Iran students' day of protest
Yesterday was National Students Day in Iran. Traditionally, the Iranian President comes to a campus and addresses its students. Yesterday Ahmadinejad made no such appearance. Instead, thousands of Iranian students took to the streets of several cities to protest the regime.
The New York Times Lede Blog has a great round up of coverage from yesterday, including several videos. This one is of students at Ami Kabir University pulling down its gates.
These protests seem to have shifted from the aims of the first round of protests in the summer. Instead of being focused on the disputed election, there were various reports of protesters calling out the regime itself. From Newsweek:
The cycle of protests leading to harsher crackdowns leading to more radical protests leading to harsher crackdowns continues. What will become of Iran's opposition? Will they all end up jailed or repressed? Or are we looking at a crack in the very foundation of Iran's theocratic regime?
UPDATE: The NY Times reports that protests have continued today:
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...[A]mateur videotape posted on the Internet showed thousands of anti-government students chanting slogans and gathering on various campuses around the country. Credible reports of protests emerged from campuses in the central Iranian cities of Esfahan, Shiraz and Kerman, in the eastern city of Mashhad and in the western cities of Tabriz, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam as well as in Rasht on the Caspian Sea.
The New York Times Lede Blog has a great round up of coverage from yesterday, including several videos. This one is of students at Ami Kabir University pulling down its gates.
These protests seem to have shifted from the aims of the first round of protests in the summer. Instead of being focused on the disputed election, there were various reports of protesters calling out the regime itself. From Newsweek:
The first wave of dissent after the elections was explicitly focused on voter fraud, both from a genuine belief that the system would investigate the results and also so that protestors couldn't be accused of trying to overthrow the system. But as the government crackdown increased, the position of the opposition began to harden. The slogans today are the clearest indication yet that at least some elements of the opposition are not only challenging the results of the presidential election, but the regime itself. One video posted on the Internet today even showed a protestor burning pictures of both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad. This may not sit well with the moderate elements of the opposition, and the student protestors may have overplayed their hand.
The cycle of protests leading to harsher crackdowns leading to more radical protests leading to harsher crackdowns continues. What will become of Iran's opposition? Will they all end up jailed or repressed? Or are we looking at a crack in the very foundation of Iran's theocratic regime?
UPDATE: The NY Times reports that protests have continued today:
The violence continued Tuesday on the campus of Tehran University, where security forces were using tear gas and arresting students, according to reports and video clips relayed through Twitter and Internet postings. There were protests at large squares near the university as well, witnesses said.
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Copenhagen backgrounder - A roundup of pre-conference reading
- Will TARP cuts mean a jobs program? - Real Recovery
- Obama loses fans in Turkey over Afghanistan
- Meet Zouhair al Jezairy, my new Iraqi journalist friend
- Bhopal: 25 years later
