[samanthalueus]

Thousands of opposition supporters have clashed with security forces in the centre of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Police used tear gas and detained dozens rallying in solidarity with uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. There was one report of a death in Tehran.

The BBC also received reports of similar protests being held in the cities of Isfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz.

Earlier, the police placed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi under house arrest, according to his website.

It said the move was intended to prevent the former prime minister attending the march in Tehran, which the authorities had prohibited. The road leading to Mr Mousavi's house was also blocked by police vans.

Fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament and a senior cleric, is also reportedly under de facto house arrest.

BBC News - Iran police fire tear gas at opposition rally in Tehran Not unexpectedly, the regime in Tehran has responded with force, using tear gas, paintballs and clubs to disperse peaceful protesters. They have also begun jamming satellite news programs and censoring the internet. I guess they missed that face that these measures failed in Egypt.

This could get interesting. It could also get very bloody. Unlike Egypt, I don't thing the Iranian military is going to refuse to attack protestors.

Matt

[hotsaucemidl]

Oh, don't worry. ImANutJob won't allow this to continue. He'll bring full brute force down on them if he has to and all the U.N. will do about it is send him a letter of disapproval.

[mikapoq]

Unlike Egypt, the government in Iran also control the military and the police force, and will use force against anyone who tries to protest. Unlike Egypt, it's not quite time for Iran.

[berdyanskdotsu]

Iran is a very unstable country at the moment.
I wouldn't be surprised if riots escalate.
The problem with Iran are the numbers.. It is a huge country with roughly 70ml people.. not that much if you ask me. The capital has about 12ml people and they are the core of the protests.

The rest of the country cannot be counted when it comes to anti-regime parades.
Cities like Isfahan, Tabriz and Mashad are mostly relatively narrow minded, un-educated people who, as we all know, tend to always support religious perspectives.
(without disrespecting anyone from those cities, but its a fact)

The Iranian regime is in no way comparable to Egypts, simply because the mentality is way more direct and looks for no compromises.
In a country where the majority of the population is younger than 24, basically kids, you realise that having much older authorities is going to create social instability.

I have a Persian background from one side of my family, and EVERY time I go there to see family, I notice the same exact trend. The kids are more and more inclined to Americanism. What do I mean by Americanism?

By Americanism, I mean that the younger generation seeks the so called "freedom" they see on tv, on the internet and so on.. They want to be "happy" and "funliving" like the people who live in westernised countries. Where you can walk around in sleeveless shirts and not care about looking like a douche, or dye your hair green and start an EMO group.
They have a standard of social status, where you must be good looking, you must be a certain "type" of Persian in order to be "cool".

Let's take vanity as an example.
Iran has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world, mainly rhinoplasty.
If you were to hang out with a bunch of 20 year old girls and boys, you'd notice one thing in particular, they all have the same surgically enhanced noses. To me this is a major social complex.

Iran DOES have several restrictions, definitely true, and especially when it comes to freedom of speech politics.

But rest assured, that despite the mediatic restrictions of national tv broadcasts, 98% of Persians has satellites that show american and european shows.. I couldn't believe my eyes when i managed to see almost all of the italian channels; and we all know italian tv is full of hotties wearing thongs and showing tits and ass. Isn't that a serious issue in a country who's regime doesn't tollerate the viewing of western content?

The problem with Iran is exactly this. You have a regime that restricts everything from everyone, where you are not allowed to have a decent hair cut, you are not allowed to have a goatie, and ofcourse, if you are a woman, you are not allowed to do almost anything respectable.

So what does this cause? well history has taught us that a restrictive habitat causes you to try and obtain the exact opposite..

Add on top of that the twisting of certain sharia laws, to benefit the likes of a few high islamic figures, and you have a giant mess where kids that know fuck all about politics and freedom, go against old men who know nothing about politics and freedom.


I mean, who are we kidding? Almost everyone drinks or does drugs in Iran, there is more "freedom" in Iran than there is in Italy.. (by that I mean I have seen more persian kids get wasted at a party, than my friends here in Milan).

We are shown a completely distorted view of iran in the media.
We feel sorry for the youth generation, feel sorry for the women, yet we don't know what is really happening there..

Mind you, in the 50s Iran was the favourite visiting place of the kennedy's.. when the shah was still in power.

Iran is a giant mess, where no one is right.. and no one is wrong. It is just a clash of distinct mentalities. the fight between liberalism and conservatorism, young against old, moderate religion against extreme religion.

Either way, the country will always be a mess.. there should be a decent balance in between, slightly tilted more towards liberalism ofcourse, but remain Islamic. Iran should not lose It's Islamism.

Khamenei won't live forever, and he is in bad shape at the moment.
The best time for the general population to parade against the regime is when he dies, and the new successor is being elected..
That is the best time to act... a Transition force within a Transition.

And expect a civil war more than an egyptian riot in tahrir square.

[rassedgesse]

My crystal ball collection tells me that this will not turn out well.

[Zysyewgg]

Oh, don't worry. ImANutJob won't allow this to continue. He'll bring full brute force down on them if he has to and all the U.N. will do about it is send him a letter of disapproval.

Naaah The UN will pass a resolution condemning Israel and the US for fomenting violence in Ahmadinejad's Islamic utopia that incidentally has no homosexuals.

[Zysyewgg]

My crystal ball collection tells me that this will not turn out well.

You need a manicure, lady!

[iH1wMOhE]

Yeah, Iran is the sort of country that requires a full-fledged insurgency to get its shit settled.

[samanthalueus]

And the legislature in Iran is calling for the execution of opposition leaders:

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian lawmakers denounced Monday's protests in Tehran and called for the execution of two opposition leaders for inciting the demonstrations, Iran's state-run Press TV reported Tuesday.
Members of the Iranian parliament issued fiery chants against opposition leaders and former presidential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi
Press TV aired video Tuesday of lawmakers chanting "Moussavi, Karroubi ... execute them."

Iranian lawmakers condemn protests; call for execution of leaders - CNN.com Nice. Either the protests will evaporate in the face of the thuggery of the Iranian security forces, or this is going to get very bloody.

Matt

[plalleste]

This is so fucking encouraging.

I've prepared myself to believe that the military will brush back the Iranian protests, but that their time is coming much sooner than anticipated.

Their military is made up of the same kind of demographics as their society is in terms of religion. Conservative hardliners mixed with secular service members. The military in Iran in all likelihood would not be the peaceful arbiter of a revolution the way we saw in Egypt, but you have to wonder how badly the Iranians want to know how far they can get this time.

An estimated 350,000 were out in Tehran yesterday. Not a bad start.

Iran is remarkably like America; the cleptocracy and it's indentured working poor who've traded away their freedom for a false sense of security, and then the new generation, comprised primarily by those under 30, educated, can function very highly in english, and want to govern themselves just like us.

[Tactattcahhaw]

One wonders how many bombs it would take to handicap the Iranian military enough to let the Green Revolution 2.0 take hold.

Not that anyone with the power has the testicular fortitude to do it.

[ElegeExcest]

One wonders how many bombs it would take to handicap the Iranian military enough to let the Green Revolution 2.0 take hold.

Not that anyone with the power has the testicular fortitude to do it.

I don't think "testicular fortitude" is the word you're looking for, I think "lack of intelligence is". Seriously, your idea to help Iran is to bomb it? What? I can't think of anything that would quicker unite Iran or most any country.

[plalleste]

One wonders how many bombs it would take to handicap the Iranian military enough to let the Green Revolution 2.0 take hold.

Not that anyone with the power has the testicular fortitude to do it.

The problem with that rosy neo-con "they'll greet us as liberators" line of thinking is that it doesn't seem to win them over as much as just talking to them and enticing them with our way of life.

[StitlyDute]

Domino's

[BrianGoldsmith]

Not unexpectedly, the regime in Tehran has responded with force, using tear gas, paintballs and clubs to disperse peaceful protesters. They have also begun jamming satellite news programs and censoring the internet. I guess they missed that face that these measures failed in Egypt.

This could get interesting. It could also get very bloody. Unlike Egypt, I don't thing the Iranian military is going to refuse to attack protestors.

Matt

I find it very hard to believe that cameras have not found a way into these demonstrations, I know that US state department has been pushing for demonstrations in Iran for the last 10 days, that is an undisputed fact, but if they are really happening as zionist media is claiming, that I simply do not know, and people who think they do know are simply too gullible. as far as I heard from Iranians a bunch of greenshirts started celebrating after elections before votes were counted proclaiming Hossein as the winner - sort of like fans of the team would run into the field in celebration of their teams victory in the middle of the game...

[plalleste]

Iran MPs want death penalty for opposition leaders | Reuters

Angry scenes inside the Iranian parliament today, as the gov't hardliners sign a resolution to execute the opposition leaders.

This is a clear shot being fired by the ruling party to the opposition now. Now the regime has to either walk back those words or go forward and actually execute these people.

This is clearly escalating now, and with the regime restricting the internet right now, they are uncannily going about things precisely the way Mubarak did and Ben Ali before they were toppled. Three Iranians on my twitter feed are saying that Iranians see Ahmadinejad as illegitimate, and although their internet is pretty much being cut off, most Iranians have satellite feeds so they can see the news from the outside and they know that their regime has been lying to them about how to think about Egypt and Tunisia. They feel that the hardliners in the military will shoot at them but that there may be just enough younger more moderate members who will simply try to keep the peace the way the Egyptians did.

It'll be some kind of special if Iranians can pull this off, but they've got a tough hill to climb.

[plalleste]

I find it very hard to believe that cameras have not found a way into these demonstrations, I know that US state department has been pushing for demonstrations in Iran for the last 10 days, that is an undisputed fact, but if they are really happening as zionist media is claiming, that I simply do not know, and people who think they do know are simply too gullible. as far as I heard from Iranians a bunch of greenshirts started celebrating after elections before votes were counted proclaiming Hossein as the winner - sort of like fans of the team would run into the field in celebration of their teams victory in the middle of the game...

Most images out of Iran are from cell phones and handheld cameras.

There are a few correspondents and reporters in Tehran, but it's very restrictive there and they face brutal retribution if they get caught, but there are images and video coming out, just check youtube and do a google seach on iran and you can pick from a scroll the people there reporting and tweeting and stuff.

[acissombiapse]

Not unexpectedly, the regime in Tehran has responded with force, using tear gas, paintballs and clubs to disperse peaceful protesters. They have also begun jamming satellite news programs and censoring the internet. I guess they missed that face that these measures failed in Egypt.

This could get interesting. It could also get very bloody. Unlike Egypt, I don't thing the Iranian military is going to refuse to attack protestors.

Matt

Agreed on this not being really all that surprising. News of what happened in Egypt was bound to spread to those throughout the region upset with their present government. In this case thought, I would expect a very bloody and unsuccessful attempt to change things in Iran.

[Bemapayople]

viva la revelucion!

[GogaMegaPis]

I could very well be wrong, but how much do you think the economics, the worldwide recesssion(excluding China) has played into this unrest? One thing seems to be certain, and that is, when folks suffer economically it seems fertile ground for CHANGE. We may eventually even see some of this here, once the unemployment plays out and folks can't get help due to budget cuts. When you get millions of folks very disatisfied and insecure, shit seems to erupt. And I have a feeling this unrest in the M.E. is driven by the economics. Afterall what did the King of Jordon do? Throw money at the problems...