As has come to be expected, Iranian citizen media recorded “history” on their mobile phones.

Protesters in Tehran trampled on a portrait of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an act that would have been unimaginable a few months ago.

A message to Obama: Either you are with us or with them.

Mehdi Karoubi, an opposition leader, among the people.

Security forces attack protesters

November 1, 2009 was the one-year anniversary of the arrest of the Iranian blogger, Hossein “Hoder” Derakhshan.

Cyrus Farivar, a US-based blogger and journalist, reports that he has been in touch with Derakhshan's brother Hamed, who informed him that:

His parents recently had a meeting with the new district attorney, who allowed them to have dinner in Evin Prison with their son, Hossein Derakhshan, on Thursday, October 29, 2009. This confirms that Hossein is being held in Evin Prison, however the family does not know the next time they will be allowed to see him.

Iranian blogger Jooya, writes that Derakhshan is still in section No. 325 in the Revolutionary Guards' prison. According to human rights activists, Jooya adds, he has has been in solitary confinement for about a year.

A group of Iranian bloggers decided to add “Free Hossein Derakhshan” to the names of their blog for one week. Fanous Azad says (fa):

I also added “free Hossein Derakhshan” to the name of my blog.

He adds:

. . . when Hossein started accusing others I stopped reading his blog, but now I defend his rights without thinking who he is. . . . Hossein like other human beings should have right for freedom of thought and speech.

Parsanevesht asks bloggers to act collectively in order to have maximum impact.

Khyaboon displays the dynamism of citizen media and the diversity of Iran's protest movement.

This journal, that is distributed directly to your email inbox in PDF format, is against the Iranian regime but also criticizes reformists from time to time.

Khyaboon answers our questions about its goal, function, Iranian citizen media, and who their target audience is.

Q: Why and when was Khyaboon first published and who was your target audience?

The first issue of Khyaboon was published on the 19th of June [one week after the presidential election] before [the Islamic Republic Leader] Khamenei’s speech where he ordered repression against the people. At first Khayboon was published daily for a month, and since then it usually gets published once every two weeks. Khyaboon has been available in hard copy and has also been sent to email inboxes. So far there have been 48 issues.

Our audience is all of the public, but we pay special attention to the part of society that is engaged in the street struggle. We publish guidelines and articles regarding protesting, including articles for internet security protection, facing tear gas, social confronting torture, and so on. Our audience are the same people who are in the streets, the citizens who fight in the street and society, they are people who have been jailed, tortured and killed

Our news and analysis topics concern ordinary people in streets: their destiny, their voice, pain and bravery. These people do not get attention in mass media except coincidentally. We are trying to take back the media from the Ayatollahs and professional politicians, making it more accessible to workers, women, students, and all oppressed people.  We are a publication from within society and for society, and not for a submissive one.

Invisible and Safe

Q: Why you do not have any website or blog?

Firstly, government filtering is the number one enemy for websites criticizing the authorities. Each attempt from our side will quickly be faced by their filtering. Instead we concentrate our efforts in an area that the government cannot attack. The second concern is security related. We are not internet security specialists and prefer to minimize security risks. A few months ago Revolutionary Guards announced that they were arresting several people with alleged connections to certain websites. The regime calls these sites ‘immoral'.

It seems that security forces have capacities for repression in the virtual world that are unknown to us. If we work in a centralized manner, even in virtual world, our communications could be come compromised and our colleagues’ lives could be endangered for what they write. Our invisibility and our non-centralized presence are helpful to our safety, although threats always still exist.

Q: Another publication Kalam Sabz is the voice of reformists whose voice are you?

In Iran there is always difference between the surface and depth of the society. You are facing in public and official places see a different kind of social life than non official places. In Iran women wear a kind of cloth in official places and wear differently in home or non official places. Reformists until a few months ago were a part of establishment and had their own parties, publishing their own journals and organized their institutions. They took part in establishment and had their own word to say but in the depth of society there are citizens who were repressed and voiceless. Kalam Sabz is the protest of society’s surface and Khyaboon want to be the voice of depth of society.

Citizen/reporter/protester

Q: How you evaluate the impact of social networking such as Twitter on the protest movement?

Social networking and citizen media are the fruit of protests against the dictatorship. Submitting before a dictator means the absence of citizens' voices and social atomization. Dictatorships struggle to isolate people from distributed social networking. In a dictatorship a citizen has no voice and no media. Only rulers have the voice and they have the exclusivity to broadcast news.

In Iran, the Islamic Republic did its best to destroy any association. The Islamic Republic’s favorite citizen is the one who lives alone, goes to work each morning and is lost in traffic jams and metro crowds, before coming back home at night. The Islamic Republic’s favorite citizen is not a member of any association, syndicate, and has neither media nor a voice.

But a citizen who fights a dictator will organize him/herself, create social networks and find a voice. At least in Iran the reporter/citizen is not a precise word, an appropriate word is reporter/citizen/protester. Before the election, citizen media mostly belonged to students, women, and labour activists, who were on the frontlines of the struggle. But today, at the heart of mass struggle all protesters have become citizen/reporters/protesters.

A citizen who comes to the streets to protest the dictatorship and films it with his mobile phone is no longer the lonely human being of yesterday. In other words, social networking does not create today’s protests, but is the fruits of our struggle. The struggle of a society against an inhumane regime. Without struggle, these modern technologies can even be of service to the regime. But when a society fights for its life, internet including Twitter, Facebook, emails and other tools are used by citizens. For example we do not need big publishing houses for Khyaboon, and we can distribute it safer by email than on paper. But without human beings to use them for the richness of their social life, these technological tools are meaningless.

There are numerous videos on YouTube showing the demonstrators in New York. Here are a few:

We got the power

Calling Ahmadinejad a liar

We are all Neda and one Voice

Free Political Prisoners

Green People is an animation inspired by Gandhi

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 election debate

Baha'i human rights

Another animation reminds us that the Islamic Regime has repressed people for years before the election. MideastYouth.com presents an animation about the persecution of followers of the Bahai faith in Iran. A 30 year story.

Meanwhile, the New York Helmsley Hotel has canceled a banquet next week after discovering that Ahmadinejad was scheduled to attend and speak.

Nikahang Kowsar, a leading cartoonist and blogger in one of his cartoons show a homeless Ahmadinejad in New York, asking the Statue of Liberty for a place to stay. In the cartoon's caption we read:

“Sister, don't you have an empty house or a mouse hole for rent for a week?”

Here is a video inviting people to protest against Ahmadinejad in the name of martyrs. The video displays a collection of posters and photos used in Iran's demonstrations.

At United4Iran,a non-partisan collaborative network working for human and civil rights in Iran, we read:

Where Is My Vote NY, along with other grassroots organizations, invite you to participate in the September 23rd & 24th demonstrations at the UN Headquarters in New York City. They are protesting Ahmadinejad’s presence due to violations to the human and civil rights of the Iranian people, as guaranteed by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Iran.

Kaaveh Aahangar explains in Iranian.com why protesting against Ahmadinejad in New York is not a waste of time:

The media notices when and where a protest is held. Bystanders and passers-by notice when a protest event happens. Politicians notice when there is a protest. And if the protest is staged well, it will invariably make somebody look at the cause with new attitude. Protest events are not persuasive in and of themselves, but they invite persuasion. They invite change. They invite a second look at the issues and the cause. Protests make the public, the politicians, and policymakers aware that people care strongly about that particular cause.

The official Islamic Republic was observing Quds Day (a day of support for Palestinians against Israel) but the opposition prefered to ask for freedom in Iran rather than for liberation of foreign lands.

Iranian protesters chanted slogans such as ‘Neither Gaza nor Lebanon!' ‘My life is ready to be sacrified for Iran!' ‘Down with the dictator!' and ‘Down with Russia'.

People attending the rallies documented the events by with photos (above) and videos.

Supporting opposition leaders

Protesters in Karimkhan in the central part of Tehran, chanted slogans in support of opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehid Karoubi.

Martyr's mother

The mother of Sohrab Arabi, a young man who was killed in a demonstration only days after the disputed election in June, took part in the Qud's Day protests (as seen on iReport video below). People chanted slogans that ‘Sohrab is Alive!' and ‘The government is dead!'.

There are more videos from the protests on iReport.

Warning the government

Protesters chanted in Vesal Street in Tehran, “This is the last warning - the ‘green movement' is ready for uprising!”:

Down with Russia in Shiraz

Protesters in Shiraz rallied on Quds Day but preferred to chant against Russia, rather than Israel. This is in reference to opposition accusations that Russia has been involved in training repression forces of the regime.

One of these victims was Neda Agha Soltan who died with her eyes wide open. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and uploaded to the internet. Her last moments transcended from citizen media to mainstream media, reaching millions of people.

Iranian citizens have continued to use the internet to immortalize other Iranian martyrs of the protest movement (a.k.a. “Green Movement”). The opposition claims the number of murdered demonstrators is more than 70 people. Some were killed under torture after arrest, while others were shot down in the streets.

In spite of government secrecy, names and pictures of some of the fallen have emerged.

One of the biographies on Neverforget.us says:

Toufanpour, Amirhossein (photo above) 1977-2009
Amirhossein, a father with a seven-year-old daughter, disappeared on June 15. After searching Tehran hospitals for a week to no avail, his distraught family identified him among photos of corpses at the coroner’s office. Marks on his corpse included a deep gash in the head, a broken arm, and gunshot wounds in the arm, but the exact cause of death was unclear.

Another website, Green Martyrs, also provide [fa] information about the ‘martyrs' (temporarily offline at time of publication).

Here is a video to remember the martys and the suffering of their mothers:

As we are watch these photos and films, there are hundreds of Iranian political prisoners such as Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a blogger and reformist politician, who face unknown futures in Iranian prisons.

Rape and torture are not a new phenomenon in Iran's prisons, but the recent events have focused more attention on the prisons of the Islamic Regime. Iranian civil society activists, including Reza Allamehzadeh, a leading film director, have been using citizen media to highlight testimonies about the Iranian tragedy.

A former political prisoner recounts the experience of being imprisoned, tortured and raped in an Iranian prison in the 1980s. She was only 17 years old at the time, and did not know why she had been arrested. More than 84,000 people have watched her testimony on YouTube.

Kahrizak

Thousands of protesters, including some who were injured, were arrested during the July demonstrations and hundreds were sent either to prison or a torture house called Kahrizak.

Here is a testimony from one of the survivors that has been published on several blogs:

They took us with tens of others to Kahrizak camp. At least in that room that I were held there were another 200 people, all were injured beaten by batons. you could hear people crying everywhere….the plaincloth guards came into room…beat whom they could. they did for half an hour…after that they put a flash light in our faces and say if you make a noise with put these batons in your asses….to prevent us dying of hunger, everyday they give us a bag of leftover food.

In this interview, a survivor explains how prisoners at Kahrizak were forced to lick water from the floor.

Ayathollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, has ordered the closure of Kahrizak. MPs have said that 12 officers and judges were prosecuted over the Kahrizak incidents.

Beaten with a cable, no questions asked

Iran's torture houses have been in existence for 30 years, however, and Kharizak is not the only one. Here is another testimony from an Iranian citizen arrested and tortured at Evin prison simply for having been near the site where a demonstration took place.

I had no sense of being part of a demonstration and was just walking normally in the street. Still, I was nabbed and put into a car and left there until about 9 pm. Everyone in the car was blindfolded the whole time, and then we were driven somewhere. Three days later, I figured out that we had been driven to Motahari Street. There we were randomly assigned to an interrogator. My interrogation went on until 1 am, but I was not asked any questions. I was beaten with a cable and with other things without being asked a single question.

We are inviting them to watch the rest of us confess too. Just sit behind your webcam and take a few minutes to confess anything you like. Alternatively, just write your confessions in text. You can either be silly and confess to the sort of things that the Iranian government is forcing people to confess to under torture (such as: You are a CIA agent and was funded by the UK to start a velvet revolution in Iran by using the BBC and CNN,  Twiiter, Facebook, and Google Translate, etc.) or you can be serious and tell them what you really think.

In True/Slant, foreign correspondent Marc Herman seems to have a favorite confession:

It’s hard to say what really sells the confession, but her odd vocal cadence, pulsating camera zooms, heavily-accented English, the fact that she’s Israeli, and no small amount of acting chops suggest a cross between political zealotry and an intense desire to be a reality TV star. She’s the Meryl Streep of forced confession videos, and as far as the performance suggests, barking mad:

In another confession, an odd faced character explains how prison is the easiest way to lose weight, thanks to the delicate ministrations and “VIP” service, all in exchange for telling the truth:

This next confession is by the self-proclaimed mastermind of all the revolution. His catty remarks make it seem there is something fishy about this confession:

And here is the confession that started it all where the Iranian comedian Ebrahim Nabavi posted a video of himself playing former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was sentenced along with 100 other defendants and was allegedly coerced into confessing. The video is in Farsi, an English translation can be found here.

You can read more about this ongoing story in these previous articles:
Leading Reformist Abtahi on Trial and Twitter and Facebook in Trial. The image of the Iranian flag used on this post was taken by Skender.

The semi-official Fars News site stated [fa]:

كشورهاي غربي علاوه بر فعاليت در حوزه شبكه هاي تلويزيوني در عرصه اينترنت نيز سرويسهايي را به اغتشاشگران ارائه دادند

The Iranian authorities said [fa] that:

سرويس دهی از سوی شرکت تویتر برای مخاطبان ايرانی (اين شرکت امريکايی به روز رسانی سرويس خود را که مستلزم قطع چند روزه بود را در مورخه بیست ژوئن با هدف حمايت و سرويس دهی به آشوبگران به تاخير انداخت)

This was in response to the U.S. State Department's announcement on June 20 2009 that it had contacted the social networking service Twitter to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that would have cut daytime service to Iranians disputing the June 12 election.

Iranian authorities also cited [fa] Facebook as a supporter of protestors as the social networking site provides a Persian version for Iranians.
Accusing Facebook and Twitter of providing services for “trouble makers” seems particularly unfair, as these social networking have been available for all Iranians and during the presidential election, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters, who used digital means to promote their ideas.

It is also the case that the Iranian opposition use the internet, including Twitter and Facebook, to communicate and convey their messages because almost all other means of communication are controled by the Iranain State, censorship hits the media hard and journalists are repressed.

What is amazing is that You Tube was not named in this trial.Maybe in the next round!

Charitable spying act

Reza Rafei Froushani confesses that he was a spy of UAE and published secrets in Facebook!

He writes:

در زمان انتخابات سرويس اطلاعاتي امارات مطالبي را خواستند و من نيز در پاسخ به تقاضاي آنها برخي اسناد محرمانه را در فيس بوك منتشر كردم

He adds:

وي افزود: به ما گفتند كه در انتخابات تقلب شده و بايد حق خود را پيگيري كنيم و من هم بدون سوء نيت و واقعا با اعتقاد در تظاهرات شركت و از تجمعات خبر و گزارش تهيه كردم و اخبار آن را نيز از طريق فيس بوك منتشر كردم

Of course the whole story is beyond many people's imagination, because it is rather odd that an intelligence service would ask somebody to publish secret documents on Facebook. Could this be considered a “charitable spying act”?

Blogger Dr. Kourdan writes, with irony, that two leaders of the velvet coup, have been identified and condemned to be executed. Their names: Twitter and Facebook.

Fortunately, Twitter and Facebook are not human beings who can be imprisoned by the Islamic Republic. In Saturday's trial, several reformists, protestors and others accused of involvement in the velvet coup appeared in court. Some bloggers published photos of these people before arrest and after being jailed for several weeks. The weakened physical state of Mohmmad Ali Abtahi, a leading blogger and reformist, attracted considerable attention at last week's round of trials. But this time there were many more “Abtahis” in the courtroom, and, unfortunately, many more to come.

In the court Abtahi, who appeared wearing prisoner's pyjamas, looked weak and seemed to have lost weight. Abtahi, who had been jailed for several weeks and had no contact with the outside world, said in the court, “I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship… and if this happened, there would be no name and trace of the revolution left.”

Abtahi has been accused of taking part in a “velvet coup” against regime.

Several bloggers reacted to Abtahi's so-called confession and his physical presence. Several have published photos of him before and after the arrest. (ABOVE: L, before arrest; R, in today's trial).

Kaveh Ahangar says [fa] that we could see evidence of torture and threats behind each word coming out of Abtahi's mouth. The blogger adds that on seeing Abtahi on TV, he became emotional and cried.

Alfba writes [fa]: “Dear Abtahi, we know you were under pressure and you family suffered a lot. You should know what you confess, we still love you. We support you.”

Forever696 tweeted with irony that if we believe in Ahmadinejad's 24 million votes, we will believe in these trials.

Saharlar writes [fa] “today it's Abtahi, whose turn will be tommorow? The blogger asks readers not to be discouraged and not to take these kinds of “shows” seriously.”

According to several news sites and blogs, the riot police attacked mourners. See a collection of photos of Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Iran's opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi, among the mourners here.

OnlyMehdi shares with us several videos on today's event. This one shows the police attacking people.

Slogans against Khamenei's son

Here is another video uploaded by Iranian citizens about Thursday's gathering in the cemetery and their anti-regime demonstration.

Protestors in Beheshti Street chanted slogans such as “Down with the dictator” and “Political prisoners should be freed”. They also chanted slogans against Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's supreme leader, who is said to be the mastermind of the alleged election fraud.

Chanting Slogans in the metro:

People chanted anti-regime slogans in a metro in Tehran on their way back from the cemetery:

On Saturday 25 July, 2009, Iranians and non-Iranians alike responded to the initiative United4Iran by taking part in an event to support the Iranian struggle for freedom and human rights.

Coverage of these events included numerous citizen videos and photos.

Hamburg/Germany:

Washington/U.S.

London/UK

A protest outside the Islamic Republic's embassy in London

Saharlar writes [fa] that the police dispersed a rally in Dubai after 30 minutes and even confiscated their green ballons. The blogger also published the photos of this event.