June 19, 2003

Iran Update: 2003-06-19

by Joe Katzman at June 19, 2003 5:43 AM

JUNE 19/03: As July 9 approaches, the winter of Iranian discontent is turning into a long, hot summer of protest. This special Regional Briefing will focus on events in that country, as a follow-on to our previous Iran briefing a week ago.

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Huh? Pejman explains. Banner courtesy of Phelps.
Other Topics Today Include: How the fuse was lit; reports from inside Iran via Daneshjoo, Kaveh, Iraniangirl, and Steppenwolf; "satellite revolutionaries"; the EU's role, Pedram on his personal experiences with the MKO; Hoder on Iranian blogging; and Ayatollah Khameni condemned as a blashphemer and polytheist. Plus lots more analysis...

Daneshjoo, the Student Movement Coordination Committee, reproduces this Asia Times article summarizing what has been going on ther last few days, how it started, and who some players like the basij are.

New site connected to the democratric opposition: Iran Va Jahan.

GlennReynolds.com sums up the situation in Iran. On Instapundit.com, he offers a great summary of recent blogposts, and agrees that this shouldn't be seen as a right-wing issue - while explaining why it has been so perceived. That could still change. Let's hope so.

Kaveh offers a good roundup of his own [June 17, permalink], blogging from Iran. Not to mention some disturbing thoughts [June 14, permalink] that crossed his mind while watching Dr. Strangelove.

So is Winds of Change.NET team member Iraniangirl, whose permalinks are finally working again. Lots of good stuff, from "The Summer of Victory" to "Amir Kabir University" to a sharp and funny blast at "Satellite Revolutionaries" in the Iranian community abroad.

Jeff Jarvis calls our attention to a beautiful post from Blue Bird Escape, the diary of a teen girl who just returned to her homeland, Iran. Among other items.

The best summary, however, is "Doubt", from Diary of a Steppenwolf, also blogging from Iran.

More than 250 university lecturers and writers in Iran signed a statement calling on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to abandon the idea that he is God's representative on Earth: "Considering individuals to be in the position of a divinity and absolute power ... is open polytheism [in contradiction to] almighty God and blatant oppression of the dignity of human being," the statement said.

This letter from Tehran tells of the arrest of a man who lived quietly by renting out copies of the world's great cinema classics. His sad tale is part of a wider purge of film journalists over recent months. (Hat Tip: Oubai S.)

Eyeranian.net's Pedram describes his personal experience with the MKO, the group whose members were arrested recently in France (see Dan's Winds of War today).

He also summarizes the "passive support" option for Iran, and offers a link to some video of recent events.

Iran has confirmed that it will not sign up to tougher, short-notice inspections of suspected nuclear sites (Hat Tip: WATCH/). Meanwhile, U.S. President Bush continues to ratchet up the pressure.

Meanwhile, what's the EU up to? More, if Britain's Jack Straw has his way. My bet? Straw will face EU resistance, and lose.

As Arthur Silber notes: "You never know who will be present at the revolution -- and one of those people might just be a former prostitute." Follow the link to see what he means by that. (Hat Tip: Instapundit)

We conclude with a thought from Iran's blogfather, Hossein Derakhshan: "Whatever 9/11 was to weblogs in U.S, student protests are to Persian weblogs, or even more; because free press is only a dream in Iran right now."

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