It has been over 40 days since the infamous June 12 election. Yesterday was the 40th postmortem day of mourning for Neda Soltan. I think seeing her die (on youtube) was the one of the saddest events that I have ever witnessed, and I have witnessed a lot as a family doctor. Fittingly her death has taken the face of the green movement. As one slogan said, she didn't die that day, the government did. Looking at all the events happening in Iran its seems hard to make sense of the events. After all, they, the establishment themselves chose Mousavi to run for Presidency, why not just revert back and have a re-election? its too late now, but they had the chance earlier. There must be much more in stake than just the presidency.
Is this a revolution in process? Everyone that you speak with mom, dad, uncle and friends and even think tanks in the media say they really don't want that. They don't want another government formed in the haste of a revolution. They want to direct this government to meet the people's needs. An evolution of sorts, or as Mousavi and Khatami put it, reforming the government. Is that possible? It takes very strong wills to direct this movement to where it needs to go but, no one seems to be taking the bull by its horns to get what needs to be done. Yes, Mousavi seems to be chosen by the people for this cause.....or, the people needed an excuse to come to the streets to voice their discontent and he was the vehicle they were looking for. He himself says "the Green movement chose me" and not the other way around. But, nevertheless, the fact remains that he did start the green movement as his election campaign was taking momentum.
This process has moved from "where is my vote" to "khamenei you are a murderer" as people were freely chanting in Tehran yesterday. Khamenei single handedly removed himself as the supreme leader by taking sides in the election. He started his own count down, which he might think he can void by dumping Ahmadinejad soon but I think its a done deal. His son, mojtaba, is scrambling to save the day (he has been credited with unleashing the vicious basiji militia which have killed so many students so far) so that he could replace his father, but its too late.
Every day that passes it become more a more about basic rights. The people are not dumb. They realize that its their right to have freedom, its their right to choose who governs them, its their right to live life they way they want to without someone else imposing their ways onto them. And, without fear.
I am not sure if this can be an evolution anymore. Peoples chants have replaced everything Islami to everything Irani. It's become all about "We Are Iranians". After all Ferdowsi, the ancient Iranian Poet at the time of the Muslim invasion of the Persian Empire, didn't spend his whole life reconstructing Iranian literature from the vicious remains of the invasion of Arabs for these people to undo it in 30 years.
I agree with Mousavi though. To move forward, this government needs to be forced to obey its own laws. Its own laws will tangle it all up. Nowhere in the constitution does it say that you can torture people without cause, that you can rule with an iron fist, that you cannot protest peacefully. What is amazing is that its not only the law that doesn't allow for what they do, their own interpretation of Koran and stories of Ali also condemn these actions. Mousavi, Karoubi and Rafsanjani have been very vocal about this issue on the national scene and it seems to be starting to payoff as most of the 9 grand ayatollahs in Iran (which are of higher degree than Khamenei) have started to separate themselves from this government and condemning their actions. Is this a true behavior or just survival mode, I am not too sure. I think this might be one of the only ways to cut short the hand of the Basijis (plain clothed militia), convince them that they are behaving against the teachings of Islam.
I applaud Mousavi for saying out loud what are on people's minds, bluntly even answering back to Khamenai. Khamenai said that all this commotion has been caused by foreign forces operating in Iran. And Mousavi answered: Please don't insult the Iranian people. They know injustice when they see it. If these killing are done by forigners dressed in civilian clothing, as Ahmadinejad put it, then go ahead and protect these people Mr President, isn't that part of your job?
I am Iranian, and have never ever been more prouder for my people than this past month. I thought that Iran was a lost cause but they shook me up, and woke me up. There was a time when there were afew people that you knew were actively working, publishing against the government, and everyone knows them well. What is different is that now, me, you, friends and family and everyone I meet.....they all want to know what they could do to help bring freedom from these oppressors back to Iran. As they Chant in Iran: Don't be Scared, Don't be Scared, we are all in this together. Natarseen Natarseen Ma hameh ba ham hasteem.
Mohammad Jahani
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