Iranian Students Slam Ahmadinejad in Public
They're fed up with the government and they're not going to be silenced anymore. Thanks to YouTube, the world is listening.
December 7, which in the Persian calendar falls on the 16th day of the month of Azar, is known as Student Day in Iran.
The origins of this day go back to 1953. On December 7 of that year, Iranian students poured into the streets of Tehran to protest the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosadegh by the CIA and MI6. The students were venting their anger at the West, and at the Shah, whom they accused of collaborating with the West in what was yet another Western-initiated regime change in the Middle East. The Shah’s police brutally put down the demonstrations, thus etching this day in the history of Iranian students and their struggles for political change in Iran.
On the same day, but this time in 2008, Iranian students from major cities such as Tehran, Shiraz, and Hamedan protested against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This time they protested in great numbers about imprisonment and torture of students, expulsion of lecturers, poverty, abuse of human rights, dictatorship, and looting of their country’s wealth by foreign powers such as China and Russia.
The demonstrations this year were bigger and more violent. The Iranian government was aware and worried. So much so that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei canceled an appearance with the students. Until recently, the government had used the anti-Western sentiments of the original demonstration in 1953 to serve its anti-Western propaganda goals. In fact, students were encouraged to demonstrate. During the early days of the revolution, even young school children, including myself, were taken to rallies.
However, these days, Iran’s leadership is becoming worried about the blowback. The Iranian people, especially young students, are angry, and they are becoming less afraid to show it. A vivid example (see video here) took place at the main university in the city of Shiraz in early November. Addressing Ali Larijani, who is currently the speaker of the Majlis, one student said in front of hundreds of others that “I don’t recognize you as the head of the Majlis, because the parliament is illegitimate, due to massive disqualification of candidates.”
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Meir Javedanfar is the co-author with Yossi Melman of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. He runs Middle East Economic and Political Analysis (MEEPAS).
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16 Comments
1. Marie Claude:funny the manifestion is recorded inside the university !!!
some say that this evenment was organised by the regime itself, cuz the students are all infeoded to it, the opponants have been fired out (or eliminated) since a long time
http://www.iran-resist.org/article4999.html
Dec 9, 2008 - 4:01 am 2. Perry:From your mouth to G-d’s ears – hopefully before the little Hitler has nuclear weapons.
Dec 9, 2008 - 4:06 am 3. HardHeadedWoman:Sadly, they are now dealing with a world–as of January 20, 2009–that could care less.
Dec 9, 2008 - 5:36 am 4. eggs13:And no one was beheaded later?
Dec 9, 2008 - 5:58 am 5. tedders:“And no one was beheaded later?”
I think the regimes preferred method is strangulation from a lifting crane.
Dec 9, 2008 - 6:48 am 6. jonesy55:Actually Iran has a fairly prominent opposition compared to many other countries in the ME region. It’s not what most people in the west would consider democracy but compared to our ally Saudi Arabia it’s a veritable paradise of liberty, lol.
Dec 9, 2008 - 8:37 am 7. myth buster:“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Tyranny cannot silence the spirit of men and women yearning to breathe free.
Dec 9, 2008 - 10:25 am 8. George:Comparing Iran and Saudi Arabia is an interesting exercise. I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 80s for five years and have traveled extensively, however I have never been to Iran. I know several Iranians, and follow the news in the Middle East closely.
Dec 9, 2008 - 10:29 am 9. Rubicon:In my opinion, the practical difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia in terms of political pluralism and liberty is insignificant. There are differences. Iran does have a Parliament, although it is more of a Rump Parliament, with members heavily screened for their loyalty to the ruling Mullahs. Saudi Arabia has no parliament, but the King does hold regular meetings with the common people. Also, the Royal family governs somewhat by concensus. Still, in both countries political dissent is not allowed. Both countries are police states. Saudi Arabia has millions of foreign workers, from manual laborers to engineers and technicians. The Saudi state governs as an Islamic state, and Wahabbism is the state religion, but it is not a theocracy like Iran. Most of the ruling Saudi family has been educated in the West and is not sponsoring state terrorism organizations like Hizbollah or HAMAS. True, Saudi Arabia has its extremists, but after several terrorist attacks in the country, the Saudis figured out that the radicals had to be caged or killed. I would argue that the common people in Iran are probably more pro-Western than the average Saudi, however, the top layer of Saudi society with money is enamored with vacations to Switzerland and the Beaches in Spain. In both countries, women are treated like half-citizens and do not have the same rights as men. The Iranian police probably exercise more brutality on their people, but probably because there is more true dissent in Iran.
Funny we hear few reports of events such as this in our mainstream media. Such news might make many think we should be a little more patient & allow Iranians themselves to resolve issues there. The only obstacle is nuclear. Lets face it, if the “leaders” of Iran get “the bomb,” large areas of the Middle East could be in ruins in a heartbeat. In the very least, many will die. Over the years we have heard often that Iranians are more pro-western than most other ME countries, but we have also seen actions that portray Iran as an Islamist nation bent on the end of Israel & the establishment of a global Caliphate.
Dec 9, 2008 - 5:26 pm 10. Mary Stella:Personally, I find it reassuring Iran’s future, its students, are demanding change & that they have expressed a desire or hope for democracy. If that is really the case, the Islamists claim that democracy is incompatible with Islam, is rendered moot. I hope we all hear much more about incidents such as these. If the kids are speaking out openly, then there must be change in the wind. I also hope those who have spoken out remain safe since in nations like Iran, such opposition could mean the end of you & your family
I feel very sorry for all these young students, they know how much their lives are in danger when they so strongly go against the present government of the mullahs. They know lots of their friends have disappeared in the prisons, very sad situation for the youth. They have our prayers. I do not believe they will have much support from the Obama administration. The present ruthless regime has lot of its own people blood on their murderous hands. These studends must be desperate.
Dec 9, 2008 - 6:04 pm 11. Ambika:These student, are desperate indeed, which is reflected in the attitude of students and the youth all over the world. This clearly wont serve to make any prfound changes in Iran, but it does drive home one significant point, is that Khamenei is clearly loosing his base, and the idea of a ‘pure’ Islamic state which seemed new and refreshing at one point is not working. He needs to tred carefully during the next elections, if not these small protest could gain momentum and lead to bigger divides.
Dec 9, 2008 - 10:25 pm 12. Marie Claude:http://img122.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aff1irmp9.jpg
The picture (above) taken to immortalize this moment is instructive: there are no policemen on the street, but a woman whose attitude does suggest a climate of tension. The militiamen have unbolt their gate to make illusion : they indeed went nowhere and it’s because the entire event took place at the Amir Kabir university with about 350 demonstrators, none hooded
http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=affiranvx2.jpg
“The entries in two colors are identical from one sheet to another, which requires a special, color format A1 on a special machine. These details are idiots, but if the posters were smaller, the cameras wouldn’t have captured them, it was therefore necessary to increase the size of them, but only then, in real life, a spontaneous demonstration does not have these means for printing and sound.
In real life, real student protesters would have denounced the old lunatic mullahs, who, through unfathomable
institutions share all the richenesses of the regime while 85% of Iranians live under the poverty line … They would have denounced the youth unemployment rate that the mullahs hide by manipulation of statistics … They would have condemned the hangings and public television or the penal code inspired by sharia or the situation in Baluchistan …
http://www.Iran-resist.org
So it appears that this manifestation was organised by the mullahs still in their manipulative and emotional agenda for impressing the new US administration, to which they just refused the call for discussions, but just that they want them by their means
Dec 10, 2008 - 4:13 am 13. Perry:Too bad the little Hitler didn’t come back to Columbia University in New York. The students loved him there. Ahmadinejad was able to speak his lies amid decorum and applause from naive American liberal “Useful Idiots”.
What could the Iranian kids living with Ahmadinejad’s jackboot on their necks possibly know?
Dec 10, 2008 - 8:35 am 14. tanstaafl:“I don’t recognize you (Larajani) as the head of the Majlis, because the parliament is illegitimate, due to massive disqualification of candidates.”
Sounds about right, altho Larajani appears more moderate than the glittery eyed one, A’jad.
Ahmadinejhad and (effectively) Khamenei have been running Iran for quite awhile now, and, reportedly, inflation, unemployment and drug use are all up in the Islamic Republic.
Students aren’t dumb, and Iran has a legacy of an evolved culture, as opposed to the devolution A’jad & friends would impose.
A similar December protest, 2 years ago…
You can’t kill or fire everyone who thinks you’re nuts, Ahmadinejhad & Khamenei
Dec 10, 2008 - 11:43 am 15. Fred:“Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei canceled an appearance with the students.”
Why is it that all of the recent leaders of Iran have been named “Haman”?
Jan 13, 2009 - 8:27 am 16. J:Ayatollah Khatami? Khatami is not an Ayatollah, he is a Hojatoleslam. That mistake shows the embarrassing superficiality of knowledge of the writer. Anyone who does work on modern Iran would readily know the difference between the two.
Feb 28, 2009 - 9:18 am