Iran Video Special (1): The 22 Bahman Attack on Karroubi?

This is claimed footage of an attack by security forces on an avenue en route to Sadeghieh Square, where Mehdi Karroubi was to join Thursday's rallies:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMx6cEv1aeo[/youtube]

The Latest from Iran (12 February): The Day After 22 Bahman

Comments

[DC]

Even with the blockade on information they still can't prevent this from getting out.

[Malfunky]

Can anyone translate what the folks near the camera are saying? I think I can hear "marg bar Karroubi" way in the background but I don't think I've heard the other phrase before. They sound young. Is it in support?

[22 Bahman as COIN Model? &laqu]

[...] internet, Iran, networks trackback So in addition to using their Chinese-made riot trucks and gas attacks on the protesters, the Iranian security forces were able to quell much of the 22 Bahman uprising by [...]

[Arshama]

Malfunky,

Sounds are very mixed, not to mention the confusing camera moves, but the young people who made this video are certainly Karroubi supporters. At the beginning, showing the crowd on the street, there is the usual "marg bar Amrika" by the loudspeakers. Then, when pink clouds of tear gas appear, and the crowd flees, one of the observers says something like: "It (22 Bahman) should have been a poll." When Karroubi and his guards are forced to flee, the man says "Even Yazid would not have done that." As the small Karroubi group approaches, the observers start to shout "dorud bar Karroubi" (hail to K.), echoed by the small group on the street. It is haunted by regime thugs, one of them apparently holding a club in his hand (2.40 min). Then the shouts mingle, and one hears again "marg bar K." from the haunters group (including chadori women).

Beating someone in public is regarded as "qabih" (detestable) in Iran, not to mention an elderly person, all the more a cleric. It is even more detestable in the case of women, but beating an elderly lady like Zahra Rahnavard is not unprecedented at all. Already in 2006 the famous poetess Simin Behbahani (then 70) was assaulted and beaten by police forces in the Laleh Park during a peaceful rally for 8 March: http://www.femschool.info/english/spip.php?article253