Tag Archives: Iran

We are all Majid Tavakoli now

An email from an Iranian friend from IGHLRC:

Earlier this week, The Iranian authorities arrested Majid Tavakoli, a student leader, who spoke at an anti-government rally in Tehran University, marking the Student Day in Iran. To humiliate him, the authorities published a picture of him wearing women’s headscarf, an old practice by the government to prove to the public that the opposition leaders are “less than men”, lacking courage and bravery.

This time around though, The anti-government movement responded quickly by posting pictures of hundreds of men wearing headscarf.

The protesters have found a new way to show their solidarity with Mr. Tavakoli — by changing their profile pictures to show them wearing similar clothes. Take a look at the video that they have released, it is remarkable:

Peter Tatchell says:

Not going quietly (photo: LA Times)

Here in London, for anyone wishing to show solidarity with the Iranian people, there will be a demonstration today (9 June) to mark the anniversary of the 1999 Iranian student protests which were also brutally suppressed by the regime. It starts at 6 PM and the organisers request that attendees wear green if possible and meet at 16 Prince’s Gate, SW7. The nearest Tube station is South Kensington.

Alexander Hitchens writes on the new Hitchens-Maher blog on Standpoint about the tactics of the Iranian police state:

A Farsi language website affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,http://www.gerdab.ir/, has published pictures of Iranian protesters, asking viewers to identify the ‘criminals’.

On one of these web pages, the pictures numbered 1 and 19 are stamped with the word ‘identified’.  There is also a second page of circled faces, which have yet to be identified.

Iran’s biggest group of clerics have declared Ahmadinejad’s re-election to be illegitimate and have condemned the subsequent crackdown.

The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made clear he will tolerate no further challenges to Mr Ahmadinejad’s “victory” over Mir Hossein Mousavi.

“It’s a clerical mutiny,” said one Iranian analyst. “This is the first time ever you have all these big clerics openly challenging the leader’s decision.” Another, in Tehran, said: “We are seeing the birth of a new political front.”

Professor Ali Ansari, head of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, said: “It’s highly significant. It shows this is nowhere near resolved.”

Those who like to make the self-consciously “unpopular” and “contrarian” point of suggesting that only the urban bazari classes of the metropolises have disputed the re-election of Ahmadinejad, this development should give them something to think about.