It’s 10:30 on Sunday night in New York, which means that it’s seven o’clock Monday morning in Tehran.
Monday, December 7. Student Day.
In August 1953 Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh was deposed in a CIA-backed coup. Four months later, US vice president Richard Nixon paid a diplomatic visit to the Shah of Iran, who had implemented Mossadegh’s removal from office. On 16 Azar by the Iranian calendar — December 6 — government troops opened fire on Tehran University students demonstrating against Nixon’s visit. Three were killed. Since then, 16 Azar has been commemorated as Student Day in Iran.
As I type this, the sun is rising on the morning of 16 Azar.
Media reports indicate that Iran’s government is doing everything it can to prevent protests from developing today. Campuses have been shuttered. Internet access has been cut. Student leaders have been arrested, as have the mothers of slain demonstrators. Press credentials for foreign media have been revoked.
The sun is rising.
9:30 am Tehran time | “Student movements are signs of realities greater than themselves.” – Mir Hossein Mousavi, statement commemorating Iran’s Student Day, December 7, 2009.
10:00 am Tehran time | Follow the hashtag #16Azar for news of the day, but remember to approach uncorroborated reports with skepticism.
3:30 pm Tehran time | An interesting insight from Iran News Now and the BBC: “We don’t hear ‘Where is my vote?’ anymore. The chants are mostly directed at the regime and its leaders in general.”
3:45 pm Tehran time | Media reports are still fragmentary, but video and photographs coming out of Iran show large-scale demonstrations on university campuses and beyond. Government forces are doing their best to clamp down, but it’s not yet clear how successful they’ve been.
Tuesday | Protests are continuing into a second day. Here’s a good news roundup from the New York Times.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 7, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Adam
From an Iranian friends facebook page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNTAffLzDoE. I have know Idea what they’re saying, but the crowd is saying it loudly in unison.
December 7, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Adam
A better view of the crowd and the police:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=208226690664
December 8, 2009 at 12:32 am
Adam
A clip from CNN with amateur footage. People in above video shouting:
“Mahmoud [or khamenei depending on who you ask], you betrayer! You brought misery. You destroyed our homeland. You killed the young of my country, (but) God is Greater. You put thousands in grave, (but) God is Greater. Death to you. Death to you. Death to you. Death to you.”
December 10, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Adam
An insight into the democratic protests in Iran, from my Iranian friend:
Hey Adam,
I will be happy to spread the news about the democratic protests of Iranians. I saw that you wanted to know what students say in that video, so, I wrote this little article in your response:
To my American friends who want to know what Iranian protesters chant:
To study the Iranian green movement, one interesting aspect is studying the slogans that people chant in the streets of Tehran and other major cities.
“God is Greater” (Allah-o-akbar) is a common slogan with a very strong Islamic nature (connotation). It means God is greater that anything you can possibly imagine and since He is with us, you (the government) cannot harm us. This was one of the main common slogans during the Islamic revolution 30 years ago. People shout this slogan from the top of the roofs of their houses at night time, and although this is simply just praise to God, the Islamic governments very brutally reacts against it.
“God is greater” is one of the very few slogans which has remained completely unchanged from the democratic movements of 30 years ago till now. Most of the slogans of the Islamic revolution are now being used with some smart changes in them:
“Death to Shah” is now changed to “Death to Khamenei (the current supreme leader)” and “Death to dictator”.
“Death to America” (a.k.a. Down with USA) is now changed to “Death to Russia” or “Death to nobody!”. Same is true about “Death to England” and “Death to Israel”. The Green movement doesn’t want hatred, bloodshed, and violence. They want “democracy for Iran, peace for the world”.
“Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic” was another major slogan 30 years ago. The modified version for today is: “Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic”. This smart change in the slogan shows people’s will for separation of church from the state. Similar change can be seen in changing “No Eastern, No Western, Islamic Republic” to “No Eastern, No Western, National Green Government”.
There was a long slogan (more like a song) against shah of Iran 30 years ago, which people now sing it for Ahmadi-nejad (they replaced the word “Shah” with “Mahmoud” is the song). It says:
“Mahmoud, you betrayer! You brought misery. You destroyed our homeland. You killed the young of my country, (but) God is Greater. You put thousands in grave, (but) God is Greater. Death to you. Death to you. Death to you. Death to you.”
Other than the old slogans, there are tens and maybe hundreds of new slogans that people came up with. Some of them directly point to Khamenei and insult him. It is very important to do so, because Khameni has idolized himself so much (in the last 20 years which he has been the supreme leader, the first power in Iran’s government), that it always was a taboo to insult him in public. Now, these slogans try to break the taboo.
The best example from this class of slogans is “our shame, our shame, our jackass leader”. (here, “leader” means the supreme leader, Khamenei himself), or “cannon, tank, fireworks, Khamenei is a pimp!”. Both of these slogans sound really funny when you say it is Farsi. The second one is a funny mixture of two irrelevant slogans. The first part “cannon, tank…” refers to an old slogan (again from the Islamic revolution era) saying: “cannon, tank, machine gun have no more effect on us”. Ten years ago, when the brave students of the University of Tehran, for the first time challenged the integrity of the Islamic government and protested against the government, they were beaten to death by basij militia and so this slogan changed to: “cannon, tank, Basiji have no more effect on us. Tell my mother that she doesn’t have a son anymore (means that we are ready to die).”