Iran after the elections: 2 July - part 2

The New York Times has an op-ed here entitled Let the Usurpers Writhe that is now my favourite op-ed that I've read on the situation so far. It makes the case for how the decision to make Ahmadinejad the winner was a last-minute decision as no one had really expected that a candidate like Mousavi would have brought about such passion in people during the last two weeks. The second page makes the point that I and many others have been saying: until this election, though people were well aware that a Supreme Leader came before everything else in politics, the people at least believed that they had some sort of marginal say in the nature of their government. They believed this until June 12 that is, no more, and this is the dagger that the government has stuck in its own heart. There's simply nothing left to drive people to the polls, to trust that their voice means anything any longer, and this is dangerous to the survival of a government.

Here's a video from the 30th that shows people going around the Netherlands plastering a green "where is my vote?" sticker everywhere.



One may ask okay, but what does plastering a green sticker around a country as far removed as the Netherlands do? But then you might also ask what sticking a #CNNFail hashtag on one's Twitter posts just after the election might do - that resulted in the largest news network in the US finally being shamed into doing some real reporting on the aftermath of the election. All the interest also prompted Google into adding Persian into their automatic translation earlier than expected, and Facebook released their Persian edition earlier too...so an increased interest is always a good thing (especially in well-developed countries), no matter how removed they may seem to be geographically.

The Washington Post has a piece here on the widening of the reformist movement in Iran and what it means for the days ahead.

Here's another great video from yesterday. It's a speech in the Majlis (Parliament) by Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian from Tabriz who talks about the need for the law to be above everyone, and to not just rely on the word of one or a few while calling those that disagree dissenters. He references a story of Imam Ali (Mohammed's son-in-law), who also had to have witnesses and proof when he went to court - IOW, if even Imam Ali needed witnesses and proof to have the law on his side, how can those in power say that they have no need for evidence of their claims? Do they consider themselves to be above Imam Ali? That's the gist of the speech. Don't forget to turn on the English subtitles when you watch it though (CC button on the lower right).



Al-Jazeera has been granted temporary permission to film beyond the walls of their office in Tehran so reporters were able to go around the city to take a look at the way it looks now after the largest protests.