFred Petrossian
4 comments
Are they just hitting random people on the street?
At last, we are seeing something happen in Iran that will save the world and Iran from recession, war and uncertainty. In 1989, greedy so-called communists (they were not communists but greedy dictators) the worst of which was the Romanian regime were swept from power.
The Russian revolution of 1917 was meant to end imperialism, inequality and the rest but only replaced one Czar with another (in the form of Stalin). By 1991, it was all over for most of the Soviet satellites and copycats – apart from the regimes of Iran and Yugoslavia. Milosevic’s vile regime – the worst of them all – fell in 2000, leaving only the Iranian regime as the last standing bastion of the Iron Curtain.
Now, it seems that the last Soviet-style dictatorship is about to go. As with 1917 Russia, 1979’s Iranian revolution only replaced one Shah with another Shah. Strict rules and corruption remained and became a worse problem. Iran’s Islam-meets-Communism-meets-Nationalism state was supposed to be a paradise of equality where oil wealth was to be distributed. Instead, the regime foolishly fell out with America and even its creator the USSR (like Hoxha’s Albania did), causing both the US and USSR to work together (they both wanted oil and US/USSR relations began to thaw during the later Brezhnev era) to encourage Saddam to invade and to allow the Iranian regime to implement and especially enforce (from 1979-1980, most Iranians disobeyed the laws and the government had to compromise on a lot) all the repressive laws they liked which they couldn’t have done as easily otherwise (including getting parents to sacrifice their children as mine sweepers along with the usual women wearing veils, banning of alcohol and so on rubbish) in the name of Islam, socialism, patriotism and the like. Iran should have implemented democracy and ended the monarchy as the people wanted. Instead, Iran fused the very worst of what the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia had to offer and was in the end a harsher version of USSR and a softer version of Saudi. Not a good place to be.
Ironically, the most fervent anti-regime critics are those who formed the initial regime in the first place. They admit mistakes were made and have moderated. Mousavi, like Dubcek in Czechoslovakia, was a product of the regime but is now out to destroy it. Will Iran become another casualty in the “regimes who turned socialistic paradises into inequal dictatorships and eventually collapsed” experiments.
Now, it seems that the last Soviet-style dictatorship is about to go. As with 1917 Russia, 1979’s Iranian revolution only replaced one Shah with another Shah. Strict rules and corruption remained and became a worse problem. Iran’s Islam-meets-Communism-meets-Nationalism state was supposed to be a paradise of equality where oil wealth was to be distributed. Instead, the regime foolishly fell out with America and even its creator the USSR (like Hoxha’s Albania did), causing both the US and USSR to work together (they both wanted oil and US/USSR relations began to thaw during the later Brezhnev era) to encourage Saddam to invade and to allow the Iranian regime to implement and especially enforce (from 1979-1980, most Iranians disobeyed the laws and the government had to compromise on a lot) all the repressive laws they liked which they couldn’t have done as easily otherwise (including getting parents to sacrifice their children as mine sweepers along with the usual women wearing veils, banning of alcohol and so on rubbish) in the name of Islam, socialism, patriotism and the like. Iran should have implemented democracy and ended the monarchy as the people wanted. Instead, Iran fused the very worst of what the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia had to offer and was in the end a harsher version of USSR and a softer version of Saudi. Not a good place to be.