Iran's Qods Day: A Participant On the Isfahan Marches

The Latest from Iran (20 September): Is Ramadan Over?
Iran: Another Qods Day Participant Writes
Iran’s Qods Day: The Participants Speak
Latest Iran Video: More from Qods Day (18-19 September)
Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)

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A long-time Enduring America reader writes:

I give you what I know. I today attended the protest in Esfahan. This was done on purpose cause I wanted to personally make sure there is protest in more than one city. Also because we used the cover of the 3-day vacation to demonstrate. So it worked.

There was a lot of people. My estimate is close to 3 to 4 thousand people, but only where I was, near Shams Abad. There was a lot of people near Tohid/Nazar square, also there was people near Char Bag and also Khajoo Bridge. It was strange compared to Tehran protests, but it was there and it was way bigger than I expected.

Esfahanis have funny slogans, and they were very very nice to me and my family, cause we looked like we were from out of town. asiji were early in the day hassling the young people, especially boys about their dress and hair. Anything to get under peoples skin early.

For what it is worth, I thought we would have 1 hour of protests before we were either arrested or gassed. It was going on for a good four hours and I say there was at least 10 to 15 thousand protesters all over the streets.

The Latest from Iran: Challenge Renewed (19 September)

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NEW Iran: Another Qods Day Participant Writes
Latest Iran Video: More from Qods Day (18-19 September)
NEW Iran: The Five Lessons of Qods Day
Qods Day Video Special: The Black-and-White Soccer Game
Iran’s Qods Day: The Participants Speak
Qods Day: The Discussion Continues
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The Latest from Iran (18 September): Qods Day
NEW Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)

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2200 GMT: We took a break tonight to recuperate from the drama of Friday. To be honest, almost all the chatter is a recycling of the events and images of Qods Day.

There are intriguing developments surrounding the clerical opposition to the Government. Mowj-e-Sabz reports that Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was forced to cancel an important annual prayer.

The Green Movement is highlighting the possibility that marjas, the highest-ranking senior clerics, will not declare that Ramadan has ended Sunday and can be celebrated with the feast of Eid al-Fitr. In particular, it is noted that the websites of Ayatollah Montazeri and of Ayatollah Sane'i have not yet declared that the Holy Month is over.

Ayatollahs Mousavi-Ardebili, Safi-Golpaygani, and Bayat-Zanjani are also declaring that they have not seen the crescent of the moon. And now Hojatoleslam Taghdiri, the head of the crescent observation committee of  Tehran Province, has said that there is no way that the crescent can be observed tonight, permitting Eid al-Fitr to proceed tomorrow.

The statements are significant because they defy the declaration of the Supreme Leader that Sunday is the end of Ramadan holiday.

1540 GMT: In his first statement after Qods Day, Mehdi Karroubi has told medical faculty of the great opportunity "to expose in court atrocities which would have made the Shah look good".

1250 GMT: The Quds Day Football Mystery (continued). Two readers continue the tireless effort to sort out what happened with last night's Iranian state TV broadcast of the Esteghlal-Estell Azin match (video in separate entry and see 0740 GMT). Both note that the game was re-broadcast, after the "problems" with live transmission. One notes, "It was in colour and not in black and white as reported. There were many Esteghlal fans in the stadium but almost all of them came in blue. You could see glimpses of green colour among them, but, as I said, about 95% of the came in blue. I also couldn't hear any opposition slogans during the game, to be honest."

The other reader has the possible answer: "They started over from the beginning of the match, in color, with the sound edited from another match (so Green chants could not be heard). Also they cut away several times to another camera on the sideline for showing reaction shots of the bench/coaches, even though they said there was only one camera in Azadi Stadium."

1240 GMT: Maryam at Keeping the Change has taken on the task of sifting through the information to establish "whether Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mohammad Khatami...took part in the Qods Day demonstrations". Her thoughtful but provocative assessment:

Mousavi and Rafsanjani could have been forced to appear in the protests against their wills or may have been given the choice to either stay away from the demonstrations or attend the government-sponsored rallies. The men may have calculated that failing to appear at the marches would be more damaging than participating in the pro-government demonstrations....The utilitarian calculations of the two men and the propaganda potential of these images aside, the presence of Mousavi, in particular, at the pro-government rally may prove to have undermined his "Opposition"-credentials, giving the impression (whether true or misleading) that he has become less assertive, more prone to succumb to government pressure, and/or is in a weakened position vis vis the government. As for Rafsanjani, a similar analysis may be appropriate, though his historical tendency to walk a fine line between competing interest groups militates against rushing to judgment on his motivations.

1130 GMT: Definitely a lull after the storm of events. We've now completed and posted the analyses of Mr Smith, "What Next for the Green Movement (The Sequel)?", and of Scott Lucas, "Iran: The Five Lessons of Qods Day". We've also got a new account from a participant in the demonstration and a new video thread as well as yesterday's video collection.

0830 GMT: Contrary to our fears at the end of yesterday, it appears that the regime's restrictions on the Internet were more to stifle the Qods Day protests than as a forerunner of an even more intense crackdown of arrests. Some Internet services have been restored in Iran.

0820 GMT: Three of the grandchildren of Ayatollah Montazeri, arrested yesterday, have been released. Three of his grandchildren remain in detention.

0740 GMT: The Qods Day Football Match. Our quirkiest story of the day, complete with video, gets even better. The latest account is that state television's coverage was delayed and limited to one black-and-white camera not because of the fears of Green symbols and chants but because the regime's efforts to limit communications hindered IRIB's technical systems. (I think the Blue team won 2-0 but I can't tell which one was Blue.)

0600 GMT: To be honest, this is a holding entry. For the first time in 24 hours, it is possible to draw breath and take a reflective step back, as the news from Iran is slow this morning, in part because of the Government's attempts to close down information on the scale of its setback yesterday, more because everyone is trying to take in exactly what happened on Qods Day.

The regime will try to regain its balance today. Press TV has a lovely example. Its story just before I went to bed was "Iran's Opposition Marches on Qods Day", a recognition that "supporters of Iran's opposition movement...joined the major annual commemorative rally showing their loyalty to their leaders". This morning the website is back on the proper line: "Iranians March in Solidary with Palestinians".

But, barring a swift crackdown by the Government, with a wave of high-profile arrests, the question of initiative will be with the opposition. What can the leaders and the Green Wave do with the opportunity offered by the tens of thousands who, after all that has been thrown at protest to make it go away, "won" with their defiance --- in anger, sadness, hope, and more than a bit of humour --- yesterday?

That's what EA staff will work on now. The first part of our opening analysis is now posted.

Iran After Qods Day: What Next for the Green Movement (The Sequel)?

Iran: The Lessons of Qods Day (Parts 1 and 2)
The Latest from Iran: Challenge Renewed (19 September)

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Yesterday Mr Smith set out the questions for the Green Movement on Qods Day. Just over 24 hours later, this is his re-assessment of the prospects for the opposition, which intersects with Scott Lucas' appraisal of the long-term political challenges:

The Green Wave succeeded in its main objective yesterday. Ever since the start of Ramadan, the reformist opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, led by Mehdi Karroubi, was striving to make Qods Day the focal point for anti-government demonstrations. The target was to "stand up and be counted", and to prove that the Green Wave rank and file have not been cowed into silence by the litany of violence unleashed against it by pro-government security forces.

The Quds Day events have set a precedent for the Green Wave. From now on, every public holiday, or event that includes a large public gathering, can now be exploited by the opposition as an opportunity. The demonstrators can fan out in the streets and highlight the government's main weakness, its behaviour like an administration that claims to have received 24 million votes in the "most free and fair elections ever". If nothing else, the reformists have and will succeed in causing serious embarrassment for the authorities, as the decision to air a football game in black-and-white and with muffled sound, hiding any reformist supporters in the stands - highlights.

The reformist leadership however, has failed to produce a structured, middle- to long-term strategy. Of its three main leaders, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi, it is Karroubi who has been most active and vocal lately, producing several hard-hitting communiques detailing allegations of rape and rebuking indirect notices by the Supreme Leader to back down over his claims. Possibly out of concern for the well-being of their close associates that have yet to be jailed, Mousavi and Khatami have retreated from adopting the same tactic. Mousavi continues to profess allegiance to the institutional configuration of the regime and the Constitution, and somewhat romantically links the current crisis to a distorted view, by the current incumbents, of the prerogatives assigned to institutions such as the Guardian Council, the Presidency
and , indirectly, the Supreme Leadership, without questioning, at least so far, the validity of the institutional configuration described within the current constitution. This could well prove to be a conceptual Achilles Heel for Mousavi.

The situation on the ground in Iran hence appears to be that of a nervous stalemate. The government is entrenched and appears unwilling to concede any sort of concession to the opposition. The latter is defiant, has the remarkable capacity to send thousands of its supporters out in the streets and coordinate them effectively via the Internet (web-designed slogans were sung with amazing coordination across the cities of Iran yesterday). However, the Green Wave is not yet willing to embark on a new level of challenge, one that would presumably see Karroubi, Mousavi, and Khatami upping the ante by, amongst other things, sending open letters straight to the Supreme Leader.

Also unresolved is the fate of the dozens of journalists, top reformist officials, and civil society activists who have been regularly arrested in the past three months. The regime is therefore likely to keep up the pressure and continue to retaliate against the opposition leaders by harassing their immediate associates. Meanwhile, Mousavi, Khatami and Karroubi will have to go back to the drawing board to ponder othe next stage of their strategies. The imminent end of Ramadan might be auspicious in this regard: Mousavi has promised that the official launch of his new political initiative, the "Green Wave of Hope", will immediately follow Sunday's Eid al-Fitr.

Iran: Another Qods Day Participant Writes

The Latest from Iran: Challenge Renewed (19 September)
NEW Iran: The Lessons of Qods Day (Parts 1 and 2)
Iran’s Qods Day: The Participants Speak

The Latest from Iran (18 September): Qods Day
NEW Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)

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Sent by a Tehran resident to an EA source:

Yesterday I had difficulty with my Internet and could not get into my account, but I was a witness of the demonstration, which was beyond my expectations.

This was a long weekend, with Saturday announced as a holiday as well as Sunday, and as it is the last week of summer holidays, usually people get leave of absence to travel before school opens. The city was quite empty; 80 percent of my friends had left the town earlier.

Anyway I headed to the streets, and from the middle of Modarres highway suddenly traffic started.  Thousands of cars had been parked in the highway. Then I drove towards Haft-e-tir [7 Tir Square], around noon the crow was getting bigger and bigger, I thought there were millions....It was amazing.

I saw photojournalist colleagues who were not photographing. Journalists had been told not to be at the scene to cover events or they lose their press cards. My photo-journalist friends were just watching and said they had no intention of taking photos for fears of losing their press cards. No wonder there was a poor coverage, especially from agencies who rush to write something before anything happens. The anti-riot police attacked the demonstrators at some point, but there was a funny scene where people were bravely chasing them and they ran away. I could film these moments.

I also saw many buses coming from out of town taking people to Friday prayers. These were governmental buses to organize their event. I am not sure if the opposition demonstration was smaller. I thought it was bigger! The cars were also participating by honking and there was a traffic standstill and people inside cars chanting slogans, "Bullet, tank, rape has no effect" or "Not for Gaza, Not for Lebanon, my life is sacrificed for Iran", "death to you", "death to dictator" etc.

There were demonstrations in other parts of town, northern Tehran's Vanak square, Youssef Abad area, Hafte-tir towards Vali-e Asr and Enghelab Square. Azadi Square and the area between Azadi and Enghelab were locked by security forces.

At some point after riot police increased their forces, we were chased by anti-riot police. I ran inside a building and 20 others joined too. Some of them were beaten, the owner of one of the apartments in the building locked the door but the riot police came, tried to smash the door open, and broke window glasses. We ran upstairs inside the apartment which was a art studio of the owner (an artist and sculptor, it was a beautiful place made of woods and full of abstract arts, which was relaxing a bit :) ) . He locked the door and put tables and chairs behind it and we could watch the security forces, intelligence officers from a closed-circuit camera. They were ringing and we were not answering. It was terrifying and we stayed there for couple of hours; we made friends and exchanged phone numbers. All of these people incidentally were involved in arts, students majoring in theater, music, literature, graphics, industrial design, etc. We started playing a game to keep it cool.

At some point one of the security offiicers in front of building stuck a chewing gum to our camera so we could not check in what was going on and when we can leave. We were scared turned off our cell phones. In the end when the streets were empty we asked friends to check around the area and let us know when we can leave. Anyways I avoid more detail on how we left for safety reasons.

We all got home safely and made new friends!

I was impressed by people's participation and bravery, it was far beyond my expectations.

Latest Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)

The Latest from Iran (18 September): Qods Day

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The Demonstrators Take Over With Chants

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASooW80QWAk[/youtube]

Mehdi Karroubi at Tehran Rally

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqACoKB9IAQ[/youtube]

Demonstrators Face Off With Police

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

"Where's Akbar Hashemi [Rafsanjani]?"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXExA8lT8j8&feature=player_embedded#t=49[/youtube]

"Ahmadinejad, Ahmadinejad final warning, Green Iran ready 4 revolt"/"Leader,Leader, your fall is near"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH_tp0_-f6g&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Crowd: "Death to Russia"; Basiji: "Death to Israel"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81eaEL1cPfI[/youtube]

Crowds Chanting for Ayatollahs Montazeri and Sane'i

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl0oYqewHrk[/youtube]

Tehran "Liar, Liar, Where's Your 63%"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fp1DcJk40k[/youtube]

Tehran

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXExA8lT8j8[/youtube]

Tehran: Shouting "Iran!" at Security Helicopter

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-IXUF5hC6I[/youtube]

Tehran, Karim Khan Street

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_meg5DkifnE[/youtube]

Tehran
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81eaEL1cPfI&feature=player_embedded#t=16[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNiHp4LeyFg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v37X2TOUpYs[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJ9CXcAFLo[/youtube]

Tehran "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" and "Karroubi, Karroubi, We Support You!"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmIC6FWhadQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVQZzNo4GEA[/youtube]

Isfahan

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eFi_sCKfLk[/youtube]

Shiraz, "NO Gaza, No Lebanon, only willing to sacrifice for Iran"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTbN5cAAX4[/youtube]

This is the first video claiming to be of Qods Day protests. It is labelled "17 September", probably because it was posted from US. We are treating as "possible" pending confirmation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozU5KTSyh7c[/youtube]