Ayatollah Mousavi Tabrizi, an Attorney General in the Khomeini era, declares :
- Janati's remarks at Friday sermon are against religious and Iranian law
- announcing that "confessions" are being "taken" is a serious breach of law
- not allowing peaceful protests is unconstitutional
- keeping prisoners without warrants after 24 hours is illegal
He warns all judges that any such warrants would be criminal, baseless, and directly conflict "Leader's Differentiation of Friends & Foes" declarations. He also announces that "Confrontation" or "dispersement" of peaceful gatherings and demonstrations is a direct violation of constitutional rights, "No matter who orders it."
Heidi, things are really heating up in the streets of Tehran. The crowds were in the hundreds according to our observers about a couple of hours ago. Now they say between 2,000 or 3,000 people, and we can confirm at least five clashes between security forces and protesters.
A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult -- if not impossible.
Basij want Mousavi arrested. The Guardian reports, "Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi today became the target of the notorious Basij militia as it called for him to be prosecuted for his role in the greatest political unrest in Iran since the Islamic revolution. In a letter to the country's chief prosecutor, the Basij accuse Mousavi of involvement in nine offences against the state, including 'disturbing the nation's security'. That charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence."
Mousavi said the majority of the people including him do not recognize the legitimacy of the current government. He expressed his fears about a grave danger facing the country because people no longer trust the government. According to Mousavi, it is not too late to regain people's trust and reinstate the rule of the law. Denying the fact that people have lost their trust in the government is not beneficial, he said. He requested an end to the militarization of the society, revising the election laws, honoring the article 27 of the constitution (freedom of assembly), freedom of media, reactivating news websites, and a ban of illegal government intervention in restricting communication and monitoring people's activities among other things.
Fars News Agency in Persian on 1 July 2009 reports that the commander of the Law Enforcement Force said: Arash Hejazi who as the witness of the murder of Neda Aqa-Soltan has created uproar is being prosecuted by the International Police (Interpol).
The end of the beginning." Trita Parsi and Reza Aslan, two excellent analysts, write, "Iran's popular uprising, which began after the June 12 election, may be heading for a premature ending. In many ways, the Ahmadinejad government has succeeded in transforming what was a mass movement into dispersed pockets of unrest. Whatever is now left of this mass movement is now leaderless, unorganized -- and under the risk of being hijacked by groups outside Iran in pursuit of their own political agendas."
Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible compromise to put an end to the violent uprising that has rocked Iran for the past two weeks may be in the works. I have previously reported that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts (the body with the power to choose and dismiss the Supreme Leader) is in the city of Qom--the country's religious center--trying to rally enough votes from his fellow Assembly members to remove the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power. News out of Iran suggests that he may be succeeding. At the very least, it seems he may have gained enough support from the clerical establishment to force a compromise from Khamenei, one that would entail a run-off election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.
The Russian paper RBC Daily reports here that Russian and Italian officials are seeing large amounts of money, apparently held by wealthy Iranians, being moved out of the country into banks in other countries. An Iranian-American noted to me that it "someway parallels what happened around the '79 revolution, when the powerful and 'in-the-know' took out their money because of the infighting."
CNN just aired a heartbreaking phone call from an exasperated female Iranian student describing events today. In a desperate tone, the caller said she saw police violently beating people "like animals" until they were covered in blood. She said she saw a woman and an older man savagely beaten, and ended her call pleading with the CNN reporter, "You should help us! You should intervene!"
Another Iranian who has been reliable in the past posts on Facebook, "In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher . . . Fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now . ."
A 19-year-old shot in the head and killed during the demonstrations... and Iranian officials asked his parents to "pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a 'bullet fee' -- a fee for the bullet used by security forces -- before taking the body back."
I've seen nothing to corroborate rumors on the web that a Revolutionary Guard commander in Tehran was arrested for refusing to cooperate with the crackdown on demonstrators. It could be true, but I've seen no evidence that it is.
Iran's judiciary will set up a special court to try protesters arrested in the surge of civil unrest since the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a judiciary official said on state television, as the government continues its crackdown aimed at crushing its greatest domestic challenge in 30 years
The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.
Neda's Memorial Service Canceled On Orders Of Authorities... Guardian Council Admits: More Votes Than Voters... Vote-Rigging Charges Backed Up By Analysis... Rafsanjani's Daughter Freed After Arrest... Video: Paramilitaries Conduct Home Invasions At Night
State TV just claimed 10 dead 100 injured. They also called the people in the streets terrorists. PressTV is calling Khamenei the 'Father' of the revolution in its only recent video report from inside Iran.The BBC reports that Iranian authorities have asked its Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, to leave the country within 24 hours.More protests today CNN is showing new video from today of what looks to be a very large protest, with the crowd chanting and marching through the streets.Majority of Iranians think election was fraudulent. And printed in state-run media no less!
Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line "tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I'll be killed." I'm here to let you know I'm alive but my sister was killed... I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams... I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" [Forough Farrokhzad]... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib... my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people... my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul.... sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.
Eyewitnesses contacted by The Associated Press say the protesters gathered in central Tehran in open defiance of the cleric-led government. The witnesses say some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" near Revolution Square in central Tehran. Police confronted them by using tear gas and water cannon. Witnesses say thousands of police and plainclothes militia members filled the streets to prevent rallies.
Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny. Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before. Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder? I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken. Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? Where is this place that only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? Where is this place that the young shed blood and then people go and pray -- standing on that same blood and pray. Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants? Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me. This place is Iran.
"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It's worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I'm two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow's children..."
There was an effort to transport people from Qom and other cities to the prayers in Tehran, with attendance levels being used as a proxy for support for the government. A Farsi writer.
Despite the "leaders" words today I and I'm sure many others will be going out tomorrow...I never took much heed in what he had to say in the past and still don't. there are many in my family who fear for my safety when I go out as I'm only here for 9 more days. my answer for them is that it is my responsibility to march against an unjust regime...hell as a staunch atheist I find myself shouting Allah Akbar in the streets.
The situation in Iran is now critical - the nation is heartbroken - suppression is imminent.
The fact that 'Allahu Akbar' is echoing through the Iranian night is not only an indication of the longing of people there to find a peaceful and just solution to this crisis. It also points to how deep the erosion of legitimacy is in whosoever acts against the will of the people, in whosoever claims to act on God's behalf to oppress his fellow human, including in this case some of the 'supreme' Islamic jurists themselves. This all goes to show that Islam, far from being merely an abode of repression and retrogression, has the capacity of being a fundamentally restorative and democratic force in human affairs.
The numbers at today's rally are hard to gauge. There could be as many as one million people there.He said the demonstration is bigger than Monday's rally. Many are wearing black and carrying photos of those who died. Some are carry placards calling for a new election not a recount. The shops on the route are closed in support of the rally, he added. The rally has taken in place in South Tehran where Ahmadinejad claimed to have had a lot of support.
'I would never do it,' said a 23-year-old member of the security forces who said he and many of his friends at the military base where he serves supported the marchers. 'Maybe someone would, but I would never fire on any of these people myself.'"
When he came out after the militia had left, friends and classmates lay unconscious in dorm rooms and hallways, many with chest wounds from being stabbed or bloody faces from blows to their heads, he said. The staff of the hospital where the wounded students were taken, Hazrat Rasoul Hospital, was so shocked that they went on strike for two hours, standing silently outside the gate in their white medical uniforms.
The woman in this video is saying something that really touched me. She is saying that they can take our phones, our internet, all our communication away, but we are showing that by saying "allaho akbar" we can find each other. She ends it my saying that tonight they are crying out to god for help.
This is the beauty of picking that color. You can't fault it. It's like having an anti war rally in US and the demonstrator all painted in red white and blue. GOP can't come and say they are anti american. See the problem is anything colorful was deemed as western and too flaunting after the revolution, so to be proper, you had a few choices -- white, black, green, and variation of khaki or gray, etc. And among all those option green was the most colorful one and within the acceptable norm by the more conservative and religious groups. This way it's hard to fault the demonstrator as bunch of westernphile, which has always been used to undermine or delegitimize the middle class and upper class of the society.
After Mousavi's web message, his supporters poured into Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square, ignoring an Interior Ministry warning, witnesses said. They were mostly dressed in black with wristbands and headbands in Mousavi's green campaign colors.
Iranian soccer members sported green armbands in solidarity before being asked to remove them for the second half. That is, except for the team captain, Mehdi Mahdavikia, who kept his band on even during the second half. Brave man.
The schism in Iran is not reducible to social class, ethnicity, region or generation. A simple glance at the crowds over the past week reveals women in black chadors on both sides of the divide, and women in makeup too. Many kids whose parents were poor have themselves managed to get university degrees as a result of the revolution's largesse -- Ahmadinejad may be a populist, and he may emphasize his humble origins, but he's proud of his Ph.D. (His supporters call him "the Doctor.") And many children of rural poverty who are now educated and living in the cities, though still of limited means, don't necessarily share the outlook of their parents. Absent a proper tabulation of the actual vote on June 12, we'll never know the exact distribution of political support to each candidate across the regions, social classes and age groups. But even in the rallies in support of the candidates before and after the election, it's plain that the country can't be neatly divided along the lines of those categories.
As a Muslim, I really hate that some other Muslims use the term 'Allahu Akbar' as a battle cry, often by incensed crowds as these by fundamentalists who really don't understand Islam except by how to persecute others with it (forgive me for the Palin-like sentence). I say 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greater) several times a day when I do the daily prayers, but it is supposed to be a sign of humility and a recognition that for all the things we stress over in our daily lives, God is more important and can help us overcome. I don't mean to offend the atheists out there, I'm just saying my own.
There's a lot of information out there that can be very harmful to people. I mean, if they think that there's, you know, violence going on at their university and they're reading it on the site because we're trying to inform people and it's not true, that can have, you know, pretty damaging effects on people. So we try to be cautious.
Heidi, things are really heating up in the streets of Tehran. The crowds were in the hundreds according to our observers about a couple of hours ago. Now they say between 2,000 or 3,000 people, and we can confirm at least five clashes between security forces and protesters.
A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult -- if not impossible.
Basij want Mousavi arrested. The Guardian reports, "Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi today became the target of the notorious Basij militia as it called for him to be prosecuted for his role in the greatest political unrest in Iran since the Islamic revolution. In a letter to the country's chief prosecutor, the Basij accuse Mousavi of involvement in nine offences against the state, including 'disturbing the nation's security'. That charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence."
Mousavi said the majority of the people including him do not recognize the legitimacy of the current government. He expressed his fears about a grave danger facing the country because people no longer trust the government. According to Mousavi, it is not too late to regain people's trust and reinstate the rule of the law. Denying the fact that people have lost their trust in the government is not beneficial, he said. He requested an end to the militarization of the society, revising the election laws, honoring the article 27 of the constitution (freedom of assembly), freedom of media, reactivating news websites, and a ban of illegal government intervention in restricting communication and monitoring people's activities among other things.
Fars News Agency in Persian on 1 July 2009 reports that the commander of the Law Enforcement Force said: Arash Hejazi who as the witness of the murder of Neda Aqa-Soltan has created uproar is being prosecuted by the International Police (Interpol).
The end of the beginning." Trita Parsi and Reza Aslan, two excellent analysts, write, "Iran's popular uprising, which began after the June 12 election, may be heading for a premature ending. In many ways, the Ahmadinejad government has succeeded in transforming what was a mass movement into dispersed pockets of unrest. Whatever is now left of this mass movement is now leaderless, unorganized -- and under the risk of being hijacked by groups outside Iran in pursuit of their own political agendas."
Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible compromise to put an end to the violent uprising that has rocked Iran for the past two weeks may be in the works. I have previously reported that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts (the body with the power to choose and dismiss the Supreme Leader) is in the city of Qom--the country's religious center--trying to rally enough votes from his fellow Assembly members to remove the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power. News out of Iran suggests that he may be succeeding. At the very least, it seems he may have gained enough support from the clerical establishment to force a compromise from Khamenei, one that would entail a run-off election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.
The Russian paper RBC Daily reports here that Russian and Italian officials are seeing large amounts of money, apparently held by wealthy Iranians, being moved out of the country into banks in other countries. An Iranian-American noted to me that it "someway parallels what happened around the '79 revolution, when the powerful and 'in-the-know' took out their money because of the infighting."
CNN just aired a heartbreaking phone call from an exasperated female Iranian student describing events today. In a desperate tone, the caller said she saw police violently beating people "like animals" until they were covered in blood. She said she saw a woman and an older man savagely beaten, and ended her call pleading with the CNN reporter, "You should help us! You should intervene!"
Another Iranian who has been reliable in the past posts on Facebook, "In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher . . . Fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now . ."
A 19-year-old shot in the head and killed during the demonstrations... and Iranian officials asked his parents to "pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a 'bullet fee' -- a fee for the bullet used by security forces -- before taking the body back."
I've seen nothing to corroborate rumors on the web that a Revolutionary Guard commander in Tehran was arrested for refusing to cooperate with the crackdown on demonstrators. It could be true, but I've seen no evidence that it is.
Iran's judiciary will set up a special court to try protesters arrested in the surge of civil unrest since the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a judiciary official said on state television, as the government continues its crackdown aimed at crushing its greatest domestic challenge in 30 years
The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.
Neda's Memorial Service Canceled On Orders Of Authorities... Guardian Council Admits: More Votes Than Voters... Vote-Rigging Charges Backed Up By Analysis... Rafsanjani's Daughter Freed After Arrest... Video: Paramilitaries Conduct Home Invasions At Night
State TV just claimed 10 dead 100 injured. They also called the people in the streets terrorists. PressTV is calling Khamenei the 'Father' of the revolution in its only recent video report from inside Iran.The BBC reports that Iranian authorities have asked its Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, to leave the country within 24 hours.More protests today CNN is showing new video from today of what looks to be a very large protest, with the crowd chanting and marching through the streets.Majority of Iranians think election was fraudulent. And printed in state-run media no less!
Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line "tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I'll be killed." I'm here to let you know I'm alive but my sister was killed... I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams... I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" [Forough Farrokhzad]... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib... my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people... my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul.... sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.
Eyewitnesses contacted by The Associated Press say the protesters gathered in central Tehran in open defiance of the cleric-led government. The witnesses say some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" near Revolution Square in central Tehran. Police confronted them by using tear gas and water cannon. Witnesses say thousands of police and plainclothes militia members filled the streets to prevent rallies.
Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny. Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before. Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder? I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken. Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? Where is this place that only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? Where is this place that the young shed blood and then people go and pray -- standing on that same blood and pray. Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants? Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me. This place is Iran.
"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It's worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I'm two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow's children..."
There was an effort to transport people from Qom and other cities to the prayers in Tehran, with attendance levels being used as a proxy for support for the government. A Farsi writer.
Despite the "leaders" words today I and I'm sure many others will be going out tomorrow...I never took much heed in what he had to say in the past and still don't. there are many in my family who fear for my safety when I go out as I'm only here for 9 more days. my answer for them is that it is my responsibility to march against an unjust regime...hell as a staunch atheist I find myself shouting Allah Akbar in the streets.
The situation in Iran is now critical - the nation is heartbroken - suppression is imminent.
The fact that 'Allahu Akbar' is echoing through the Iranian night is not only an indication of the longing of people there to find a peaceful and just solution to this crisis. It also points to how deep the erosion of legitimacy is in whosoever acts against the will of the people, in whosoever claims to act on God's behalf to oppress his fellow human, including in this case some of the 'supreme' Islamic jurists themselves. This all goes to show that Islam, far from being merely an abode of repression and retrogression, has the capacity of being a fundamentally restorative and democratic force in human affairs.
The numbers at today's rally are hard to gauge. There could be as many as one million people there.He said the demonstration is bigger than Monday's rally. Many are wearing black and carrying photos of those who died. Some are carry placards calling for a new election not a recount. The shops on the route are closed in support of the rally, he added. The rally has taken in place in South Tehran where Ahmadinejad claimed to have had a lot of support.
'I would never do it,' said a 23-year-old member of the security forces who said he and many of his friends at the military base where he serves supported the marchers. 'Maybe someone would, but I would never fire on any of these people myself.'"
When he came out after the militia had left, friends and classmates lay unconscious in dorm rooms and hallways, many with chest wounds from being stabbed or bloody faces from blows to their heads, he said. The staff of the hospital where the wounded students were taken, Hazrat Rasoul Hospital, was so shocked that they went on strike for two hours, standing silently outside the gate in their white medical uniforms.
The woman in this video is saying something that really touched me. She is saying that they can take our phones, our internet, all our communication away, but we are showing that by saying "allaho akbar" we can find each other. She ends it my saying that tonight they are crying out to god for help.
This is the beauty of picking that color. You can't fault it. It's like having an anti war rally in US and the demonstrator all painted in red white and blue. GOP can't come and say they are anti american. See the problem is anything colorful was deemed as western and too flaunting after the revolution, so to be proper, you had a few choices -- white, black, green, and variation of khaki or gray, etc. And among all those option green was the most colorful one and within the acceptable norm by the more conservative and religious groups. This way it's hard to fault the demonstrator as bunch of westernphile, which has always been used to undermine or delegitimize the middle class and upper class of the society.
After Mousavi's web message, his supporters poured into Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square, ignoring an Interior Ministry warning, witnesses said. They were mostly dressed in black with wristbands and headbands in Mousavi's green campaign colors.
Iranian soccer members sported green armbands in solidarity before being asked to remove them for the second half. That is, except for the team captain, Mehdi Mahdavikia, who kept his band on even during the second half. Brave man.
The schism in Iran is not reducible to social class, ethnicity, region or generation. A simple glance at the crowds over the past week reveals women in black chadors on both sides of the divide, and women in makeup too. Many kids whose parents were poor have themselves managed to get university degrees as a result of the revolution's largesse -- Ahmadinejad may be a populist, and he may emphasize his humble origins, but he's proud of his Ph.D. (His supporters call him "the Doctor.") And many children of rural poverty who are now educated and living in the cities, though still of limited means, don't necessarily share the outlook of their parents. Absent a proper tabulation of the actual vote on June 12, we'll never know the exact distribution of political support to each candidate across the regions, social classes and age groups. But even in the rallies in support of the candidates before and after the election, it's plain that the country can't be neatly divided along the lines of those categories.
As a Muslim, I really hate that some other Muslims use the term 'Allahu Akbar' as a battle cry, often by incensed crowds as these by fundamentalists who really don't understand Islam except by how to persecute others with it (forgive me for the Palin-like sentence). I say 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greater) several times a day when I do the daily prayers, but it is supposed to be a sign of humility and a recognition that for all the things we stress over in our daily lives, God is more important and can help us overcome. I don't mean to offend the atheists out there, I'm just saying my own.
There's a lot of information out there that can be very harmful to people. I mean, if they think that there's, you know, violence going on at their university and they're reading it on the site because we're trying to inform people and it's not true, that can have, you know, pretty damaging effects on people. So we try to be cautious.
