13 Aban

They had been warned.
Only those political rallies approved by the authorities would be tolerated on November 4, known as 13 Aban in Iran, officially named as the day to fight global arrogance, to quote the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
On that very day thirty years ago, the American embassy in Tehran was infiltrated by radical students, and 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
The event has been commemorated every year, ever since.
Also known as Pupils’ Day, students are officially invited on this holiday to demonstrate against the United States.
We are announcing that only anti-American rallies in front of the former American embassy in Tehran are legal. Other gatherings or rallies on Wednesday are illegal and will be strongly confronted by the police, the authorities stipulated on the eve of the event.
And yet, they came, by the tens of thousands…
The official ceremony organized by the regime involved even larger crowds.
It was 10:30 am at this time. Hundreds of buses (that had brought in pro-regime supporters) lined Taleghani street, and I started to see some pro-regime marchers coming my way, wrote one eye-witness.
The former US embassy, traditionally referred to as the nest of spies, now an Iran Revolutionary Guard center and museum, is located on Taleghani Street.
The official demonstrators, mostly schoolchildren, held up signs reading Death to America, and torched American flags.
The main speaker at the event was Gholam Ali Haddad Adel.
After having denounced US intentions towards Iran, the former Speaker of the Iranian Parliament accused the leaders of the opposition, MM. Karroubi, Khatami and Mousavi, and their supporters, of having betrayed the nation.
What will they answer to the families of the martyrs? To the pure children of the revolution? What will they answer to our supreme leader? They will have to answer to the nation, he thundered.
The counter-demonstration was to take place simultaneously in Haft-e-tir Square, in downtown Tehran, some 800 meters from the former US embassy.
The paramilitary forces were waiting.
They had been on the scene since dawn, eager to confront the peaceful demonstrators, even more so than on the previous occasion, last September.
Security forces harassed opposition supporters in the subway, tearing off green bracelets, scarves and armbands, all symbols of the Mousavi movement.
Central subway stations were closed, and internet and cell phone services interrupted.
Heavy security presence, including armored Special Guard, Basij, and plainclothes forces on motorbikes.
Harsher violence than expected, weapons used on protesters included tasors, paintguns, batons, and teargas
Opposition crowds were spread in pockets of hundreds and sometimes one or two thousand across large area of downtown to north-central Tehran including:Haft-e-Tir, Fatemi Sq, Valiasr, Abbas Abad, Argentine Sq (reported so far); estimate of total turnout hard to gague, eyewitnesses told Tehran Bureau.
Violent clashes on Talaghani St by US embassy compound all day, another added.
Yet another told RFE/RL, people were throwing stones, they used teargas and pepper gas against people. The number of people who were injured is high. I don't know if anybody died, but [Basij forces] were hitting people with batons. I was hit on the head. They don't care if you're young or old. They're beating everyone, she said.One woman demonstrator corroborated the brutality of the police response, I've never seen such violence. They chased us down a dead end. We were all crushed together and the riot police shot something like five teargas canisters into the alley, she said.
And though the demonstrators had initially been marching peacefully, chanting slogans such as Death to Dictators, No fear, nor fear, we are all together, and a green Iran doesn’t need nuclear weapons, there are reports that some demonstrators retaliated once the Basijis and paramilitaries attacked the protesters.
When opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi sought to join the demonstration at Haft-e-tir Square, he also was assaulted by the paramilitaries, the police forces shot tear gas directly toward Karroubi and his supporters. It resulted in the injury of two of the guards, who were transferred to the hospital, his son, Mohammad Taghi Karroubi declared.
Mir Hussein Mousavi was prevented from leaving his office to attend the event by a police motorcycle squad.
Demonstrators also gathered in front of the Russian Embassy, and chanted hostile slogans, including nest of spies, previously reserved for the American diplomatic compound. Russia was one of the first nations to congratulate Ahmadinejad after his fraudulent election victory last June.
At Tehran University, some 2000 students and professors confronted the security forces, yet the campus remained peaceful, if tense, as the girls (were) standing in front of the boys to protect them, according to timesonline.
Demonstrations also took place in other Iranian cities such as Rasht, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tabriz, Najafabad and Shiraz..
President Obama seized this opportunity to deliver a statement of his own to the Iranians, the American people have great respect for the people of Iran and their rich history. The world continues to bear witness to their powerful calls for justice, and their courageous pursuit of universal rights. It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity and justice for its people, he said.
The opposition activists also had a message for the American president, Obama: either with the murderers or with us, they chanted.
It seems many opposition activists were urging President Obama not to negotiate any deals with Ahmadinejad. Severely undermined by the rigged election, the Iranian president would have much to gain politically from a normalization of relations with the West, and with the US in particular.
It would vindicate his past policy of confrontation, especially on the nuclear issue, and restore some legitimacy to the regime.
He would inevitably receive credit for having achieved what had eluded all his predecessors, including the former reformist president, and current opposition leader Mohammad Khatami: the restoration of ties with the West, while preserving intact Iran‘s nuclear program.
None of his enemies, on the right or the left, want to see him benefit from such a breakthrough.
This may be the reason why the deal initially accepted by Iran to ship its uranium abroad for reprocessing was excoriated by so many within the political establishment.
Thus, for the West, the vexing Iranian nuclear issue presents an additional dilemma: do the US, and the European powers truly want to sign a deal that would politically rehabilitate Ahmadinejad, Khamenei and those responsible for the harsh crackdown on Iran’s democracy movement?
This factor can only further complicate the nuclear issue, and render its resolution ever more remote.
In any case, last Wednesday, the opposition movement manifested, both clearly and boldly, that it was still relevant and robust, and a force to be reckoned with.
This is a people’s movement that the system can’t destroy, one protestor said.
We have again sent a message to [President] Ahmadinejad and the [Supreme] Leader that society has not forgotten what they’ve done. They have beaten, raped, tortured and threatened the people but we still showed up, declared another. One mother of three children and 54 years-old concluded, I was beaten up with a baton so badly that one policeman begged his colleague to have pity on me and stop beating me. But I am not scared. I will keep protesting until the end.
If that is so, and let it be so, it is only a matter of time before they reach the coveted goal, which they have earned and deserve, justice and democracy…
(the photograph above can be found here)