Day 9 In Tehran

Day 9 in Tehran

Suzan Hadad, with special analysis and translations provided by Abbas Rashti and Kourosh Hosseini.

Suzan Hadad is a journalist located in Atlanta, Georgia. She has provided foreign correspondence from Jerusalem, Cairo and Baghdad in the past.

Monday, June 22, 2009

TEHRAN --It has been nine days since Iranians went to the polls to cast their vote for the 10^th government under the Islamic Republic. After what appeared to be a clean and easy victory, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged as the sixth president – securing his second term. In 2005, the Iranian presidential election received low voter turnout and resulted in the first presidential runoff in the history of Iran. This time around the voters turned out in record numbers and the outcome launched protests unseen in Iran since the 1979 Revolution.

As of this hour (12:11PM, 22 June, in Tehran), hundreds of political demonstrators, onlookers, journalists and everyday citizens have been violently suppressed by Iranian police and Basij, the infamous volunteer-based paramilitary group who receive orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Due to government censorship of media, especially foreign news organizations, it became nearly impossible to receive images and information from inside Iran. The regime, under orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, began blocking Internet news sites and expelling foreign journalists from Iran. Two days ago, mobile phone service, including SMS text messages and video service was removed from cellular transmission inside Iran. The latest to go has been YouTube, as the growing information black out continues to block social networking sites and file sharing portals.

Day 8.

Saturday, June 20, thousands of protestors flooded the streets of the capital in open defiance of orders issued the day before by Iran’s Supreme Leader and Security Council. Opposition leader, Mousavi, told his followers he was, “ready for martyrdom,” and called for a strike. Late Saturday afternoon, the Internet buzz began to grow as images and video clips from the Azadi Square demonstrations were being uploaded by citizen-turned-reporters. Violent depictions of young men and women being beat, tear gassed and burned by police and Basij were uploaded to YouTube, with links dotting up on Twitter. It became quite obvious that the Iranian regime was unable to completely block the savvy Iranian bloggers who were able to crack codes while remaining anonymous.

#Neda.

A tweet came across my Twitter account at 4:30 pm, on Saturday night. It read: “Young girl shot in street of Tehran. Dramatic video..,” and followed with a link to a YouTube clip. I watched. The world watched. The name “Neda,” which means “voice,” in Persian, was later identified as the first name of the young woman killed by a bullet through the heart. Her terrifying death was captured on what appeared to be a mobile phone video camera. As her father anguished beside her, screams rang out on the street as the 27-year-old, philosophy student breathed for the last time. Neda Agha-Soltan. Her full name began to appear late Sunday evening as a Wikipedia page showed up online, giving up to the minute information about the girl whose death became a rally cry from Los Angeles to Tehran while dawn Monday morning pushed closer.

The Dawn.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashghavi, reportedly stated Monday morning that Western groups were behind attacks on official Iranian government propaganda sites. A person, or group of persons, known as Anonymous, has taken credit for much of the hacking which took place against Ahmadinejad’s website and the Iranian state television Internet sites. More statements allegedly made by the government spokesman, Qashghavi, went on the attack. He spoke with a foreign journalist by telephone early Monday, according to my source in Europe, asserting that the West was aligning to back opposition protestors, and that the demonstrations were being coordinated by the United States and United Kingdom. While these allegations began to make the rounds on blog sites and social networking groups, Iranian state television was running top stories unrelated to the events of the weekend. At the time of this writing, Iranian television has not mentioned the death of Neda.

The Basij.

Unconfirmed reports from inside Iran on Monday morning give new details about a branch of the Islamic Revolution Guardian Army known as The Basij. While the regime was at work building propaganda for the West via the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), I interviewed a self-described voluntary member of Tehran’s Ansar-e-Hezbollah and a Basiji. He calls himself Mostafa and contacted me in a Persian Chat room on Yahoo. After identifying myself to him as a Western journalist with an interest in Iran, he reluctantly spoke with me using the microphone VOIP function. After a minute he was disconnected and then signed back in to Yahoo Messenger. The second conversation was typed. I began by asking Mostafa about Basiji involvement in the violent suppression of demonstrations in Tehran. He avoided that question by explaining to me that The Basij are the same as “volunteer firefighters in America.” He went on to say, “People gather in Iran and support behind Ahmadinejad. The protestors are lead by foreigners and communists.” I asked him if he was aware that the World media was focused on covering the situation in Iran. I linked him to websites still accessible in Iran and asked him to respond to the information on those sites. After several minutes he replied, “The sites are false. Don’t believe a word of what they are saying. We are in Iran and saw the results of each region in the elections. Those websites are false and all of them are lying.” I told him that what he is saying is the same thing we heard from the office of the Supreme Leader on Sunday. I went on to inquire about a recount or second election. The remainder of my interview is transcribed and translated from the Farsi below:

Me: Do you think that it would be possible for the Iranian leaders to allow a full recount of the votes or a re-vote?

Mostafa: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the winner of this election. You must accept that he won and let Iran live in peace.

Me: These demonstrations in the streets of Tehran, they are about more than just the election controversy. We are hearing from thousands of Iranian protestors with a range of grievances from human rights to freedom of religion. Mostafa, do you support the violence being carried out against these demonstrators?

Mostafa: There was already a map in place before the elections. Western countries drew a map to destroy Iran a long time ago. Foreigners living in Iran are the ones unhappy and causing the chaos which you are talking about.

Me: Who are the foreigners that you are mentioning?

Mostafa: The children and grandchildren of Russian Communists, Rebels who are descendents of Turks, Kurds, Armenians and Arabs. People who do not belong in Iran and have never belonged in Iran. Enemies of the Islamic Republic, mainly Israelis.

Me: Mostafa, there are no Israelis living in Iran.

Mostafa: Jews, we say they are Israelis. They have destroyed Palestine and now working to destroy Iran. Piece by piece.

Me: To be clear, you mean that those leading the protests in Iran over the last week have been people who are not Persians, but are the descendents of immigrants? That sounds to me like racism.

Mostafa: They were the main opposition to the Revolution in 1979. Communists who are atheists and other people with false religions – they hate Islam and wish to destroy it and Iran in the process.

Me: Mostafa, do you really believe that? Or are you telling me things you learned in school?

Mostafa: I am 25 years old and an engineer. I am not in school. I work in polymer engineering and I know a lot of things. What I am telling you is independent and uninspired. What is happening in Iran is a family matter (khanevadegi), it is an argument between brothers. The West are hypocrites (monafegh). The United States, United Kingdom and Israel are conspiring covertly to bolster these demonstrators. To give them hope and provide them with resources to divide and conquer Iran.

Me: It seems the policy of the Iranian government to always point the finger of blame in the face of other countries. Shouldn’t the Iranian people have freedom of information and freedom to assemble? Isn’t it a civil right to allow protests and public demonstrations?

Mostafa: No. Goodbye.

And he signed out. With two words.

No and Goodbye.

While the supporters of The Supreme Leader and Ahmadinejad seem to be under mind control like a scene from the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, demonstrators in Iran continue their brave fight to be heard. Monday is building up to be a day with more protests and more violence. The official number of deaths reported from hospitals in Iran and released by the regime is 19. Unconfirmed reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that more than 150 have been killed. Whispers of secret prisons and Evin-style brutality are floating on the summer winds of Tehran. Thirty years after the toppling of the Shah and the installation of Islamic democracy in Iran, these days the feeling seems to match those of 1979. And again, if the people in Iran are heard loud and clear, the Iranian government really could be saying “No. Goodbye.”