No stone was left unturned to ensure that Student Day would not be marred by illegal protests.The regime well knew that its opponents would seize the day and demonstrate against the government, demanding democracy and justice.
Student Day, held every year on December 7 (16 Azar, on the Iranian calendar) commemorates the killing by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s police of three students on December 7, 1953.
The students were demonstrating against the visit to Iran of US Vice President Richard Nixon, shortly after the CIA engineered a coup, which toppled the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.
Since 1979, the regime has used the occasion to fill the streets with pupils and students to denounce the US and the West.
Since demonstrations have been banned following the massive street protests engendered by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent victory in last June’s presidential election, which the regime brutally repressed, the opposition movement has now cleverly resorted to the stratagem of exploiting official commemorations organized by the regime itself, and hijacking them to protest against the oppressive regime.
As such, opposition activists were able to demonstrate on Qud’s Day last September and 13 Aban last month.
This time, the regime went on the offensive several days before the commemoration of Student Day.
To begin with, the usual stark warnings were issued, we will confront any gathering or ceremonies of universities on 16th of Azar which will be considered illegal gatherings. We are expecting professors and students to prevent any misuse of the occasion, the Tehran police indicated in a statement released last Saturday.
Internet access in Tehran was interrupted also on Saturday, two days before the event, in order to prevent opposition activists from communicating with each other.
Furthermore, to ensure that coverage of the event would be limited, the Iranian authorities suspended the work permit of all foreign journalists operating in the capital, from the 7th to the 9th of December.
For its part, the Iranian media were only authorized to cover the official event.
The regime’s campaign of repression is clearly intensifying and becoming more sophisticated.
Also on Saturday, fifteen women belonging to the Committee of Mourning Mothers were arrested in Laleh Park in Tehran, during their weekly demonstration.
The committee was formed by mothers of activists who were killed by the security forces during the post-election repression, and includes the mother of Neda Agha-Soltan.
A spokesperson for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Hadi Ghaemi, was indignant, it is a moral outrage that Mourning Mothers are arrested while the killers of their children continue to enjoy unlimited impunity, she declared.
Other women belonging to the One Million Signatures Campaign , a human rights movement demanding equal rights for women, have also been arrested of late, detentions of women’s rights activists are patently illegal. They are not even charged with an offence under the law, Ghaemi added.
The campaign of repression is now also increasingly targeting those Iranians abroad who have supported the opposition in Iran.
Part of the effort involves tracking the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube activity of Iranians around the world, and identifying them at opposition protests abroad, wrote Farnaz Fassihi, of The Wall Street Journal.
The father of one expatriate Iranian, Koosha, was arrested after the latter failed to heed an email warning him not to criticize Iran on Facebook.
This is not an isolated case.
The regime is clearly intent on silencing all opposition, wherever it happens to be located. Protesters inside and outside Iran have been identified and will be dealt with at the right time, declared General Massoud Jazayeri, deputy commander of Iran's armed forces last month.
Opposition to the Shah in the 70s had been actively supported by the Iranian diaspora.
The current regime is well aware of this and will do its utmost to undermine all foreign support of the opposition.
In anticipation of the protests on Student Day, the repressive campaign had already begun in Iranian universities.
Since the fall term began, many students have been arrested while others expelled.
Members of the Herasat, an intelligence service and morals police, present on campuses have harassed women whose dress was not sufficiently conservative and male students with long hair. Those close to the Basijis spy and inform on those deemed not sufficiently loyal to the regime. Student dissatisfaction has reached a point where it's about to explode, one student told AP.
The Basijis are also offering to compensate financially those students willing to denounce their peers, with salaries of $400 a month, and an additional $250 for each piece of particularly incriminating information...
Six months later, the fire is still burning. We are under aggressive surveillance, a post-graduate student at Sharif University concluded.
And yet, the regime’s efforts have been found wanting…
On Sunday night, the eve of the commemoration, rooftop shouts of Allahu akbar, the signature act of defiance of the Iranian opposition since the days of the Shah were even more vigorous than usual, the chants rocked Tehran, one Iranian journalist told the NYT.
The day began with the regime shutting down the capital’s mobile phone service.
This was not sufficient to prevent the mobilization of tens of thousands of students.
The police and Basijis surrounded Tehran University at dawn.
In order to prevent activists from infiltrating the campus, all those wishing to enter had to show their student IDs at the door.
Some police forces dressed in civilian clothes used phony IDs to enter the premises and help quell any potential illegal demonstrations.
White banners surrounded the campus in order to prevent outsiders from looking inside.
The students gathered near the Faculty of Technology, where the first 16 Azar demonstration took place in 1953.
By 11AM, several thousand students, many now clad in green, began marching, singing an Iranian resistance anthem, Yare Dabestani («My grade school friend»). Clearly intent on a confrontation, they were heading toward the Basijis inside the campus.
Because the Basij had entered campus without student IDs posing as students, the students mocked them with shouts of "Phony student/ where's your student card?"
As Basij are famously paid by the government for their services, students also shouted at them, "Basiji go home/ no free meal today!" and "Get lost, mercenary!"
Basijis replied with shouts of "Death to Traitors" [Marg bar monafegh].
As the slogan-battle escalated, the sides became physically engaged. The Basij on campus were unarmed and attacked students with bare fists, and students fought back in defense. The skirmish lasted a quarter of an hour and ended when people on both sides intervened to stop the fighting, one witness told tehranbureau.
The official commemoration involved some 2000 students, who held portraits of Ali Khamenei, and chanted slogans hostile to Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Outside the university, crowds began to gather, chanting slogans that were bolder than on previous occasions, such as Khamenei should know, his downfall is near! The cry of our nation: politics is separate from religion! This government is Fascist/ it must stop at some point.
One particularly significant one had never been heard before, Death to the oppressor, whether it’s the shah or the leader. For the first time, Khamenei’s rule was associated with Reza Pahlavi‘s, the despised Shah overthrown and driven into exile in 1979…
In addition, in another unprecedented act of defiance, some protesters burned portraits of the Supreme Leader.
The crowds became ever larger as wave after wave engulfed the streets.
Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! We are all together, they shouted…
The security forces charged the crowd, firing plastic bullets and tear gas.
Others beat protesters with truncheons. Youths retaliated by hurling stones and bricks, and by setting fire to garbage cans and tires.
Many protesters were arrested on Monday, AP reported.
Demonstrations also occurred at numerous other institutions, such as Amir Kabir, Tehran, Sharif, Elm va Sanaat, Honar, Tehran Markaz, Sureh, and Tehran Shomal Universities in Tehran.
Opposition leaders Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were prevented by the regime from attending the demonstrations.
Some reports indicate that they may be under house arrest. Mr. Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnevard took part in the Tehran University protests.
The daughter of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Hashemi, was arrested while trying to attend the protests at the Science College of Azad University.
Universities across the country, in Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Mashhad
also participated.
One beaten activist did not regret the day’s events, this is the price for freedom. Our friends in jail are on hunger strike. I cannot help protesting. I simply have to do something, he told the LAT.
Mousavi, though physically absent, denounced once again the regime for having chosen the path of violence and repression, you fight people on the streets, but you are constantly losing your dignity in people’s minds. Even if you silence all the universities, what are you going to do with the society?… The issue is not who should or shouldn’t be the president. The issue is that a great nation has been sold out, he declared in a statement.
The opposition’s grievances have indeed evolved.
It is no longer about an election recount.
Because the regime has refused to address these grievances, and solve the crisis peacefully and through compromise, the movement is becoming more radical.
The regime’s intransigence has left it with but one alternative. It has condemned itself to either destroying the movement and oppressing an entire people, or being swept away by a popular uprising.
The opposition movement is not in any way a passing phase, it is a permanent part of the political dynamic inside Iran, said Geneive Abdo, of the Century Foundation in New York, and editor of insideiran.org. People are in this for the long term…This is a different Iran, which has developed after the June 12 election. Major figures inside the system are defecting, and there is a shrinking number of conservatives around the leadership.
The regime and its two titular heads, Ali Khamenei, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refuse to budge and recognize reality, and continue to insist that the unrest was designed and manufactured in the West, in order to overthrow the regime.
There is an unmistakable element of paranoia in their interpretation of events.
Last Friday, the Iranian President declared the following,
In the recent [post-election] incident, they (the West) claimed that they had devised a plan that could bring hundreds of governments to their knees. But he who is on the righteous path will always be victorious and will never see defeat.
They have a reason for this and they act upon that reason. However, they do not break the news about it. We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts [Middle East] and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world. They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule.
They have planned to annihilate Iran. This is while all policymakers and analysts believe Iran is the true winner in the Middle East.
In light of this, it is no longer surprising that the West has been unable to launch a substantive dialogue and reach a meaningful agreement with the Iranians, particularly on the nuclear issue.
Khamenei also insists that there is an international plot to undermine Iran.
The Zionists, the Americans, and other arrogant powers are afraid that the Iranian nation will become an example … and that is why they have been using every trick and plot in order to isolate Iran, he said last Sunday.
Since neither the opposition nor the regime will back down, what will happen next?
According to Mehdi Karroubi, the time is not ripe for reconciliation.
Our demands are reasonable and lawful, he said in an interview with Le Monde.
People were humiliated by the election results, he added. The regime’s contempt for the election process and for its own people engendered the protest movement.
The government’s overreaction (repression and torture) only further fueled the people’s indignation. Reconciliation is conditioned on tolerance, and the acceptance of criticism. We must do our utmost to restore relations based on trust between the government and the people, he said.
It seems however, that this bond may have been broken, irrevocably…
Yet, Karroubi refuses to lose all hope, the Iranians are a great, patient, intelligent people. I am optimistic for the future, he concluded.
Next Saturday, December 12, activists around the world, at the behest of United4Iran, are planning a day of protest to honor the Iranian people’s peaceful struggle for their human and civil rights, six months to the day after Ahmadinejad’s stolen election victory, and the 61st anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights..
Activists inside Iran may not be able to participate, but there will be other events to hijack in 2010, no doubt…
Who but you and I
Has power to cure our pain? concludes the resistance song Yare Dabestani…
The struggle is far from over, the trials bound to be numerous…
But who can doubt that the Iranian people shall eventually prevail….
(the title of this post is a quotation from the resistance song Yare Dabestani; the photograph can be found here)
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