"Day of Rage" Today in Tehran as Iranians Protest
Inspired by Arab protests in Tunisia, Yemen, and obviously, Egypt, Iranians are taking to the streets of Tehran today to express their solidarity with Arab protesters in the region.
The National Post reports:
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the Green Movement in Iran, who ran unsuccessfully against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, issued a call last Sunday for what they described as "a solidarity move to support the protests in two Muslim countries of Egypt and Tunisia."
In a joint letter to Iran's interior minister they asked permission to stage a march from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi (Freedom) Square in the heart of Tehran. But Wednesday Iran's judiciary rejected the request saying the move was only intended as a political act to sow division in the country.
Iran's regime leaders obviously fear the ripple effect the Arab protests may have on their country. Iran's "Supreme Leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has tried to angle the Arab protests as an anti-American "Islamic Awakening" as a way to legitimize his own anti-American, Islamic regime. But the Iranians who will take to the streets today in what they are calling their "Day of Rage" have a different view of the Arab protests: those protests serve as "reminders of Iran's own unresolved demands for reform."
Iran, of course, experienced its own massive democracy-inspired movement in June 2009, when an estimated 3 million Iranians assembled peacefully in Tehran to protest the rigged presidential elections in that country. At the time, the Iranian government acted decisively and brutally to suppress Iran's Green Movement.
The regime has since worked to weaken and stifle the Green Movement. But over the last few days, Iranian activists seem to be harnessing their anti-regime energy in ways similar to the Egyptian protesters. According to Golnaz Esfandiari at Radio Free Europe, Iranian activists, for instance, have created a Facebook page to advertise their protest, which has garnered nearly 60,000 supporters:
A February 14 page created on Facebook is gaining members, both among Iranian expats and Iranians inside the country.
Many Iranians have changed their Facebook profile pictures to a Green picture with the date February 14 written on it.
Slogans are also circulating for what is being described by some as Iran's “Day of Rage," including: "Down with Dictators, Be it In Cairo or Tehran" and "Marg bar Dictatori, Che Shotori, Che Motori" (which translates as “death to dictatorships that are being enforced with camels or motorcycles.”) The former refers to Egypt, the latter to Basij forces in Iran that often use motorbikes.
How events will shake out in Iran remains to be seen, but I have no doubt that the regime there will stop at nothing to maintain its stronghold on power:
The leaders of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards were far more explicit in their opposition to any bid to revive Iran's protest movement.
"The seditionists [opposition leaders] are nothing but a dead corpse and we will strongly confront any of their movements," Guards commander Hossein Hamedani told the state news agency IRNA.
In Egypt, as the protests took a chaotic and feverish turn, President Obama stepped forward to denounce the use of violence by the Egyptian government on the protesters, or by the protesters themselves. Let's hope that if Iran's protest heats up in a similar way that Obama will use his powerful pulpit to speak up in support of democracy in Iran, rather than remain eerily silent as he and his administration did in June 2009.
Of course, Iran is not in America's sphere of influence as Egypt is--so anything that we say or suggest to the Iranian regime will ultimately have less effect on Iran than what we said and suggested to Mubarak and the Egyptian regime in the last couple of weeks. That said, because Iran is not a U.S. ally, and Egypt was, we are not constrained by any loyalty to the leadership in Tehran. There's no reason why, in the coming weeks, the U.S. shouldn't use this opportunity to denounce the backwards Iranian theocracy and support democratic activists and reformers in Iran.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: "Day of Rage" Today in Tehran as Iranians Protest
But...but... Ahmadenijad is an ally! Seriously, I'd be surprised if Obama said anything against Iran's leadership. His expectations might have changed since he took office, though.
If you don't mind my asking, do you still have relatives in Iran, Emily?
Jul '10
Re: "Day of Rage" Today in Tehran as Iranians Protest
I see the Egyptian revolution ending poorly; and a worst case scenario being a 1917 redux. BUT...if by some miracle, Egypt was to inspire the toppling of the Mullahs and the lunatic Ahmadenijad...then it would be worth it.
Re: "Day of Rage" Today in Tehran as Iranians Protest
Ha. Even if it were an “Islamic awakening,” the last people who would sign up for it are the long-suffering subjects of the Islamic Republic of Iran.