Mirhossein Mousavi

The revolt of the banknotes

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:50:27 +0100

When they're not out on the streets demonstrating, anti-government activists spend their time finding other ways to inconvenience the authorities. Their most recent offensive involves banknotes and green pens.

Protests resume in Tehran

Julien — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:13:56 +0200

Tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators have defied a warning by the authorities not to turn an annual pro-Palestinian rally into street protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Clashes involving protesters, security forces and Ahmadinejad supporters have broken out. [Post updated throughout the day]

Amir (not his real name) is a student in Tehran. He is taking part in the opposition rally.

Tens of thousands of supporters of [opposition leader] Mirhossein Mousavi are marching in the streets. There have been clashes between opposition members and Ahmadinejad supporters, who are backed by the Basij [a pro-government militia]. The police stepped in, but Ahmadinejad’s backers came looking for us. There will be more protests in other neighbourhoods of Tehran today."

Posted at 9 pm:

Motorbikes set alight in the streets of Tehran. Video published on Youtube by omid2006.

Published at 5.19 pm:

Video published on Youtube by greenshler.

Posted at 4.35pm:

The loudspeaker says: "Death to the USA. Death to Israel." The crowd reply: "Death to Russia" (referring to Russia's perceived support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). Video published here.

Photos posted by Mousavi's wife on her facebook account at 3.32 pm:

Mirhossein Mousavi at the rally.

Mohammad Khatami, a former Iranian president, joins demonstrators.

Posted at 3.20 pm:

Video sent to FRANCE 24.

Posted at 2.55 pm:

Posted on YouTube by madyariran.

Posted at 2.40 pm:

Published on this Facebook page.

Posted on YouTube by aryanbigbang12345

Posted on YouTube by onlymehdi. Demonstrators chant "Karoubi, Karoubi", after the name of a reformist candidate in the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Published on Facebook by Freedom Messenger - Ghasedane AZADI

The Iranian uprising seen from the future

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:52:56 +0200

Iranian blogger "Bolts" posted this commentary on her blog on Monday. It was translated into English by "Sanli". One of our Iranian Observers, Farnaz Seifi, alerted us to the post. The information has not been verified by FRANCE 24 journalists.

Originally posted in Farsi by Iranian blogger Bolts on August 3.

In the history books of the 21^st century, the first chapter will be about us.

In the introduction, they might write that important events have happened before us, events like 9/11 and war on Iraq and Afghanistan, but those were the remnants of the previous century, with an outdated dialogue and with twentieth century tools: Airplanes, bombs and bullets. And then they will write that the first chapter is dedicated to us because we have been the true children of our time and our dialogue was the dialogue of the beginning of the third millennium.

Early in the book, they will write that social movements are born out of communication technologies and at the same place they will write that we were the first movement that exploited entirely all the new communication tools that were established at the beginning of this century.

Perhaps they will write a footnote on how these tools changed the social structure and how they changed the world view on the social classes, work flow, production and distribution of wealth, social leadership and management and even changed the world's attitude about the sustainable human values.

Perhaps on the same page, there is a photograph of the inventor of the first mobile phone and the portraits of the founders of Wikipedia, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Podcasts, or maybe photos of their statues in the main squares of the world's leading cities, with captions like: "Figures who built the twenty first century."

Idem they will write that previously there were only one-way paths: Somebody wrote and published the newspapers and the rest of the people read them. Somebody spoke while the rest were listening. One person was on TV and the rest were watching. Somebody commanded and led and then shapeless masses followed. They will write that the community structure and distribution of wealth, power and information was pyramidal, and then they will highlight that the new communication technologies flattened the society. It empowered the bases of the pyramid such that they reached the top.

It made it possible to communicate with each other, send and receive news, exchange information, tell and listen, watch and be seen, and find new means of cooperation, thinking, criticizing and progress.

There, on top of that page they will put a picture of us with our green flags. They will write that we were the first social movement that all of us were its leader and all of us were its organizer. The name which was called the most was only the speaker of a part of our demands.

Perhaps they will open a box there to put Mirhossein's written statement as an example, where he said: because the people participate in the Friday prayer, he will accept their invitation and join them. They must also add the explanation that previously the leader of a movement used to announce his presence and invited people to join him.

They may make a subsection to describe how a movement without a command centre was acting so well-orchestrated. How its ideas, desires, and slogans were suggested, criticized, and completed so well, and then one day they were expressed in such a harmony as if all these millions, have practiced together for years. Perhaps there, at least in the electronic version of this history book, they will make a link to a clip of us, where the speaker shouts from the loud-speaker: "death to the U.S." and we all respond "death to Russia". Without anybody been preparing for this response, without being coordinated, we shout as if we are all one mouth and one voice.<

They will write that we were the first party that had no central council, no secretary general, and no political branches. They will write that our party was one of complete anarchy that behaved quite systematic. They may presumably point their sarcasm toward anarchist parties of decades before us that were built systematically to behave as anarchists. They will write that our party had no party organs, but all its strategies were clear and its programs were all set correctly. Our demands were also summarized, reviewed, completed, and expressed in the clearest form of expression.

In the same chapter they will write that we lived the last days of guns and bullets and we showed that wherever the awareness, information and enough communication channels for human connection exists, the bullet is pointless. There may put a picture of a single bullet somewhere in our Freedom Museum and will write for its caption "the last bullet that was pulled out of the magazine".

A delicate person will calculate the total weight of the electrons that construct our blogs and websites, and will show that it was not even a thousandth of a bullet weight. He may estimate the weight of all the air molecules in our chants, our "death to dictators", our "all political prisoners must be released" and show that they altogether weigh less than the weight of a single wall of the Evin prison.

Next they will write that we suggested a new definition for the human society, the human relations, for globalization and for living in the global village. Each of these historians will give us a name. Their simplest may write the "Green Revolution", another will call us the "Silent Revolution", somebody will call it the "Smile Revolution", and at last there will be someone to write the "Awareness Revolution".

First video of Tehran gathering

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:58:51 +0200

Thousands of opposition supporters gathered after Friday Prayers at Tehran University today. These are the first images to emerge from the event.

We’re updating this post throughout the day.

The size of the protest was impressive.

Footage shot after the police used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Protestors start fires in the hope of dispersing the gas. Posted on Facebook.

From here we can see the gates of Tehran University, where Fridays Prayers are taking place.

The protestors chant "Mousavi, Mousavi", "Allah Akbar", "down with the government", "release the political prisoners", "we might die but we'll never give up" and "down with Russia".

Video posted on Facebook. Our Observers say that the video appears to have been filmed today.

Even authorised gatherings are suppressed

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:46:47 +0200

Medhi Karoubi during the gathering.

Barring Mirhossein Mousavi, Iran's remaining opposition leaders met in Tehran on Sunday. But although the gathering was authorised, it ended in a violent attack by the police. One of our Observers was there.

Reformists Medhi Karoubi, Hadi Gharafi and the daughter of former president Ali Rafsandjani met on Sunday to honour Ayatollah Beheshti, the former head of the Iranian Republic's judicial arm, who was killed in an attack in 1981, just after president Abolhassan Banisadr was ousted.

Neda, a coveted icon

Julien — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:58:23 +0200

Image posted on the site "We Are All Neda".

Neda’s blood-stained face and frozen stare has come to symbolise the violent clashes between protestors and police or militia forces in Iran. She has become the icon of democracy advocates opposed to the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the authorities are trying hard to break her aura.

Neda, 27, was a philosophy student in Tehran. She was shot in the chest and killed during last Saturday’s protests in the city. Footage of her death was captured on a cellphone camera and were reportedly posted online on Facebook by Hamed R, an Iranian blogger living in the Netherlands.

The circumstances of Neda’s death have been at the centre of a heated debate on the Iranian web. According to her fiancé, Caspian Makan, who spoke on the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, Neda was not even protesting that day. She was stuck in traffic with her music instructor due to the protests, and got out of the car to observe the protests when she was shot (see video below). Makan cites eyewitnesses as saying that Neda was deliberately targeted by Basiji militiamen, who theoretically do not have the right to bear arms. According to Makan, Neda was neither pro-Mousavi nor pro-Ahmadinejad, although she did take part in several pro-democracy rallies.

Several other far-fetched versions have circulated on official Iranian media. The Guardian quoted Iranian newspaper Jomhouri Islami as reporting that Neda was shot by a sniper from the People’s Moudjahiddin group, to reinforce anti-government propaganda.

The pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper Javan claimed that expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne orchestrated the shooting to enrich his coverage of the protests…

Authorities have not yet opened an official investigation into Neda’s death. She was reportedly buried on Sunday in the outskirts of Tehran, the authorities having apparently refused a public funeral or memorial for her in the capital.

Our Observer in Tehran lifts the lid on Web censorship

Team Observers — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:57:07 +0200

Iranian Internet has slowed down massively over the last ten days, and is down to 5Kb/s. More and more websites and social networking sites (Facebook, etc) are filtered. One of our Observers, Sara M. (pseudo), a student in Tehran, managed to send us a short video in which she shows how state censorship works on the Web and on text-messaging services.

To find out more about censorship of the Web, we recommend this article in the Wall Street Journal. It explains how filtering technologies used in Iran were developed by European companies Siemens and Nokia.

Tehran: “I’m too scared to leave the house”

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:39:47 +0200

The day after Ayatollah Ali Khameni's speech in Tehran, thousands of demonstrators poured onto the streets of the Iranian capital, despite being told not to. The response from the authorities was severe. One of our Observers there gives his account of what was possibly the most violent day since the start of the protests.

Iranians react to Khamenei's speech: “People here obey the rules”

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:10:52 +0200

In his first public address since the demonstrations began, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the government will not surrender to the protesters. Two of our Observers, one a supporter and the other a critic of Ahmadinejad, give their opinions on the speech.

A few extracts from the speech:

"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street."

"Street challenge is not acceptable, this is challenging democracy after the elections."

"The legal structure in this country does not allow vote-rigging."

"If some people have doubts and evidence it should be dealt with through legal ways - only through legal ways. I will never accept illegal innovations."

"Arm-wrestling in the street must stop, I want everyone to put an end to this. If they don't stop this ... they will be held accountable for all of this."

"Enemies try through various media -- many of which belong to the Zionists -- to make people believe that there is a fight between supporters of the opposition and the Islamic establishment. They have no right to say that, that is not true."

"Long live Ahmadinejad!"

Team Observers — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:44:27 +0200

Photos by Mohammad Hossein Khoshbayan

Mahmood Ahmadinejad has come up against a great deal of personal invective in the run up to the presidential elections. Supporters of his main rival Mir Hossein Mousavi's are increasingly chanting "Pinocchio Ahmadinejad" and "Ahmadi-bye! Bye!" at rallies. For the president's supporters, this is going a too far.

There are no reliable polls in this campaign, but analysts forecast a tight second round between the ‘moderate conservative' Mir Hossein Mousavi and the president. Ahmadinejad has tried a few tricks to take credibility from his opponent. He accused him on TV of being supported by allegedly corrupt figures citing former president Hachemi Rafsandjani - a strategy that has backfired and actually boosted Mousavi's popularity. Despite his lack of charisma, the former prime minister has succeeded in gaining support from the overwhelmingly young electorate. His supporters never miss an opportunity to heckle or mock Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

We also published Mousavi's supporters comments on the subject.