The address of opposition news site Mowjeh sabzeh Azadi (http://www.mowjcamp.com/) has been taken over by regime goons, but the site's server is intact and has not been hacked.
To access Mowjeh Sabzeh Azadi, you can go to http://www.mowjcamp.ws/ or http://174.129.25.248/
Please distribute this information as widely as possible.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
'I am Majid' and the politics of the hijab: Defiance and humor as regime's attempt to humiliate student leader backfires
The Islamic regime's attempt to humiliate a jailed student leader by photographing him in women's clothes has backfired as a defiant campaign featuring Iranian men with their heads covered continues to gain strength and triggers a debate on gender equality. Opposition web sites have also reported that men will cover their heads at key moments during the upcoming mass rallies planned for the first ten days of the holy month of Moharram, December 18 to 27.
Majid Tavakoli, a prominent student leader, was arrested after giving a speech at Amir Kabir University in Tehran on Student Day, December 7, which was marked by protests across Iran. Tavakoli had taken Leader Ali Khamenei personally to task in his address to the thousands of students amassed in the campus. This blog published news of the arrest, which had been witnessed by dozens of demonstrators, minutes after it occurred.
Less than two hours later, the semi-official Fars news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported that Tavakoli had been captured in the men's lavatory of his university while shaving, putting on make-up, and preparing to wear women's clothes. This report has been removed from the news service's web site. Fars subsequently posted an article claiming that Tavakoli had been arrested in women's clothes as he attempted to escape security forces stationed around Amir Kabir University, one of the country's top engineering schools.
Late Tuesday, December 8, the Fars news service, along with other state media outlets like the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), published mug shots of the student leader wearing an Islamic headscarf and a chador, a head-to-toe cloth, in a ham-fisted attempt to ridicule Tavakoli and, by extension, dishearten the opposition movement. (NB This blog has not, and will not, publish the propaganda photos of the Islamic regime.) Tavakoli is known in university circles as the 'dignity of the student movement' (sharafeh jonbesheh daneshjouyi).
The regime first imprisoned Tavakoli in 2007. In early May of that year, the Intelligence Ministry distributed forged copies of student publications which insulted the regime and the Leader Ali Khamenei, and then blamed and arrested student leaders. Tavakoli spent 14 months in prison and was subjected to torture and mistreatment, including severe beatings, interrogations which lasted over 24 hours, threats of execution, and being lashed with electrical cables, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. He was released on August 8, 2008. He was arrested again in February 2009 for attending a ceremony commemorating the death of Mehdi Bazargan, the first post-revoilutionary prime minister of Iran. He was released on June 3, 2009, just before the ill-fated presidential election. He was allowed to continue his education, but only in the city of Bandar Abbas. He had been studying there since the beginning of the academic year and had only made the trip to Tehran to participate in the protest ceremony at his former university.
Far from cowing the opposition, the regime's latest effort to ridicule Tavakoli was met with outraged defiance.
By Wednesday, a new slogan was added to the long and creative list of protest chants: 'Ba chador, bi chador, marg bar dictator!' (With or without a chador, death to the dictator!'). The Islamic Association of Amir Kabir University (NB Student associations in universities are called Islamic associations) published a statement in support of Tavakoli and other jailed students on the same day. 'The magnificent and widespread protests of Iran's struggling students have dazed the country's decrepit oppressors to such a degree that the only response they have found is to dress Majid Tavakoli in a disguise and take photos of him,' the statement said. 'They do not understand that Majid Tavakoli has been and will remain the pride of the student movement, whether with women's clothes or men's clothes.' Photoshopped images of the regime's officials wearing headscarves began appearing on the Internet.
But then the protests took a turn. Iranian men started taking photos of themselves with hijabs and posted the pictures on blogs and community web sites like Facebook. It is unclear who initiated this movement which has become known as the 'I am Majid' or 'Men with headscarves' campaign, but it has raged through cyberspace. By Friday, December 11, there was even a Wikipedia page in Farsi devoted to the phenomenon.
The following video was posted on YouTube on Thursday, December 10, and shows a compilation of some of the photos of men with headscarves and chadors. The text read by a woman at the beginning of the footage comes from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's 14th statement, published on November 1. Mousavi spoke of 'humiliating clothes' in a figurative manner at the time, but his statement now appears prophetic: 'The system can arrest our children like criminals and dress them in humiliating clothes, and the people can, by the way they look upon them, turn them into heroes and take pride in them. In this confrontation, who is the winner?'
Another video shows the movement spreading around the world, as men pose with chadors in Paris:
Although the tone of the movement was initially whimsical, it touched on more profound issues related to gender equality almost immediately. On Wednesday, December 9, one call to action on Facebook said, 'The regime is trying to put pressure on the students' struggle and the green movement of the people of Iran. But this is also an effort to belittle Iranian women. In order to prove that we are all Majid Tavakolis, in order to say that women's clothes are not bad, but that it is obligatory hijabs which are wrong, and in order to make them understand that we are all together, please post photos of yourselves with a hijab.'
Pahlevans,turn of century Iranian men, famous and unknown, responded in large numbers. By Thursday morning, Radio Farda counted at least 250 such photos on Facebook alone. Among the men posing with headscarves and implying that there is nothing wrong with being a woman was a strange volunteer : Babak Takhti. Babak is the son of Gholamreza Takhti, universally known as Jahan Pahlavan Takhti, possibly the most beloved and popular Iranian athlete of the 20th century. It is difficult to describe Gholamreza Takhti's position in the Iranian pantheon and his appeal to Iranians of all classes. Pahlevans are semi-mythical figures in the country's culture, heroes who are capable of physical prowess, often in the wrestling arena, but who also possess rare chivalrous and sportsmanlike qualities. Jahan Pahlevan is an honorific meaning a pahlevan of world stature. Takhti died at the age of 38 in 1968 and it is widely believed that the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, had a hand in his reported suicide. Babak Takhti's presence among 'men in headscarves' is a strong indication that the concept of respect for women has gone far beyond the patriarchal esteem for a 'weaker sex' which must be protected by males and has entered the realm of gender equality.
Hadi Khorsandi, a well-known satirist and poet who left Iran for Britain in the early 1980s after criticizing the regime, published a poem entitled 'For Majid Tavakoli and his headscarf' in the London edition of Ettelaat newspaper. The poem began, 'This nation of fellow sufferers is not divided into women and men. It wears no other pain on its body but longing for the homeland.'
This group of young Iranians took the campaign one step farther as the girls posed with mustaches before the clip launched into a Farsi-language rock song. 'I say to my brothers who support the Supreme Leader that I have no problem wearing a hijab,' says the first young man. 'I think that if there should be any obligation, it should apply to everyone. I feel like a pearl inside a shell now,' he continues, referring to the tired justification that the hijab protects the exalted jewel that is womanhood:
A man in Hamburg also noted the broader gender issues at stake in the 'I am Majid' campaign (translation follows footage):
'Why are you dressed this way?'
'Out of solidarity with student leader Majid Tavakoli, whom the regime forced to wear a headscarf, thinking it was humiliating him. I'm wearing my mother's headscarf. I am proud that Iranian women, with or without hijabs, have humiliated this coup d'état regime. We are proud of our mothers, sisters, and daughters -- with or without headscarves -- who have belittled this oppressive regime and, through their beautiful and impressive resistance, have shown to the world that we Iranians support peace. We have attained a glorious unity. We recognize all views and, in doing so, we have reached this beautiful unity. It is the regime which is riddled with fissures and discord.'
Iranian women have been at the forefront of the opposition in Iran. The Campaign for One Million Signatures, a grassroots movement to abrogate gender-discriminatory laws, preceded the mass post-election demonstrations by years. Women's rights activists have been harassed and jailed by the regime simply for seeking signatures on petitions.(For a slide show explaining the campaign, please click here, for FAQ click here)
Footage, photos, and reports coming out of Iran since the disputed June 12 election have shown women on the front lines of every street protest and, as such, the favored target of security forces with a perverse grudge against women. As previously reported on this blog, even a pro-regime web site, Beheshteh Khouban, grudgingly remarked on this fact after the mass anti-regime rallies of November 4: 'I feel that the security forces want to give a bad image of the regime to the people. I was there today. They left the rioters alone, but as soon as they came across passersby, especially women, they would beat them wherever they could. Is this the manly thing to do? I will not forget a mother who was struck in front of her eight-year-old in that way and whose face was injured.' In just one of many reports filed from Iran for the New York Times, Roger Cohen wrote, 'From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. [...] Images assail me: a slender woman clutching her stomach outside Tehran University after the blow; a tall woman gesticulating to the men behind her to advance on the shiny-shirted Basij militia; women shedding tears of distilled indignation; and that young woman who screamed, “We are all so angry. Will they kill us all?”'
At a ceremony marking Human Rights Day, December 10, at George Washington University, Ahmad Batebi, a student leader who spent close to nine years in the Islamic regime's prisons before escaping the country, spoke of the central role of women in Iranian society and how the imposition of the hijab has become a symbol of the regime's broader discrimination of women. 'The Islamic Republic wanted to humiliate Majid Tavakoli with a feminine identity. It had that patriarchal view. But the young generation has changed the parameters with the hijab campaign that it has started,' said Batebi. 'I wore this headscarf for two reasons. First, my mother who is a religious person chose to wear this headscarf. That is why this headscarf is sacred to me. But secondly, when my sister, who is a secular individual and does not believe in the hijab, took this headscarf off her head, she was arrested by the regime and accused of being loose. I put this on my head in support of the right of women to choose. I have no worries about being called feminine. I am proud to wear it before you. I leave judgment in the hands of public opinion. The Islamic Republic placed a headscarf on Majid Tavakoli's head to humiliate him. I will wear it now. We'll see if public opinion humiliates me or encourages me.' Footage of the event follows:
Perhaps no one expressed the complex and contradictory sentiments raised by the hijab better than Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He wrote his thoughts under the headscarved photo he posted on Thursday, December 10. 'Proud to wear my late mother's rusari (headscarf, literally something placed on the head), the very rusari that was forced on my wife in Iran, the very rusari for which my sisters are humiliated if they choose to wear it in Europe, and the very rusari that the backward banality that now rules Iran thinks will humiliate Majid Tavakoli if it is put on him,' wrote Dabashi. 'He is dearer and nobler to us today than he ever was. We are all Majid Tavakoli -- and we Iranian men are late doing this. If we [had done] this when the rusari was forced on those among our sisters who did not wish to wear it 30 years ago, we would [...] perhaps not [be] here today.'
Dabashi refers to imposition of the hijab on all Iranian women by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's government, shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. (Ironically, Reza Shah had tried to ban the hijab and chador in the early 1930s, creating equally disastrous tension within the society.) The following is footage of Iranian women demonstrating against the obligatory hijab in 1979
The 'men in headscarves' campaign and the gender debate, never far from the surface in Iranian society, are not going away soon. The greens have promised to stage protests during the first ten days of the holy month of Moharram, a period of mourning which begins on Friday, December 18. Opposition web sites have already announced that men will wear shawls on their shoulders and that they will cover their heads with the shawls at key moments during their rallies.
The ten-day period culminates in Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, a key figure in Shiism. It is customary during mourning marches to carry green banners and flags with the name 'Hossein' written on them. That green is now the color of the opposition and that Hossein also happens to be the first name of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi had already spelled headaches to come for the regime.
But gender-twisting men with headscarves marching down the street during a month when violence is particularly prohibited in Islam may be the bitterest pill yet for the Islamic Republic.
Majid Tavakoli, a prominent student leader, was arrested after giving a speech at Amir Kabir University in Tehran on Student Day, December 7, which was marked by protests across Iran. Tavakoli had taken Leader Ali Khamenei personally to task in his address to the thousands of students amassed in the campus. This blog published news of the arrest, which had been witnessed by dozens of demonstrators, minutes after it occurred.
Less than two hours later, the semi-official Fars news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported that Tavakoli had been captured in the men's lavatory of his university while shaving, putting on make-up, and preparing to wear women's clothes. This report has been removed from the news service's web site. Fars subsequently posted an article claiming that Tavakoli had been arrested in women's clothes as he attempted to escape security forces stationed around Amir Kabir University, one of the country's top engineering schools.
Late Tuesday, December 8, the Fars news service, along with other state media outlets like the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), published mug shots of the student leader wearing an Islamic headscarf and a chador, a head-to-toe cloth, in a ham-fisted attempt to ridicule Tavakoli and, by extension, dishearten the opposition movement. (NB This blog has not, and will not, publish the propaganda photos of the Islamic regime.) Tavakoli is known in university circles as the 'dignity of the student movement' (sharafeh jonbesheh daneshjouyi).
The regime first imprisoned Tavakoli in 2007. In early May of that year, the Intelligence Ministry distributed forged copies of student publications which insulted the regime and the Leader Ali Khamenei, and then blamed and arrested student leaders. Tavakoli spent 14 months in prison and was subjected to torture and mistreatment, including severe beatings, interrogations which lasted over 24 hours, threats of execution, and being lashed with electrical cables, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. He was released on August 8, 2008. He was arrested again in February 2009 for attending a ceremony commemorating the death of Mehdi Bazargan, the first post-revoilutionary prime minister of Iran. He was released on June 3, 2009, just before the ill-fated presidential election. He was allowed to continue his education, but only in the city of Bandar Abbas. He had been studying there since the beginning of the academic year and had only made the trip to Tehran to participate in the protest ceremony at his former university.
Far from cowing the opposition, the regime's latest effort to ridicule Tavakoli was met with outraged defiance.
By Wednesday, a new slogan was added to the long and creative list of protest chants: 'Ba chador, bi chador, marg bar dictator!' (With or without a chador, death to the dictator!'). The Islamic Association of Amir Kabir University (NB Student associations in universities are called Islamic associations) published a statement in support of Tavakoli and other jailed students on the same day. 'The magnificent and widespread protests of Iran's struggling students have dazed the country's decrepit oppressors to such a degree that the only response they have found is to dress Majid Tavakoli in a disguise and take photos of him,' the statement said. 'They do not understand that Majid Tavakoli has been and will remain the pride of the student movement, whether with women's clothes or men's clothes.' Photoshopped images of the regime's officials wearing headscarves began appearing on the Internet.
The following video was posted on YouTube on Thursday, December 10, and shows a compilation of some of the photos of men with headscarves and chadors. The text read by a woman at the beginning of the footage comes from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's 14th statement, published on November 1. Mousavi spoke of 'humiliating clothes' in a figurative manner at the time, but his statement now appears prophetic: 'The system can arrest our children like criminals and dress them in humiliating clothes, and the people can, by the way they look upon them, turn them into heroes and take pride in them. In this confrontation, who is the winner?'
Another video shows the movement spreading around the world, as men pose with chadors in Paris:
Although the tone of the movement was initially whimsical, it touched on more profound issues related to gender equality almost immediately. On Wednesday, December 9, one call to action on Facebook said, 'The regime is trying to put pressure on the students' struggle and the green movement of the people of Iran. But this is also an effort to belittle Iranian women. In order to prove that we are all Majid Tavakolis, in order to say that women's clothes are not bad, but that it is obligatory hijabs which are wrong, and in order to make them understand that we are all together, please post photos of yourselves with a hijab.'
Hadi Khorsandi, a well-known satirist and poet who left Iran for Britain in the early 1980s after criticizing the regime, published a poem entitled 'For Majid Tavakoli and his headscarf' in the London edition of Ettelaat newspaper. The poem began, 'This nation of fellow sufferers is not divided into women and men. It wears no other pain on its body but longing for the homeland.'
This group of young Iranians took the campaign one step farther as the girls posed with mustaches before the clip launched into a Farsi-language rock song. 'I say to my brothers who support the Supreme Leader that I have no problem wearing a hijab,' says the first young man. 'I think that if there should be any obligation, it should apply to everyone. I feel like a pearl inside a shell now,' he continues, referring to the tired justification that the hijab protects the exalted jewel that is womanhood:
A man in Hamburg also noted the broader gender issues at stake in the 'I am Majid' campaign (translation follows footage):
'Why are you dressed this way?'
'Out of solidarity with student leader Majid Tavakoli, whom the regime forced to wear a headscarf, thinking it was humiliating him. I'm wearing my mother's headscarf. I am proud that Iranian women, with or without hijabs, have humiliated this coup d'état regime. We are proud of our mothers, sisters, and daughters -- with or without headscarves -- who have belittled this oppressive regime and, through their beautiful and impressive resistance, have shown to the world that we Iranians support peace. We have attained a glorious unity. We recognize all views and, in doing so, we have reached this beautiful unity. It is the regime which is riddled with fissures and discord.'
Iranian women have been at the forefront of the opposition in Iran. The Campaign for One Million Signatures, a grassroots movement to abrogate gender-discriminatory laws, preceded the mass post-election demonstrations by years. Women's rights activists have been harassed and jailed by the regime simply for seeking signatures on petitions.(For a slide show explaining the campaign, please click here, for FAQ click here)
At a ceremony marking Human Rights Day, December 10, at George Washington University, Ahmad Batebi, a student leader who spent close to nine years in the Islamic regime's prisons before escaping the country, spoke of the central role of women in Iranian society and how the imposition of the hijab has become a symbol of the regime's broader discrimination of women. 'The Islamic Republic wanted to humiliate Majid Tavakoli with a feminine identity. It had that patriarchal view. But the young generation has changed the parameters with the hijab campaign that it has started,' said Batebi. 'I wore this headscarf for two reasons. First, my mother who is a religious person chose to wear this headscarf. That is why this headscarf is sacred to me. But secondly, when my sister, who is a secular individual and does not believe in the hijab, took this headscarf off her head, she was arrested by the regime and accused of being loose. I put this on my head in support of the right of women to choose. I have no worries about being called feminine. I am proud to wear it before you. I leave judgment in the hands of public opinion. The Islamic Republic placed a headscarf on Majid Tavakoli's head to humiliate him. I will wear it now. We'll see if public opinion humiliates me or encourages me.' Footage of the event follows:
Perhaps no one expressed the complex and contradictory sentiments raised by the hijab better than Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He wrote his thoughts under the headscarved photo he posted on Thursday, December 10. 'Proud to wear my late mother's rusari (headscarf, literally something placed on the head), the very rusari that was forced on my wife in Iran, the very rusari for which my sisters are humiliated if they choose to wear it in Europe, and the very rusari that the backward banality that now rules Iran thinks will humiliate Majid Tavakoli if it is put on him,' wrote Dabashi. 'He is dearer and nobler to us today than he ever was. We are all Majid Tavakoli -- and we Iranian men are late doing this. If we [had done] this when the rusari was forced on those among our sisters who did not wish to wear it 30 years ago, we would [...] perhaps not [be] here today.'
Dabashi refers to imposition of the hijab on all Iranian women by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's government, shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. (Ironically, Reza Shah had tried to ban the hijab and chador in the early 1930s, creating equally disastrous tension within the society.) The following is footage of Iranian women demonstrating against the obligatory hijab in 1979
The 'men in headscarves' campaign and the gender debate, never far from the surface in Iranian society, are not going away soon. The greens have promised to stage protests during the first ten days of the holy month of Moharram, a period of mourning which begins on Friday, December 18. Opposition web sites have already announced that men will wear shawls on their shoulders and that they will cover their heads with the shawls at key moments during their rallies.
The ten-day period culminates in Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, a key figure in Shiism. It is customary during mourning marches to carry green banners and flags with the name 'Hossein' written on them. That green is now the color of the opposition and that Hossein also happens to be the first name of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi had already spelled headaches to come for the regime.
But gender-twisting men with headscarves marching down the street during a month when violence is particularly prohibited in Islam may be the bitterest pill yet for the Islamic Republic.
Friday, December 11, 2009
A statement allegedly from members of Iran's military strongly denounces Revolutionary Guards role in crackdown
A statement issued late Thursday night and purporting to be from members of the Islamic Republic of Iran's military strongly warns elements within the Revolutionary Guards against continuing their crackdown on the Iranian people.
Initially posted on the Gouya News site, a usually dependable source, the statement quickly spread across the Internet. It was read last night by protesters in Paris:
In Iran, the term armed forces or 'nirouhayeh mossalah' includes the three usual branches of the military -- army, navy, and air force -- and also the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). To complicate matters, the IRGC also has ground forces, a navy, and an air force (plus the Ghods force and the Basij). I employ the term 'the military' -- artesh in the statement -- to refer to the regular army, air force, and navy.
The veracity of source of the statement cannot be confirmed. However, some elements in the text are noteworthy. Why did the author(s) not include navy personnel in the list of signatories? Why were training staff and professors included in the list of signatories? Why are distinct organizations, locations, and staffs included in the details?
Has the regime identified these places as hotbeds of dissent and is it issuing this statement in order to justify future purges? It does not seem credible, for example, that dissenting professors at the Imam Ali University for officers, which has a relatively limited number of professors, would so clearly identify themselves.
Or is the statement really issued by military personnel?
The following is a translation of the text:
In the name of pure God (NB Instead of the Arabic Allah, the word Yazdan is used. Yazdan is derived from the ancient Iranian language of Pahlavi. This may indicate that the author(s) of the statement are more patriotic than religious. It may also indicate that the author(s) want to target military personnel who are more patriotic than religious.)
The military is the refuge of the nation
In the years of the Sacred Defense (NB The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988) when, alongside our Revolutionary Guards brothers, we defended this land, we were in reality defending the honor and dignity and lives and possessions of the Iranian people. The country is precious because the Iranian nation is precious. The weapons of the Revolutionary Guards and the military must be employed in the service of this nation and the lives [of their servicemen] should be sacrificed for the people of Iran. In the days when, alongside our Revolutionary Guards brothers, we were giving our lives for this nation, we never imagined that a day would come when a group of Guardsmen, contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the true and devoted personnel of the Revolutionary Guards, would use the might of their weapons against this nation.
The military considers itself the refuge of the nation and has never submitted to the demands of politicians to oppress the people. It has remained faithful to its vow to not interfere in politics, but it cannot remain silent while its countrymen are persecuted and violated. For this reason, to those individuals who have been imposed on the Revolutionary Guards and who are engaged in aggression and tyranny against the lives and dignity and honor of the Iranian people and who, more than anyone, have betrayed the blood of the martyrs of our country's armed forces, whether it be the Revolutionary Guards or the military, we issue a serious warning that if they do not change course, they will be faced with the reaction of the military's selfless men. The military is the refuge of the people, and it will defend, to its last drop of blood, the peaceful people of Iran against any aggressor.
[signed]
- A group of pilots and personnel of the aviation division of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Havanirooz)
- A group of commanders and personnel of the 33rd artillery division of Isfahan
- A group of pilots and servicemen of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- The Shahid Sattari University of the the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- A group of the personnel of the command staff of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- A group of the personnel of the logistical training center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army
- A group of the professors and officials of the Imam Ali University for officers
- A group of the personnel and officials of the command center of the military
Initially posted on the Gouya News site, a usually dependable source, the statement quickly spread across the Internet. It was read last night by protesters in Paris:
In Iran, the term armed forces or 'nirouhayeh mossalah' includes the three usual branches of the military -- army, navy, and air force -- and also the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). To complicate matters, the IRGC also has ground forces, a navy, and an air force (plus the Ghods force and the Basij). I employ the term 'the military' -- artesh in the statement -- to refer to the regular army, air force, and navy.
The veracity of source of the statement cannot be confirmed. However, some elements in the text are noteworthy. Why did the author(s) not include navy personnel in the list of signatories? Why were training staff and professors included in the list of signatories? Why are distinct organizations, locations, and staffs included in the details?
Has the regime identified these places as hotbeds of dissent and is it issuing this statement in order to justify future purges? It does not seem credible, for example, that dissenting professors at the Imam Ali University for officers, which has a relatively limited number of professors, would so clearly identify themselves.
Or is the statement really issued by military personnel?
The following is a translation of the text:
In the name of pure God (NB Instead of the Arabic Allah, the word Yazdan is used. Yazdan is derived from the ancient Iranian language of Pahlavi. This may indicate that the author(s) of the statement are more patriotic than religious. It may also indicate that the author(s) want to target military personnel who are more patriotic than religious.)
The military is the refuge of the nation
In the years of the Sacred Defense (NB The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988) when, alongside our Revolutionary Guards brothers, we defended this land, we were in reality defending the honor and dignity and lives and possessions of the Iranian people. The country is precious because the Iranian nation is precious. The weapons of the Revolutionary Guards and the military must be employed in the service of this nation and the lives [of their servicemen] should be sacrificed for the people of Iran. In the days when, alongside our Revolutionary Guards brothers, we were giving our lives for this nation, we never imagined that a day would come when a group of Guardsmen, contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the true and devoted personnel of the Revolutionary Guards, would use the might of their weapons against this nation.
The military considers itself the refuge of the nation and has never submitted to the demands of politicians to oppress the people. It has remained faithful to its vow to not interfere in politics, but it cannot remain silent while its countrymen are persecuted and violated. For this reason, to those individuals who have been imposed on the Revolutionary Guards and who are engaged in aggression and tyranny against the lives and dignity and honor of the Iranian people and who, more than anyone, have betrayed the blood of the martyrs of our country's armed forces, whether it be the Revolutionary Guards or the military, we issue a serious warning that if they do not change course, they will be faced with the reaction of the military's selfless men. The military is the refuge of the people, and it will defend, to its last drop of blood, the peaceful people of Iran against any aggressor.
[signed]
- A group of pilots and personnel of the aviation division of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Havanirooz)
- A group of commanders and personnel of the 33rd artillery division of Isfahan
- A group of pilots and servicemen of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- The Shahid Sattari University of the the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- A group of the personnel of the command staff of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Nahaja)
- A group of the personnel of the logistical training center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army
- A group of the professors and officials of the Imam Ali University for officers
- A group of the personnel and officials of the command center of the military
Thursday, December 10, 2009
CLOSE-UP - 3,600 to 4,200 protesters at the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin - 7 December 2009
Much of the information coming out of Iran is in the form of footage uploaded to the Internet without the benefit of much description or explanation. Each installment in the Close-up series will provide an in-depth analysis of a single video.
Summary
This video is a compilation of shots which show protesters at the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin (QIAU) on Student Day, December 7, 2009, when the regime's opponents staged rallies in universities across the country. It is estimated that between 3,600 and 4,200 people participated in the demonstration at Ghazvin's Azad University.
The video
The footage comes from OnlyMehdi's YouTube channel:
Where is the protest taking place?
The students carry a banner proclaiming 'The university is alive' as they march down a road. The following freeze frame (0:21) shows the distinctive main entrance of the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin.
The Islamic Azad University is one of seven universities in Ghazvin, a city in northern Iran with a population of 330,000. The university, built in 1992, has a student body of just over 8,000 and is well-known for its engineering and computer science departments, particularly in the field of robotics.
The satellite image of the university on Google Maps is out of date and only shows its initial structures:
View Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin in a larger map
Are the protesters inside or outside the university?
As the camera pans left, a roundabout comes into view (0:23):
The roundabout, with a strange metallic sculpture in the middle, can be seen in the following photo. It is called Ghalam Roundabout and is situated inside the university. The building just behind it is the college of industrial and mechanical engineering. The cameraman in the first portion of this video was filming from an upstairs window on the left side of this building, close to the roundabout. The left edge of the frame shows a terra-cotta patch which corresponds to the color of the stone facade. The protesters are marching down the road to the left of the building and coming towards the roundabout.
The following is a map of the campus. The main entrance is marked with the number 1, the roundabout with a 2, and the college of industrial and mechanical engineering with a 3. The road along which the protesters are marching is marked with a thick red line. For a larger view, click on the map or right click and open in another tab to continue reading:
As the camera pans to the right, several freeze frames (0:17, 1:48, 1:51) show the procession of protesters stretching from the front of the college of mechanical and industrial engineering (the open space across the road is the future site of a library, number 6 in the map above) to the front of a building whose side has three distinctive dark rectangles against a white background. A crowd can be seen joining the main procession at the top, right-hand corner of the shots. The third freeze frame in this series, seems to indicate that the secondary group does not extend far beyond what we can see, although this is conjecture.
How many protesters were there?
It is estimated that between 3,600 and 4,200 protesters attended the rally at the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin.
Here is the methodology behind that figure.
In order to estimate the number of people, it is necessary to measure the length of the procession, the width of the road, and the density of the crowd.
Google maps and wikimapia allow users to measure the distance between two points on a map. The problem is that the satellite image of the university campus on Google Maps is out of date. Two of the buildings which do appear on the satellite photo are used as reference points: the college of management and accounting (number 5 in the university map above) and the square gymnasium to its left.
The satellite image was rotated so it corresponded to the same angle as that of the university. Then two vertical red lines were drawn as reference points next to these buildings in the satellite image and the university map above:
After superimposing the two maps, it was possible to measure the distance between the approximate start of the procession in front of the college of industrial and mechanical engineering (Number 3 on the university map) and the approximate end of the procession in front of the college of electrical engineering, computer science, and information technology (Number 4 on the university map). This distance is shown as a thick red horizontal line in both maps. The distance, according to Google Maps and wikimapia, is 120 meters. 20 meters were taken off this result in order to obtain a conservative estimate. Therefore the length of the procession is conservatively estimated to be 100 meters.
The road appears to be between 12 and 15 people wide. People generally measure 50 cm across their shoulders, so the width of the road can be estimated at between 6 to 7 meters.
This means that it is conservatively estimated that the main procession covered a surface measuring between 600 and 700 square meters. This does not count the crowd which is joining the main procession at the top, right-hand corner of frames 1 to 3 above. Again, to obtain a conservative estimate, this smaller group is disregarded.
To estimate the total number of people, analysts would ordinarily cut up this large group into smaller sections, each with a different density of people per square meter. This footage does not allow for that. Only an average density can be guessed.
Crowds which allow for free movement and are relatively sparse have a density of four people per square meter:
This is what just over 8 people per square meter looks like from above:
The procession seen in this footage appears to have a density closer to eight people per square meter than four. But in order to provide a conservative result, we shall assume that the average density is 6 people per square meter.
This provides us with the following estimate:
600 to 700 square meters multiplied by an average density of 6 people per square meter = 3,600 to 4,200 people.
It can be conservatively estimated that, just in the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin, between 3,600 to 4,200 protesters attended the rally on December 7, 2009. Figures from the six other universities in Ghazvin would be needed in order to give a total for the city.
Highlights of the video
00:00 - 1:29
The film is taken from a height. A long line of protesters stretches along a road to the distance. The people at the front of the crowd hold up a banner which reads 'The university is alive.'
The protesters chant:
'Ma migim shah nemikhaim, esmesho rahbar mizaran!' (We say we don't want a king, then they go and call him the Leader!')
'Tajavoz, jenayat. Marg bar in velayat!' (Rape, crimes. Death to this guardianship!) The velayeteh faghih, or guardianship of the jurisprudent, is the principle from which the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, derives his legitimacy and power.
Slogans directly targeting Khamenei are becoming increasingly commonplace as protesters' demands have gone beyond the disputed presidential election and now encompass a desire to change the whole system of the Islamic Republic, embodied by the velayateh faghih.
1:30 - 2:33
The angle, and possibly the cameraman, change. The people begin singing the protest anthem 'Yareh Dabestaniyeh Man' (My old schoolfriend), then call out opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's name.
In various videos from Student Day in Tehran, however, it was obvious that the capital's students were not shouting out Mousavi's name as much as before, another indication that the green movement has bypassed Mousavi. A new slogan heard in Tehran was 'Mousavi bahanast, kolleh nezam neshounast!' (Mousavi is an excuse, the whole regime is now the target!).
The crowd calls out, 'Mousavi zendeh bad, Karroubi payandeh bad!' (Long live Mousavi, may [Etemad Melli party chief Mehdi] Karroubi stand long!) and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami's name.
2:34 - 3:10
The cameraman is now among the protesters who are holding up the banner seen previously. In a corner of the banner, smaller text reads, 'The free students of Ghazvin,' a play on the word 'Azad,' which means free and is also a part of the name of the university. A sign over a building's entrance says, 'college of business management and accounting.' (Number 5 in the map above).
3:11 - 3:48
A poster shows opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. A man tells the people holding up the banner, 'Raise it, so your faces can't be seen.'
3:49 - 4:07
We hear the end of a popular ditty:
Mahmoudeh Khaen, avareh gardi,
To in vatan ra, viraneh kardi,
Koshti javananeh vatan, Allaho akbar,
Kardi hezaran dar kafan, Allaho akbar,
Marg bar to, marg bar to,
Marg bar to, MARG BAR TO.
Mahmoud the traitor, may you become a displaced person,
You have destroyed this country,
You've killed the youth of the nation, Allaho akbar,
You've put thousands in burial shrouds, Allaho akbar,
Death to you, death to you,
Death to you, DEATH TO YOU!
4:08 - 4:26
Mir Hossein Mousavi's name is called out: 'Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!' (O [Imam] Hossein, Mir Hossein [Mousavi]) The first Hossein refers to the 3rd Shiite Imam.
4:27 -5:21
A protester holds up a picture of Amir Javadifar, who was a student at this university. Amir, 25, was probably tortured to death. He died on July 9, 2009, as he was being transferred from Kahrizak detention center to Evin prison's infirmary. He had lost his sight as a result of blows to the head and face. A friend who saw Amir's body told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that he had been tortured: 'He had a fractured skull, one of his eyes was almost crushed, all the nails on his toes had been extracted, and all of his body was bruised.' (courtesy Radio Farda and Golnaz Esfandiari)
The crowd chants, 'Ma bachehayeh jangim, bejang ta bejangim!' (We are children of war. Fight and we'll fight back!)
5:22 - 5:36 (end)
'Death to this deceitful government!'
Summary
This video is a compilation of shots which show protesters at the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin (QIAU) on Student Day, December 7, 2009, when the regime's opponents staged rallies in universities across the country. It is estimated that between 3,600 and 4,200 people participated in the demonstration at Ghazvin's Azad University.
The video
The footage comes from OnlyMehdi's YouTube channel:
Where is the protest taking place?
The students carry a banner proclaiming 'The university is alive' as they march down a road. The following freeze frame (0:21) shows the distinctive main entrance of the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin.
The Islamic Azad University is one of seven universities in Ghazvin, a city in northern Iran with a population of 330,000. The university, built in 1992, has a student body of just over 8,000 and is well-known for its engineering and computer science departments, particularly in the field of robotics.
The satellite image of the university on Google Maps is out of date and only shows its initial structures:
View Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin in a larger map
Are the protesters inside or outside the university?
As the camera pans left, a roundabout comes into view (0:23):
The roundabout, with a strange metallic sculpture in the middle, can be seen in the following photo. It is called Ghalam Roundabout and is situated inside the university. The building just behind it is the college of industrial and mechanical engineering. The cameraman in the first portion of this video was filming from an upstairs window on the left side of this building, close to the roundabout. The left edge of the frame shows a terra-cotta patch which corresponds to the color of the stone facade. The protesters are marching down the road to the left of the building and coming towards the roundabout.
The following is a map of the campus. The main entrance is marked with the number 1, the roundabout with a 2, and the college of industrial and mechanical engineering with a 3. The road along which the protesters are marching is marked with a thick red line. For a larger view, click on the map or right click and open in another tab to continue reading:
As the camera pans to the right, several freeze frames (0:17, 1:48, 1:51) show the procession of protesters stretching from the front of the college of mechanical and industrial engineering (the open space across the road is the future site of a library, number 6 in the map above) to the front of a building whose side has three distinctive dark rectangles against a white background. A crowd can be seen joining the main procession at the top, right-hand corner of the shots. The third freeze frame in this series, seems to indicate that the secondary group does not extend far beyond what we can see, although this is conjecture.
frame 1
frame 2
frame 3
The building in the distance is the college of electrical engineering, computer science, and information technology (number 4 in the map above). The distinctive dark rectangles on the side of the building can be seen clearly in this photo:
How many protesters were there?
It is estimated that between 3,600 and 4,200 protesters attended the rally at the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin.
Here is the methodology behind that figure.
In order to estimate the number of people, it is necessary to measure the length of the procession, the width of the road, and the density of the crowd.
Google maps and wikimapia allow users to measure the distance between two points on a map. The problem is that the satellite image of the university campus on Google Maps is out of date. Two of the buildings which do appear on the satellite photo are used as reference points: the college of management and accounting (number 5 in the university map above) and the square gymnasium to its left.
The satellite image was rotated so it corresponded to the same angle as that of the university. Then two vertical red lines were drawn as reference points next to these buildings in the satellite image and the university map above:
After superimposing the two maps, it was possible to measure the distance between the approximate start of the procession in front of the college of industrial and mechanical engineering (Number 3 on the university map) and the approximate end of the procession in front of the college of electrical engineering, computer science, and information technology (Number 4 on the university map). This distance is shown as a thick red horizontal line in both maps. The distance, according to Google Maps and wikimapia, is 120 meters. 20 meters were taken off this result in order to obtain a conservative estimate. Therefore the length of the procession is conservatively estimated to be 100 meters.
The road appears to be between 12 and 15 people wide. People generally measure 50 cm across their shoulders, so the width of the road can be estimated at between 6 to 7 meters.
This means that it is conservatively estimated that the main procession covered a surface measuring between 600 and 700 square meters. This does not count the crowd which is joining the main procession at the top, right-hand corner of frames 1 to 3 above. Again, to obtain a conservative estimate, this smaller group is disregarded.
To estimate the total number of people, analysts would ordinarily cut up this large group into smaller sections, each with a different density of people per square meter. This footage does not allow for that. Only an average density can be guessed.
Crowds which allow for free movement and are relatively sparse have a density of four people per square meter:
This is what just over 8 people per square meter looks like from above:
The procession seen in this footage appears to have a density closer to eight people per square meter than four. But in order to provide a conservative result, we shall assume that the average density is 6 people per square meter.
This provides us with the following estimate:
600 to 700 square meters multiplied by an average density of 6 people per square meter = 3,600 to 4,200 people.
It can be conservatively estimated that, just in the Islamic Azad University of Ghazvin, between 3,600 to 4,200 protesters attended the rally on December 7, 2009. Figures from the six other universities in Ghazvin would be needed in order to give a total for the city.
Highlights of the video
00:00 - 1:29
The film is taken from a height. A long line of protesters stretches along a road to the distance. The people at the front of the crowd hold up a banner which reads 'The university is alive.'
The protesters chant:
'Ma migim shah nemikhaim, esmesho rahbar mizaran!' (We say we don't want a king, then they go and call him the Leader!')
'Tajavoz, jenayat. Marg bar in velayat!' (Rape, crimes. Death to this guardianship!) The velayeteh faghih, or guardianship of the jurisprudent, is the principle from which the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, derives his legitimacy and power.
Slogans directly targeting Khamenei are becoming increasingly commonplace as protesters' demands have gone beyond the disputed presidential election and now encompass a desire to change the whole system of the Islamic Republic, embodied by the velayateh faghih.
1:30 - 2:33
The angle, and possibly the cameraman, change. The people begin singing the protest anthem 'Yareh Dabestaniyeh Man' (My old schoolfriend), then call out opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's name.
In various videos from Student Day in Tehran, however, it was obvious that the capital's students were not shouting out Mousavi's name as much as before, another indication that the green movement has bypassed Mousavi. A new slogan heard in Tehran was 'Mousavi bahanast, kolleh nezam neshounast!' (Mousavi is an excuse, the whole regime is now the target!).
The crowd calls out, 'Mousavi zendeh bad, Karroubi payandeh bad!' (Long live Mousavi, may [Etemad Melli party chief Mehdi] Karroubi stand long!) and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami's name.
2:34 - 3:10
The cameraman is now among the protesters who are holding up the banner seen previously. In a corner of the banner, smaller text reads, 'The free students of Ghazvin,' a play on the word 'Azad,' which means free and is also a part of the name of the university. A sign over a building's entrance says, 'college of business management and accounting.' (Number 5 in the map above).
3:11 - 3:48
A poster shows opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. A man tells the people holding up the banner, 'Raise it, so your faces can't be seen.'
3:49 - 4:07
We hear the end of a popular ditty:
Mahmoudeh Khaen, avareh gardi,
To in vatan ra, viraneh kardi,
Koshti javananeh vatan, Allaho akbar,
Kardi hezaran dar kafan, Allaho akbar,
Marg bar to, marg bar to,
Marg bar to, MARG BAR TO.
Mahmoud the traitor, may you become a displaced person,
You have destroyed this country,
You've killed the youth of the nation, Allaho akbar,
You've put thousands in burial shrouds, Allaho akbar,
Death to you, death to you,
Death to you, DEATH TO YOU!
4:08 - 4:26
Mir Hossein Mousavi's name is called out: 'Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!' (O [Imam] Hossein, Mir Hossein [Mousavi]) The first Hossein refers to the 3rd Shiite Imam.
4:27 -5:21
A protester holds up a picture of Amir Javadifar, who was a student at this university. Amir, 25, was probably tortured to death. He died on July 9, 2009, as he was being transferred from Kahrizak detention center to Evin prison's infirmary. He had lost his sight as a result of blows to the head and face. A friend who saw Amir's body told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that he had been tortured: 'He had a fractured skull, one of his eyes was almost crushed, all the nails on his toes had been extracted, and all of his body was bruised.' (courtesy Radio Farda and Golnaz Esfandiari)
The crowd chants, 'Ma bachehayeh jangim, bejang ta bejangim!' (We are children of war. Fight and we'll fight back!)
5:22 - 5:36 (end)
'Death to this deceitful government!'
(The contents of this blog can be used freely only for non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution would be appreciated. For commercial use, please contact the e-mail address in the right margin.)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Iran News Briefs - Tuesday, 8 December 2009
- Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh announced the arrest of 204 'rioters and individuals attempting to hold an illegal gathering' in Tehran during the rallies yesterday. Mr. Rajabzadeh should review the Islamic Republic's Constitution, article 27: 'Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.' He told reporters today, 'The police will be stationed in the area around Tehran University over the nex few days to prevent any gatherings or unrest.'
- Zahra Rahnavard, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife, was assaulted with pepper spray by a group of 'Basiji sisters' yesterday, according to Mousavi's news site, Kalemeh. 'A group of individuals calling themselves Basiji sisters followed Zahra Rahnavard around Tehran University yesterday,' reported Kalemeh, thereby confirming Rahnavard's presence there. 'They followed the university guards' car as they escorted Mrs. Rahnavard out of the campus. Towards the middle of Vesal Street, they sprayed pepper gas into Rahnavard's face from a distance of 20 to 25 centimeters which resulted in her shortness of breath and temporary loss of sight. Residents and merchants in the area rushed to her aid.
- State media and news outlets close to the regime took another page out of the perfect tyrant's handbook as they published photos of arrested student leader Majid Tavakoli in women's clothes. The regime's mouthpieces claimed that Tavakoli attempted to escape arrest by disguising himself as a woman after he was cornered in Amir Kabir University. According to Fars news, close to the Revolutionary Guards, Majid Tavakoli 'felt he was in danger after witnessing the strong presence of pro-Islamic Revolution students and prepared to escape from the university with makeup and women's clothes.' It goes without saying that this blog will not post Tavakoli's photo. Instead, the photo to the right shows the protest at Amir Kabir University. The tiny group of people holding up signs on the bottom right-hand corner of the shot are the Basijis who apparently instilled such fear in Tavakoli, who has already experienced prison because of his activism.
- Clashes broke out in Tehran University today, Tuesday, between students and pro-regime 'students.'
A student gets help from fellow students after being pepper-sprayed:
Confusion and screams as clashes break out:
Fire lit inside Tehran University building to counter effects of tear gas:
'Ahmadi didn't get enough votes, he's brought Shaban Bimokh!' (NB Shaban 'Bimokh' (brainless) Jafari was a thug who led gangs that beat up opponents of the Shah at the time of the 1953 coup d'état.)
- Footage from other parts of Iran continues to come in. This one shows Chamran University in Ahvaz, purportedly yesterday:
- Freedom of the press took another hit today as Hayateh Now newspaper was shut down and the editor of Ayandeh news site was indicted for 'insulting the president.' It is interesting to note that Hayateh Now's publisher is Hadi Khamenei, brother of Leader Ali Khamenei. Hadi, the black sheep of the family, already had a run-in with the law several years ago when his newspaper was shut down because of a cartoon that was deemed insulting to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
- For the full story of Mir Hossein Mousavi's confrontation with planclothesmen surrounding the Academy of Arts today, please go to this separate article.
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