june 23rd

protests were non-existent, i believe. there has been very little word about anything going on today. it might be because a silent drape has been cast over tehran. phones, cameras, and the internet have lost their ammunition. it is getting more and more difficult to get word out of tehran. so it is hard to know or get images of what happened today, if anything at all. the government is getting really good at monitoring, blocking, and censoring. tomorrow begins the first of three days of mourning for the protesters that have died. that is such a beautiful part of persian culture-remembrance for the dead. but i wish that we had just as good of a memory for history. there are many facets to this comment but one of them is that what the people of iran are fighting for is not new. democracy would be a new occurrence but most of the freedoms that the people want are not new. they had them pre-1978. people could wear what they wanted, go to bars, dance and sing, hold hands, and most importantly be whatever religion they wanted. what was suppressed was political dissidence. that was one of the reasons for the Shah’s downfall. but thank goodness, the current regime does not remember that lesson. they are following the same path and hopefully it will lead to the same end-regime change. but as one of my friends from iran keeps saying is that things need to go slow so that the same mistakes are not repeated. yes, that will lead to more stability and less death, but the momentum for regime change is strong right now. instead of “allahu akbar” (god is great), “marg bar khamenei” (death to khamenei) can be heard from the rooftops at night. if things went slowly, then we all settle for reform within the current system. it is hard to say what the people really want. after 30 years of constriction, censorship, and religious and political propaganda, a lot of people have forgotten that they used to have different lives, that this way of government has not always been the way of governing iran, that this flag has not always been the iranian flag, that what they are fighting for is what they used to have.

but i pray the momentum stays strong. as my friend told me, “something changed last week.” that no matter what happens next, the people are different. what that really means we will have to see, but it is definitely a good thing.

here is an article written by an Israeli entitled “I never thought i’d be rooting for Iran”

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1093996.html

and here is something written from today:

Tehran resident, 23 June 2009

“[Translated] I access Facebook through Yahoo! Mexico. But everyone says that’s a trap set by authorities to identify us!!!!!

[X] quarrels with me all the time. He keeps imploring me not to go on the internet. They even say the phones are monitored!!!

I’m so frightened I changed my [online] name today.

I don’t know why. Other than vote for Mousavi I’ve never engaged in a political activity in my entire life. But this is no comfort because [X]’s poor colleague was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet while driving through Vanak Square. After two operations, he’s blind in one eye!!!!!!!!

They picked up someone else too. Two days after his disappearance they released him near Shahreh Rey with his eyes blindfolded and his mouth gagged.

Neither guy attended demonstrations! Plus, they say those who come to these protests are MKO [mujahedin] members [terrorists]!!!!! Not to mention 100 other insults!

What had this poor woman Neda done that they wouldn’t allow any mosque to hold ceremonies for her — come on, wasn’t she Muslim?

Anyway, things here are REALLY bad here. We’re all scared to death.

Something has to change. We can’t go living like this.”