(The Pedestrian Blog) | March 10, 2010
The Pedestrian is an excellent blog providing insightful pieces on Iranian culture, politics and life.   Highly recommended by Iran News Now.
Emad Bahavar [1979] is a political activist, writer and the head of “Supporters of Khatami and Mousavi” in the 2009 presidential campaign. He was arrested shortly after the election, [...]

Sadness to me is the happiest time
When a shining city rises from the ruins of my drunken mind
Those times when I’m silent and still as the earth,
The thunder of my roar is heard across the universe.
Rumi

It has now been almost six months since those fateful days in June when the people of Iran shattered the [...]

[2:12 AM (August 6) Tehran Time]
On the night of Ahmadinejads inauguration as President-Select, the people of Iran protest against the regime by chanting “Allah-o-Akbar!” and “Down with the dictator!” from their rooftops and balconies. One cannot help but feel awe-inspired by their bravery:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8EGyzd8o0]
[1:52 AM (August 6) Tehran Time]
A full-page ad has been taken out [...]

The security forces were using batons, chains, whips, tasers, paint-ball guns, and I saw handguns in the hands of three of them. There was a rumor that a few were shot at in Vanak Square. Two people were picked up near us and people tried to chase after the security forces to get the young men back, but it was a futile chase. Until around 11pm the streets were full of people. At 10pm the shouts of Allah-o Akbar and Death to the Dictator were being screamed from the rooftops all over the city until 10.30pm.

[10:30 AM Tehran Time]
Quote “The feeling today”:
One plus One, adds to two,
The percentage of the vote that went to You.
Two plus Two, three and four,
The max number of months till you’re out the Door.
Three plus three, adds to six,
The system that you have just can’t be Fixed.
Four plus four, totals eight,
Everything you are adds up [...]

Enjoy (Please thank WeAreNeda@gmail.com for this video):
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZnlh3phbs& 285 234]

On the surface, “order” has been enforced. But only on the surface. Inside Iran, public anger still burns, flaring up wherever opportunity presents. At the core of the Islamic regime, a struggle has been unleashed that — by stepping off his pedestal into the thick of the fray — the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has lost his once- undisputed power to bring under control. Far from subsiding, dissent is shaking the regime to its roots.

The tactics are unorganized, largely leaderless and only just beginning. They spread by e-mail, websites and word of mouth. But their variety and scope indicate that Iran’s uprising is not a passing phenomenon like the student protests of 1999, which were quickly quashed. This time, Iranians are rising above their fears. Although embryonic, today’s public resolve is reminiscent of civil disobedience in colonial India before independence or in the American Deep South in the 1960s.