I'm going to start a thread for videos of the protests and police use of force. Most of them are extremely upsetting and some are graphic. Should they be shown? absolutely.
@RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee): It's journalistic convention. The first reference in a story will likely be to President Obama, and then they'll switch to Mr. It's the same in the NY Times, for instance.
Has anyone seen the newest twitter tag? It appears that Australia has opened their embassy. I can't get in touch with any of my friends in Tehran right now, so I can't confirm that.
@RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee): I keep seeing people say they have confirmed it, but no links. Italy, Germany, and the British embassy are all being tweeted too. You'd think this is something CNN would find newsworthy and pick up. /eyeroll
@RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee): Yeah, the only links I've found is to a list of embassies in Iran. Also, Iranians aren't tweeting this, Americans are. I love that people are passionate about this, but I wish they would evaluate information before re-tweeting it.
@KittyKitty Texas-is-bigger-than-France Cat: Nico just posted a reader email re: the suicide bombing. Iranian state media saying the person blew himself up before he could damage the place. There was one broken window according to the viewer.
@RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee): I don't trust anything from the Iran State TV. They have continually lied outright and misreported events. I'll believe it when I finally get this email I'm waiting for. I'm hoping the electricity is just out again for a while and that's why I haven't heard from him.
A really good book, by the way, for anyone who really wants to get more background as this insanity unfolds, is The Ayatollah Begs To Differ by Hooman Majd. [www.amazon.com]
It reads like a combination of history, current events, and travelogue, and he's just a really good writer. He's also the first author I've read who has been so clear about how while the Iranians certainly want reform, there's no great movement to undo the Islamic state. As he puts it, no one is looking to establish "Islam lite." The question is what Islam should mean to the people and the state and how best to express it, not whether or not it's a piece of the puzzle (or the frame around the puzzle. You see what I mean. I hope).
I believe the memoir Lipstick Jihad has been mentioned on Jezebel -- it, too, is very good. Though I think Ayatollah is better, in that you learn more about the country, rather than his personal experience. [www.amazon.com]
Many reports of bloggers/Twitterers posting that they have come to the realization that by attending these protests they might die, and that they are ready for that.
@kelsium: I kind of realized that when I saw how many people had their faces covered. It is so they won't be identified later and arrested or murdered. Such determination and will!
@kelsium: Did you see that Mousavi's own site says that he's "washed and ready for martyrdom"? There's a whole preparing the body for burial thing that you would do before going into battle, or, in this case, going out onto the streets of your country's capital to protest an election....
I've been following this on Twitter as well via a woman who lives in Turkey with relatives in and around Tehran. There are a few tweets coming out that give me hope, such as members of the police force protecting the protesters against retaliation and the army declaring itself neutral (how long that will last is anyone's guess). Several embassies have opened their doors to the injured. It's odd seeing the stories develop online before they hit AP or Reuters. Kudos to YouTube for allowing Iranians to post videos of the violence directed at them.
You would be surprised how blase some people are about this whole thing. Not only would it change the structure of the middle east, but it would mean so much for stableization. I try to talk to people at work and they are like "Meh, they are always in the streets chanting about something."
@badmutha: Some neocons just think WAR WAR WAR BOMB BOMB BOMB *WANK WANK WANK* is just inevitable, and that Mousavi is just a friendlier face on a malevolent political system.
@BearDownCBears: I mean, I have heard that too, but the current administration is full of whack jobs, so really anything would be an improvement. It just seems like the PEOPLE are really fed up, and want a change. I hope they can cut through the corruption to find someone who will really care about Iranians.
Nico Pitney's liveblog of the situation has a report that the announcement of the supposed suicide bombing at Khomeini's shrine came before it allegedly happened, though he says he has so far been able to confirm it. [www.huffingtonpost.com]
It all looks very fishy. The Supreme Leader warns of terrorism yesterday, and then today, after a week of entirely peaceful protests, someone detonates himself at the shrine to the still-very-much revered Imam?
The supposed suicide bomber is complete fiction IMO. My ex lives in that part of Tehran, I hope to get another email from him later today, confirming that it is fiction.
Watching this all unfold on Twitter and Facebook is really quite remarkable. It makes me wish I had studied my Farsi more diligently.
@KittyKitty Texas-is-bigger-than-France Cat: It seems illogical, yeah, but I'm not sure I fully get it. Why do you think - or does he think - it's fake? Is it a way to discredit the opposition and say "hey look, these people are totally violent and violate a holy man's shrine OH SHOCK OUTRAGE"?
@PennyArcadia: There are several reasons to think it's fake.
1. There is NO photographic evidence of the supposed bombing. Suicide bombings are loud, heard across long distances, and aren't easy to ignore. If it really happened, why hasn't the gov't splashed it all over TV? They are in control of those images.
2. The gov't is the only one reporting it. No one in the opposition party has confirmed in online, instead, they keep asking each other to call so-and-so's cousin that lives nearby and confirm that it happened.
3. Khomeini is INCREDIBLY popular among almost all Iranians. An attack on his shrine would be an offense to many people even within the opposition camp. The gov't reports indicate that someone within the opposition camp was responsible, therefore trying to create discord among their own.
I hope I explained that clearly. He normally emails me by this time, I'm actually a little worried that he's gone and joined the rallies today, as there are many reports of people dead in the streets.
@TheUptightMidwesterner: Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. I don't know how much power the Ayatollah actually holds, and the entire Iranian government wasn't that strong or well-organized to begin with, so I suppose it's entirely possible. The question is, though, what kind of government would be established in place of the current one?
@Santos L Halper: Technically, Ayatollah Khamenei holds absolute power, but his religious bona fides have always been considered weak, and he was bumped up to the position of Ayatollah in order to become the Supreme Leader, in spite of the fact that many people felt he really didn't really deserve the title. Among the people who feel that way is Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, who, as the title suggests, is above Khamenei in the clerical hierarchy.
However, what we're seeing know is a brute indication that there have always been fissures and divides in the establishment (as their always are) -- all the opposition candidates, for instance, came up from the '79 revolution and from within the power centers of the Republic (as they would have had to, otherwise Khameinei and the Guardian Council would not have allowed them to run), but for a variety of reasons (not least, Ahmadinejad's abject failure to improve Iran's dire economic circumstances), many people, both inside and outside of the government became willing to give voice to those divisions. Then, the stealing of the election was too blatant, too obvious, and then Khamenei made what I think was the mistake of making it about himself and his authority yesterday. He's not revered, he's not well-liked, and he's not even necessarily respected anymore. At a certain point, technical absolute power becomes just that, and people will push you out of the way.
(Though, I rush to add, all I know is what I've read in a few books and on the Web this past week -- this is not my field, and I know no-one in Iran).
@ellaesther: PS "Supreme Leader" is a political title created early in the days of the Islamic Republic; "Ayatollah" is a centuries-old religious title. But this being the Islamic Republic, the concept of the Supreme Leader demands a very, very high-ranking cleric.
It's worth noting that many in the clerical establishment of Iran have never made their peace with the notion of a clerical state, or a Supreme Leader, as Shi'ites have always held that clerics should not be directly involved with government. (Many see this as a dangerous "innovation," a loaded word in Islam). I suspect that the other thing we may be seeing here is a more realistic reckoning of where the clerics themselves actually stand, and being human, they are much more divided than the Republic or we have ever been willing to admit before.
@ellaesther: Ah, that's exactly what I needed to know. I had been aware that Khameinei was ultimately in charge, but I wondered whether that power was respected by the country's clerics and citizens.
Ahrg! Jezebel get out of my head! I was just at an anti-facist rally outside my student union against this kind of neo-nazi bullshit.
It's all propaganda...hateful, manipulative propaganda. I feel so sad and hopeless when I hear the neo-nazi groups, like the BNP in England, saying to underprivileged and disillusioned young white people that asylum seekers and immigrants are taking their jobs etc. For one it's not true, and more importantly they are hiding their true message of hate under it. Hope not hate!
07/07/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
[www.facebook.com]
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06/20/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
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06/20/09
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06/20/09
It reads like a combination of history, current events, and travelogue, and he's just a really good writer. He's also the first author I've read who has been so clear about how while the Iranians certainly want reform, there's no great movement to undo the Islamic state. As he puts it, no one is looking to establish "Islam lite." The question is what Islam should mean to the people and the state and how best to express it, not whether or not it's a piece of the puzzle (or the frame around the puzzle. You see what I mean. I hope).
I believe the memoir Lipstick Jihad has been mentioned on Jezebel -- it, too, is very good. Though I think Ayatollah is better, in that you learn more about the country, rather than his personal experience. [www.amazon.com]
06/20/09
06/20/09
Heartbreaking.
06/20/09
06/20/09
Wow.
06/20/09
This just kills me.
06/20/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
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06/20/09
It all looks very fishy. The Supreme Leader warns of terrorism yesterday, and then today, after a week of entirely peaceful protests, someone detonates himself at the shrine to the still-very-much revered Imam?
06/20/09
Watching this all unfold on Twitter and Facebook is really quite remarkable. It makes me wish I had studied my Farsi more diligently.
06/20/09
06/20/09
1. There is NO photographic evidence of the supposed bombing. Suicide bombings are loud, heard across long distances, and aren't easy to ignore. If it really happened, why hasn't the gov't splashed it all over TV? They are in control of those images.
2. The gov't is the only one reporting it. No one in the opposition party has confirmed in online, instead, they keep asking each other to call so-and-so's cousin that lives nearby and confirm that it happened.
3. Khomeini is INCREDIBLY popular among almost all Iranians. An attack on his shrine would be an offense to many people even within the opposition camp. The gov't reports indicate that someone within the opposition camp was responsible, therefore trying to create discord among their own.
I hope I explained that clearly. He normally emails me by this time, I'm actually a little worried that he's gone and joined the rallies today, as there are many reports of people dead in the streets.
06/20/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
06/20/09
However, what we're seeing know is a brute indication that there have always been fissures and divides in the establishment (as their always are) -- all the opposition candidates, for instance, came up from the '79 revolution and from within the power centers of the Republic (as they would have had to, otherwise Khameinei and the Guardian Council would not have allowed them to run), but for a variety of reasons (not least, Ahmadinejad's abject failure to improve Iran's dire economic circumstances), many people, both inside and outside of the government became willing to give voice to those divisions. Then, the stealing of the election was too blatant, too obvious, and then Khamenei made what I think was the mistake of making it about himself and his authority yesterday. He's not revered, he's not well-liked, and he's not even necessarily respected anymore. At a certain point, technical absolute power becomes just that, and people will push you out of the way.
(Though, I rush to add, all I know is what I've read in a few books and on the Web this past week -- this is not my field, and I know no-one in Iran).
06/20/09
It's worth noting that many in the clerical establishment of Iran have never made their peace with the notion of a clerical state, or a Supreme Leader, as Shi'ites have always held that clerics should not be directly involved with government. (Many see this as a dangerous "innovation," a loaded word in Islam). I suspect that the other thing we may be seeing here is a more realistic reckoning of where the clerics themselves actually stand, and being human, they are much more divided than the Republic or we have ever been willing to admit before.
06/20/09
06/20/09
05/11/09
It's all propaganda...hateful, manipulative propaganda. I feel so sad and hopeless when I hear the neo-nazi groups, like the BNP in England, saying to underprivileged and disillusioned young white people that asylum seekers and immigrants are taking their jobs etc. For one it's not true, and more importantly they are hiding their true message of hate under it. Hope not hate!