Mousavi Barred From Neda Graveside Memorial By Iranian Police
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/mousavi-barred-from-neda-_n_247610.html
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Iranian police blocked opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from attending a graveside memorial for victims of post-election unrest after he defied a government ban on the gathering.
Mousavi, surrounded by hundreds of supporters, was trying to reach the graveside of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose shooting death at an anti-government rally on June 20 was caught on video that became one of the iconic images of the upheaval. Witnesses said hundreds of police surrounded Mousavi and forced him to leave Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on Tehran's southern outskirts.
About a thousand opposition supporters gathered at the cemetery, some of them chanting Mousavi's name and "Death to the dictator." About 500 policemen stood by but did not use force to break up the gathering, said the witnesses who asked not to be identified out of security concerns.
Press TV, Iran's English-language state television, later reported that police dispersed the demonstrators.
Earlier on Thursday, police arrested two prominent Iranian filmmakers when they tried to lay flowers at Soltan's grave. One of them was Jafar Panahi, best known for his film "The Circle" which was critical of the treatment of women under the Islamist government and was banned in Iran. A female associate and documentary maker, Mahnaz Mohammadi, was arrested with him.
The memorial service marked the end of the 40-day mourning period under Islam for 10 people killed in protests and clashes on June 20, including Soltan.
The deaths of protesters during the 1979 Islamic Revolution fueled a 40-day cycle of mourning marches, and shootings of mourners, that contributed to the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Mousavi, surrounded by hundreds of supporters, was trying to reach the graveside of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose shooting death at an anti-government rally on June 20 was caught on video that became one of the iconic images of the upheaval. Witnesses said hundreds of police surrounded Mousavi and forced him to leave Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on Tehran's southern outskirts.
About a thousand opposition supporters gathered at the cemetery, some of them chanting Mousavi's name and "Death to the dictator." About 500 policemen stood by but did not use force to break up the gathering, said the witnesses who asked not to be identified out of security concerns.
Press TV, Iran's English-language state television, later reported that police dispersed the demonstrators.
Earlier on Thursday, police arrested two prominent Iranian filmmakers when they tried to lay flowers at Soltan's grave. One of them was Jafar Panahi, best known for his film "The Circle" which was critical of the treatment of women under the Islamist government and was banned in Iran. A female associate and documentary maker, Mahnaz Mohammadi, was arrested with him.
The memorial service marked the end of the 40-day mourning period under Islam for 10 people killed in protests and clashes on June 20, including Soltan.
The deaths of protesters during the 1979 Islamic Revolution fueled a 40-day cycle of mourning marches, and shootings of mourners, that contributed to the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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wirehedd
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No surprise here. The Iranian govt doesn't want the people to even know about, nevermind publicize, that they are living in a repressive regime with serious control issues.
Anything that may be a threat to the iron fisted control they maintain is squashed as quickly as can be.
Sadly, until the people rise up and make a change it will continue.
- 2 years ago
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wirehedd
