(written Monday afternoon, 6.30 PM Tehran time)
Today's round-up includes the gathering at and near the Ghoba Mosque, the reinvigoration of the opposition movement, nighttime rooftop chanting, voter fraud, whereabouts Persiankiwi still unknown, the return of one missing Iranian Twitter with his reports of friend's experience while under arrest and some video links.
Reinvigoration
Yesterday was a different day then the several days before. As you will have certainly heard from the mainstream media, there were once again street demonstrations at and near the Ghoba Mosque. Protesters used the annual memorial celebrations for Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti who along with dozens of others were killed in an anti-government bombing in 1981 as cover for renewed street presence.
The figures given by the mainstream media of 3 - 5 thousand demonstrators were largely contested by Iranian Twitters who put the figure much higher. Be that as it may, the real significance of yesterday was a definite change of tone on Twitter. The government's brutal crackdown on street protests and on the flow of information plus the widespread arrests had all begun to take their toll. Over the last several days there seemed to be a palpable despondency in the Twittersphere, a dip that was also felt in the air of the Tehran as described in this NY Times article that appeared just the day before on Saturday.
But Iranian Twitters and their supporters were clearly reinvigorated yesterday by the street actions and by the presence among the protesters of many of their important leaders and sources of inspiration. Rafsanjani's daughter Faezah was there as was her mother. Opposition presidentail candidate Karoubi also marched among the people and Masouvi addressed the crowd via a mobile phone hooked up to a magaphone.
As one of the popular Iranian Twitters commented, "RT To all who lost their hopes last days: IT IS NOT OVER RT RT RT." The 'RT' in a Twitter message stands for 're-tweet' which is a request for others to repeat and pass on the message. The several 'RTs' and the use of caps clearly conveys the excitement and elation felt by this person and undoubdtedly many others on the ground in Iran.
Nighttime rooftop chanting
While the street protests had all but disappeared until yesterday, the nighttime rooftop chatting has not subsided despite the cruelest efforts of the various militia to intimidate people into silence as reported in the mainstream media and by Twitters: "During past days plain clothes went door to door and warned people to stop chanting." Three different popular and well-followed Twitters all made the same reports of Sunday night chanting:
- Ladies and gentlemen I believe we actually have ourselves revolution. Allah Akbar even louder tonight.
- Again tonight Great allah o akbars. we can do this people, keep it going. If we succeed the world will never be the same.
- Tonight people continued "Allah-o-Akbar" even when threatened by Basijis & plain cloths.
Another Twitter made an interesting observation about the chanting, pointing out again the role women are playing in the opposition movement: "Some areas I hear more women chanting than men, probably due to the hatred from losing their children." Chanting has also been reported in many other cities around the country.
The surprising and courageous role of young Iranian women in the opposition movement was also described in this report from the New York Times writer Roger Cohen. (Check out all of Cohen's fascinating reports direct from Tehran from June 11, the day before the election, until he left Iran on June 27.)
Voter fraud
The Gaurdian Council (check out this handy diagram if Iran's complex power and political structure is not totally clear for you) is scheduled to release today the results of a small-scale vote recount. Twitters however are doing a very good job themselves of bringing certain oddities to light, "all the votes in these ballot boxes are for ahmadinejad HMMMMM..." and providing a link to a graph showing the counts of 38 ballot boxes where Ahmadinejad received every single vote cast. In addition, several Twitters talked about the fact that the official counts presented on the website of a government ministry have continuously been changing.
Persiankiwi
The whereabouts of Persiankiwi still remain clear. Late Sunday night one Twitter who had gone missing and re-emerged yesterday (see below) made a report of Persiankiwi's arrest:
- heard about PersianKiwi I have no idea how they captured him/her...
- I don't think if gov really captured PersianKiwi, they knew about his/her twitter & hopefully will be released soon
This report caused a stir late last night on Twitter with dozens of requests for confirmation or source of the information being tweeted every hour by many people following these events. Nothing definitive has been said since with many other Twitters who could also know about his/her fate asking people to stay calm and wait for more concrete information before spreading rumours.
The return of a missing Twitter
Another well-followed trusted Twitter disappeared several days only to re-emerge late last night. His last tweets before his disappearance were quite chilling and led people to fear the worst. He closed saying he would be returning the next day to Tehran and then was off the grid for several days.
- I'm only posting this to say I'm still alive & not in Tehran, I had a bad incident with Basij and couldn't use computer
- I will not be able to twit tonight, no PC where I'm going to spend the night
- Shayan's
brother's fate is still unknown, Reza has been released yesterday &
at hospital right now & I think Masood is safe
- as soon I can walk properly again, I will go back to Tehran. probably tomorrow night
Late last night he re-appeared explaining that he was finally able to reconnect to Titter, apparently after several days of unsuccessful attempts: "finally managed to load twitter! HTTPS protocol is still blocked by some ISP & no chance getting to twitter with apps."
His tweets last night mostly focused on relaying in great detail the experiences of his friend Reza who had been arrested days before and subsequently released to hospital where he was recovering from wounds received while demonstrating:
- Reza released from Hospital yesterday he is banned from university and now is a stared [marked by gov] student
- he spent his first 48h of arrest at level -4 of ministry of interior building without food or water
- he said all sort of people were there & some of them were just unlucky people just walking in streets and captured for no reason
- Reza estimated around 200 people were in each room and there were not enough space to even sit on the ground
- they didn't open the plastic handcuffs for a day & half, & randomly beat up people in there
- there was also a awful problem of only one toilet for all people in there and a impossible time limit of around 1min for each person
- He said in the second day some pain cloth people came with papers forcing people to sign them
- the papers were prewritten confessions all in different hand writings saying the signer is a member of organization by mousavi
- and after they knew Reza is a student they moved him to a more harsh environment with some other people
- in morning a man introduced him self as Intelligent came saying he will record their confections with camera
- he promised if one of them confess in front of camera he will free them all & they will blur his face & nothing to worry!
- at night around 10PM they Released Reza & his family instantly moved him to a hospital for internal bleeding
- Reza had no idea why they suddenly released him & some of his inmates
- I skipped some of the incidents as Reza requested. he's very weak both mentally & physically
Although this account can not be verified, it certainly seems credible given the behaviour of the regime. And it strokes with this first-person account, 'What Will Happen To Those Arrested In Iran? I Can Tell You' from an Iranian who was arrested as a 20 year old student during the student protests of 1999.
Video links
Here are some links to videos that were taken and distributed yesterday, Sunday June 28. As you watch them, keep in mind that those taking them and later uploading them for the world to bear witness do so at extreme personal risk. These are people willing to risk almost everything, including their lives, to let us know what is really happening in Iran.
Mehdi Karoubi, opposition candidate, marching with people near Ghoba Mosque
Large cheering crowd in front of Ghoba Mosque: Interesting to note the many people using their phones to film. In past days people were afraid to be seen with phones for fear of being attacked by the Basiji.
People marching near or on way to Ghoba Mosque: Chants of "Death to the dictator" are loud and clear.
Another view in front of Ghoba Mosque
Inside Ghoba Mosque
Protest in another city Kermanshah: Chants of "Death to the Dictator"
Protest in Kermanshah: In this video much gunfire can be heard
As I finish writing this, it is now about 8.30 PM in Iran. One English language Twitter is reporting that several thousand persons trying to form a human chain in a Tehran location are clashing with police. And another, "On Parkway right
now people are beeping their horns, and basij has responded by smashing
their windscreens and slashing their tires." The other Twitters I am following have been silent most of the day or have just been posting general comments.
As always, my prayers and thoughts are with these incredibly brave people.
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