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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Ethics, etc. > Protesters and Government in Iran | Forum Quick Jump
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Violin for God
Luke, I am your father. --Nooooooooo!!!!!
Date Joined Dec 2004
Total Posts : 690
| Posted 6/24/2009 1:20 PM (GMT -6) |   | Hi everyone - I just got back on this site and am glad it's still going strong! Janelle's taking a nap now, so I've had a bit of time to get online. (She's 18 months old now, can you believe it???)
So I was wondering what you thought about what's going on in Iran and the protests. On Facebook, a friend of mine became a fan of "IRAN" which has a fair amount of posts written by protesters. They seem like they're trying to go about it peacefully and the government seems to be terrorizing them. Interesting to read. Here's one that I read (everything pretty much seems to be translated already from Farsi... which is good because otherwise only Tom would be able to read it!  )
-Heather (PS, I don't know if I mentioned this any time before, but we're now living in South Bend, Indiana... so if any of you take a trip this summer in this direction, let us know!!)
PS- Here's the link, if you can access it: http://www.facebook.com/pages/IRAN/18297877889
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From Tehran, 24 June 2009 [10 am Eastern US]
[Translated from Farsi] What kind of speech was that from Obama? Why did he talk like that?
“What should he do?” I ask.
The only thing Obama can do is refuse to recognize this man as the president of Iran. The big issue for the hard-liners here, the thing they keep telling everyone here is that they are the ones who can solve our issues with the United States. They want to be in complete power — at any cost — when negotiations take place. So Ahmadinejad likes to maintain that he is the man who can get the job done [he can deliver Washington].
Right from the beginning of this, Ahmadinejad said that he was going to the UN to speak. He said in his speech that he was going to go to the United Nations to defend the rights of the Iranian people — you know along the lines of all the inane things he says. The United States cannot aid him in this respect by recognizing this man, by putting a seal of approval on this charade by giving him a visa to come to New York.
There’s supposed to be another gathering today in Baharestaan in from of the Majlis (parliament building). I didn’t go because they murder people at these gatherings.
Obama is an intelligent politician. He keeps harping on the fact that this is a domestic issue. OK, that’s fine. I understand. I accept this from him as long as he then doesn’t turn around and recognize Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran. He’s calling himself president after an election drenched in blood. He wants to say he’s president by staging a coup d’etat. It’s like the United States recognizing the Pinochet government.
They [Iranian officials] played with people here. That’s why we’re so upset. It’s true: leading up to the election they opened things up. A positive environment was created. People were in the streets joyously chanting until 5 in the morning. All that is good and true. I even personally know people who had never voted in their lives who decided to participate for the first time. They of course voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi. Why, because there seemed to be some openness in the air for the first time in Iran. It’s true, whatever the figure is in terms of turnout — 39 million or 42 million people did turn out to vote. But what happened next? This is what got people angry. It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about the fact that Mousavi didn’t win, but that’s not the issue. That’s not why they’re protesting. They’re protesting because the government thought it could make fools of them. All this was a play, it was a movie. It wasn’t real. It was a charade. People are hopeless and depressed because they were played with, not because Mousavi lost.
Were there strikes in Tehran yesterday?
People are going to work. No one has asked the people to stay at home. No one has called for a strike. Mousavi has not asked people to do this. In fact, I was at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar yesterday. I spoke to many of the merchants. I told them I heard there was a strike today but you’ve all showed up to work. As one of them said, “Lady, I voted for Mousavi. If Mousavi asks us to go on strike, I will. But who will pay my bills?”
I also spoke to a restaurant worker yesterday. He said he also voted for Mousavi. He said if I don’t work for a week, I have nothing to live on the week after. I have no way to feed my wife and kids.
But strikes could happen. The mood is tense and the environment for strikes is actually there. There is a lot of talk about it. Everyone is discussing the possibility of strikes. But so far no one has gone on strike. The banks are open for business. All the stores in the Bazaar were open.
I’m looking over Modares Avenue. Traffic is as normal as ever.
One thing Mousavi has asked people to do however is to turn up on their rooftops at 10 pm and shout “Allah o Akbar” [God is Great]. And this does take place. It takes place in full force from about 10 to 10:30 or 10:45 every night. No matter what neighborhood you’re in Tehran, you will hear this.
People have started to scribble slogans on money that is passed around. On one bill I got yesterday someone had written “Where is my vote?”
If people are not turning up in the streets to protest, they are finding other ways to engage in civil disobedience. On Monday, for example, Mousavi had asked people to turn on their headlights in the street from 5 to 6 pm.
But this demonstration that was supposed to take place in Baherestaan was not called for by Mousavi. I don’t know if people turned out, or how many; I wasn’t there. But those things generally tend to have a life of their own. Those demonstrators are not waiting to hear from Mousavi.
Those who are middle aged are taking this a lot better than we are. They have been through something like this before (1978-79) and have a lot of patience. They are hopeful about all this. My generation is glum. They’re depressed. There is so much crying.
I wish there was a way the world could do more. Even embassies like the Italian one, which tried to open its doors and take in those who were injured, was stopped from doing so by the police here.
I can’t talk anymore. Bye, my dear. Take care of yourself.
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 6/24/2009 3:09 PM (GMT -6) | | Sorry. Can't read Farsi. Only Arabic! Ha. Different languages. ;o)
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Violin for God
Luke, I am your father. --Nooooooooo!!!!!
Date Joined Dec 2004
Total Posts : 690
| Posted 6/26/2009 12:58 PM (GMT -6) | | D'oh. My bad!
I just posted this to see what opinions anyone has on this. There's a lot more that I read about this and would like to have posted, but would have taken a while - and my time is quite limited to post it all (and I figure if anyone wants to read further, they can). It just seemed to me that this board is quite silent on these types of issues: democracy & the middle east, violently oppressive regimes, and what the Christian ought to really do in these situations.
Since my time's limited, I'll just get to the point. We can say, "Gee, brother, sorry about your situation, but I'll pray about it," and theorize about how this isn't God's way, etc. etc., while harping on how evil it was for Bush to send troops over to Iraq to spread democracy (I understand that wasn't the original reason Bush sent troops over there - it's more complex than that - but that's the central mantra of the CNN-type media). Yet those who want democracy and to bridge the gap with the west (from what I've read) are being terrorized by those in power.
I know: praying = good; war = bad. But what else is there?
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