Iran Document: A New Green Manifesto?

And now a mystery: yesterday a collection of activists, reportedly inside Iran, put out a document which claims to be a new path for the opposition. The "manifesto" emerged outside the country through two outlets: Martin Fletcher in The Times of London and insideIRAN, a project of The Century Foundation in the US.

The document is forthright in its language and general in its ambition: "the complete subordination of all government and state posts to direct popular sovereignty", while putting forth the Green Movement as an umbrella for different groups who were pursuing rights long before the 2009 Presidential election.

But there is an important starting question, especially amidst the current debate amongst reformists and activists over the way forward inside and outside the Iranian system: who are these "intellectuals who are leaders in the Green Movement in Tehran"?

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Iran Document: A Discussion with Mostafa Tajzadeh on the Green Movement and Free Elections

Earlier this week the opposition site Kalameh published an interview with former Deputy Minister of Interior Mostafa Tajzadeh while he was on furlough from a nine-year prison sentence. 

The headline from the discussion about the current political situation was Tajzadeh's position on the reformist debate over participation in the Parliamentary elections next March. He stood firm on no involvement without the release of political prisoners and a confirmed free and fair proces, "There is no middle ground. The reformists will take part only in democratic elections." He added that the situation had changed with the disputed Presidential ballot in 2009 and the post-election challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadminejad's legitimacy: "The narrative of the Green Movement has changed the entire affair....Either the elections will be free, with all the parties and free press, or we should not participate and leave them [supporters of conservatives and principlists] to play out the conflicts among themselves."

However, that important statement was made in equally important contexts about the aims of the Green Movement, the challenges facing the regime, and the prospects for "freedom" in Iran.

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Iran-Syria Poster: Two Movements, One Message "No to Violence, Yes to Freedom"

Iran Essay Contest (1st Place): The Green Movement --- Why It Has Lost...And How It Can Win

On a breezy morning, we three headed down to a main square at Tehran to join the anti-regime protests on the occasion of the regime’s victory anniversary on February 11, 2010. Seems paradoxical?

There were millions of people gathering there: a bizarre, heterogeneous mixture of two large groups of people, supporters and protestors, walking next to each other, each one having a nervous look at the face of the other. A spark was needed to ignite the whole crowd. Some comrades, whom we saw by accident, had the same feeling: being lost and lonely. Like former protests, we hoped that somewhere, someplace, some people may have sorted out some sort of protests. We wandered for hours to find them. But nothing did really happen that day.

That day, the confused, wandering population of protesters was abused by the government as "their supporters". Was this the glorious achievement vowed by Iranian opposition activists, some even claiming the toppling of the ruling regime?

It was then that a series of vital questions needed to be answered.

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Iran Interview: Repression, Protest, and the Women's Movement (Abbasgholizadeh)

Since Iran's 2009 presidential election, the women's movement has focused on the status of female political prisoners and the daily government crackdowns. Women's rights activists have broadened their human rights efforts. They are pursuing their cases not just in Iranian courts, but also in the international arena in their attempt to confront state violence with non-violence.

These activists simultaneously continue to battle gender inequalities, which are getting worse. Inequalities still exist in family laws favoring men, gender segregation in universities, and the exclusion of women from educational opportunities.

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Iran Document: Opposition Advisor Arjomand "The Goals, Networks, and Methods of the Green Movement"

No regime is sustainable without the support of a significant portion of the population. We must create awareness amongst a large segment of our society. We must establish social networks designed to foster the exchange of ideas and open discussions. This phenomenon has occurred in many other countries as well. Firstly, we must mobilize public opinion. Secondly, we must specify the people's demands and lastly force the opposing group [ruling government] to suffer setbacks.

Our strategy should be to weaken their position and reduce their resources particularly their armed forces. We are witnessing the delegitimization of this government. We must look into new methods of resistance such as sit-ins and strikes. The inefficiencies of the ruling government are gradually emerging and today we are witnessing the confessions by some within the government regarding these inefficiencies.

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Iran Feature: The State of the Nation, Two Years Later (Peterson)

Azadi Square, Tehran, 15 June 2009Today the testy president and his aides have challenged the power of Ayatollah Khamenei. Conservative rivals now dismiss them as a “deviant current” obsessed with the imminent return of the Shiite messiah.

Close aides have been arrested for sorcery and witchcraft, and there is talk that Mr. Ahmadinejad will not survive the rest of his four-year term. The Leader’s deputy representative to the Revolutionary Guard even declared this week that “the current of deviation… is the gravest danger in the history of Shiite Islam.”

So while the regime was successful in brutally putting down the largest popular protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, it appears anything but triumphant today.

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Iran Interview: The Green Movement and the Battle in the Media (Jami)

I think in terms of media, as far as it concerns individual behaviour and even network behaviour, the Green Movement have really excelled themselves and they have truly proved that if there is a people in the Middle East who is prepared for citizen journalism, it is for sure Iranians. The Greens pushed the Persian media to a new age in which media shifts from informing to networking, deliberation and dialogue.

However, as far as it concerns big media, except at times when they conquered the BBC, they almost had no success at all! This is an important point to ponder. Structurally, the Greens claimed a space that other rivals neither paid attention to nor were interested in. Or they were missing the expertise or media resilience for it. However, with mainstream media, the predominant structures did not allow the birth of an independent Green media. This remains to be a huge obstacle.

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Iran First-Hand: Voices in Tehran on Protests and the Opposition

Protest on 14 February, TehranThe Los Angeles Times posts a small but interesting cross-section of opinions from Tehran on the political situation, protests, and the opposition movement.

There is a range of views on whether the opposition protests are building and whether the challenge has gone beyond figures such as Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, with comments such as "we are subversive" and "we need militant groups". But while there is division on those important questions, seven of the nine respondents are united by the perception of discontent --- and thus the likely continuation of some form of resistance --- within Iran.

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Iran Special: Why the "Green Zone" in Tehran is Important Again

At the end of the day it will be the Iranians on the street who will force the hands of the politicians. It will be a rising opposition movement on the ground that will become the catalyst for change in the political system.

So far, observations about political infighting have been inconclusive, though perhaps this will change soon. Right now, the energy is pouring out of the emails, the Tweets, the blog posts. The opposition is fired up; the Green Zone is refusing to go gently into that good night. 

Like a lime being squeezed, the Green Movement is slipping its bonds. The iron fist of the regime tries to tighten its grip, but the Green Zone expands and slips through its fingers. 

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