Iran: Protesters break a taboo and defy Khamenei

shooresh One day after Islamic Republic Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced protests and warned reformist leaders against taking to the streets, thousands of people demonstrated in Tehran. They were joined by others in several cities across Iran in ignoring Khamenei's order and voicing their anger against the June 12 presidential election results. They clashed with Iranian police who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
At least 19 people were killed in Tehran.

Here is a film showing people trying to stop security forces in Tehran:

and a demonstration in Tehran:

Mousavi: I am ready for Martyrdom

Green Vote tweeted that Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's main opponent Mir Hussein Mousavi was among protesters in Inghlab (meaning Revolution) Square, where he announced : “I am ready for martyrdom”.

Green Vote adds that Mousavi Mir Hossein said told the people: “We have learned from our fathers that the blood of the innocent shall fall upon the guilty.”

Whoshang tweeted that Tehran is imploding; that protesters are being hurt/killed and that Mousavi says he's ready for martyrdom. He added that several embassies were opened to receive those injured.

Iranriggedelect tweeted that protests seem to have become distributed across the city after police did everything they could to prevent one large crowd from amassing in one place.

Tehran Bureau reports that the chanting/slogans were directly aimed at the supreme leader.

Shooresh provides a minute by minute report on the protest movement in Tehran and has published several photos (one is above).

At the same time, Iraneema tweeted that arrested political activists are under pressure.

A video is also available online, showing a protester allegedly being killed at the hands of security forces. Global Voices Online has the link to the footage but will not publish it because of its graphic nature.

14 comments

  • […] Global Voices Online » Iran: Protesters break a taboo and defy Khamenei One day after Islamic Republic Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced protests and warned reformist leaders against taking to the streets, thousands of people demonstrated in Tehran. They were joined by others in several cities across Iran in ignoring Khamenei’s order and voicing their anger against the June 12 presidential election results. They clashed with Iranian police who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. At least 19 people were killed in Tehran. […]

  • This is truly revolutionary. I am glad we’ve got internet nowadays.

  • […] stuff. Sites like this and of course Global Voices, which is collecting testimonials including photos and videos of demonstrations, are invaluable as […]

  • First video is removed. I hope someone is copying and caching all the videos that are coming out from this event since we may potentially lose a bit of history thanks to George Orwell’s silly prophecy (and maybe Google and Iran going along with it).

  • Why caren’t the protesters fighting back. If a motorcycle came at me, I would try to turn the cycle over. Sorry!

  • […] addendum: The taboo is broken. Protesters are openly defying Khameinei.  In fact, the slogans are aimed directly at him. Possibly related posts: (automatically […]

  • Abraham Sadegh

    The wisest thing Ayatollah Khamenei should do under the circumstances would be to call for the annulment of the June 12 election and holding run-off election between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad.

    Then- and this is a very long-shot and yet the best and the most courageous course of action – he should call for a Constitutional Convention to be held for the purpose of drawing up a new constitution for Iran based on the essence of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    This should be announced publicly and the Supreme Leader and the Majlis should state unequivocally that they would abide by the final draft regardless of the form of government that would be established. This would calm the nation and would make transition to a new system of government bloodless and peaceful.

    Under the new government, an independent prosecutor should be appointed to investigate and prosecuted anyone who might have committed crimes against humanity under the present regime and no lawless retaliation should be allowed otherwise.

    Then the greatest experts from all walks of life should be elected by the public to draft a new constitution with total transparency not only for the people of Iran but the whole of humanity. The process of writing a constitution should be an interactive one so that the people can comment and make suggestions regarding what is going on.

    The final draft of the new constitution would be voted on by the public under the auspices of Iranian and international observes.

    My recommendation would be the establishment of a Federal system government such as that of the United States and the inclusion of the Bill of Rights especially the First Amendment to the Constitution in order to ensure freedom of religion and expression.

    The clergy should then retire from public life and assume their proper and fundamental role of being guides and advisers as to right-path leading to a life worthy of humanity.

  • Muhammad

    The CIA, Mossad, and British Intelligence all know that Moussavi lost the election. It may have been by a few percentage points less, due to election system in Iran, but Moussavi still lost.

    Moussavi is as bad as Ahmadiyadah or even worst for he is a sore losers who is more concerned about himself than the people who have been killed protesting his actual lost in the election.

    As Mr Khameinei stated, it would be impossible to have 11 million errors in counted voters. This is not like the chad problem between Al Gore and George Bush in the USA.

  • […] modstanden mod styret – i det mindste mod styret i sin nuværende form. Se bl.a. indlæggene “Iran: Protesters break a taboo and defy Khamenei” (20. juni), “Iran: Protests and Repression” (15. juni) og “Iran: More citizen […]

  • […] still remember the massive protest movement that erupted after the election in 2009. The activist website United4Iran and the serial web comic Zahra’s […]

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.