The Garab Chronicles

Anti-Hope

Unconfirmed reports out of Iran earlier this week sadly appear to have been true. Khamenei's judiciary has sentenced at least three people rounded up in post-election unrest to death.

While this was neither unexpected nor without precedent by Iran's ruling clerics, it does stand out as an interesting existential problem for a regime struggling to maintain its grip on power while simultaneously attempting to strike a balance between fending off international pressure over its questionable nuclear program, and soothing domestic resentment within large swaths of the local population.

Iran's youngest, and potentially its most productive citizens, have been the targets of violence perpetuated by a fanatical, and largely volunteer police force in the form of the Basiji militias, who report directly to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard. Allegations of torture, rape, and murder swirled long before the most recent show trial of more than 100 dissidents who currently face the hangman's (or as they do it in Iran, the crane operator's) noose. At the same time, the country's presumed President has traveled the globe, denying the acts of well documented past genocide, while dismissing criticism of his government's most recent human rights abuses as Western propaganda in the same breath. This, of course, impresses no one, least of all Iran's staunchest allies, who are put in the uncomfortable position of trying to justify their dealings with an openly violent and hypocritical regime.

This becomes even more dangerous for the Khamenei government when Iran's representatives attempt to convince the outside world that its secretive nuclear program is aimed not, as the most vocal advocates of direct military intervention have asserted, a nihilistic threat against a nuclear armed neighbor with second strike capability, but is designed - in secret mountain bunkers housed on military bases - for benign civilian consumption. Iran's clerics have thrived in the past by stoking fear among the masses, shaping it into a sort of feverish, demented nationalism caged in notions of holy war against outsider infidels. The problem those same clerics now face is that the masses have begun to realize that the infidels have been among them, disguised in turbans and wizened beards, hiding behind copies of holy books long-sullied by the actions of their owners.

Whether or not Khamenei and his cronies actually follow through with the execution of protesters remains to be seen (at least on paper, the condemned have the right to appeal to Iran's Supreme Court). But if the perception of election fraud resulted in the kind of civil disobedience that hearkened back to the beginning of Iran's Revolution and the removal of the Shah, one can only imagine what Iran's rulers are set to unleash.   

More on this here, and here, and more about the trial of dissidents here.

Now This Is How You Clear a Room

Dinnerjacket spoke at the United Nations this evening, at which point everybody left:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

My guess is they all went home to watch Glee (also known as the best thing on television right now):

Hope XVIII - The Snub

Via Andrew Sullivan* and NIAC**:

Eid El Fitr, like every Muslim holy day that at least I'm aware of, is a period of celebration, reconciliation, and brotherhood. This three day period is of particular importance to observant Muslims as it commemorates the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting and atonement that offers an opportunity to begin the year anew and discard past grievances.

If you get to the mosque only one day out of an entire year, it's to commemorate Eid El Fitr, marked with a communal prayer that takes the ideas of equality and harmony taught in the Quran, and puts them into symbolic practice. Men (and women, praying in separate quarters for traditional reasons I've never understood) stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer before God, regardless of social standing, ethnicity, or economic means.

This idea, that even a king shall stand next to a pauper, is sacred. It is at the heart of many Islamic teachings.

Thankfully, sanity prevails over tradition every once in a while, and the courtesy afforded to a beggar off the street is not extended to a murderous dictator who's overseen the murder, detention, and rape of his own citizens - all while publicly denying the most atrocious, well documented act of genocide of the 20th century.

The video below shows Dinnerjacket in line for this year's Eid El Fitr prayers. And then it shows several senior clerics doing everything they can to avoid standing next to him, despite the best efforts of the ushers who attempt, in vain, to have them do otherwise.

 

#neda #iranelection

*The Daily Dish, by Andrew Sullivan: One of the best blogs covering events in Iran, as well as the fight for marriage equality, sanity in the health care reform debate, and the cynical political debauchery of the Palin

**niacINsight:Regular updates from Iran, on one of the most consistent blogs about the subject since before the unrest that followed the 2009 June election.

Hope XVII

Dinnerjacket, in New York for another field trip to the U.N., made an ass of himself again recently by, among other things, denying the Holocaust...for the umpteenth time.

And today, said ass was handed the kind of karmic gift that even the most mystically inclined of mullahs could only dream of. The 18th of September is Quds day in Iran, or the day when ordinary Iranians are supposed to take to the streets for much gnashing of teeth over Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.

So sure are Ahmadinejad and his cronies of the deep rooted hatred that their countrymen have for their neighbors (and to be sure, there's no shortage of nut jobs in the bunch), that even in light of recent political unrest (aka stuffed ballot boxes and the holy wrath of the pissed off populace that followed), banning Quds Day events, be they officially sanctioned or the result of spontaneous nationalism, remained unthinkable.

And so, the people of Iran took to the streets, by the tens of thousands, and they once again directed their righteous anger at the giant ass who stole their votes, terrorized their children, and pretended to speak for them when he addressed the rest of humanity.

Hope XVI

Mohammad Asghari

Mehdi Karami

Mostafa Ghanian was 26

Neda Aghasoltan was 26

Hosein Tahmasebi was 25

Ashkan Sohrabi was 18

And hundreds more have been detained, beaten, or killed.

#neda #iran

Hope XV

Poor Khamenei.

First he goes out on a limb and throws his weight behind a total scumbag (who apparently smells), thus shattering his stately non-partisan image, then accusations start swirling that he helped orchestrate a military coup to aid his billionaire son's bid for political power against the clerical establishment where he draws his base of support.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians who once deferred to him for spiritual guidance now take to the streets and rooftops nightly, chanting for his ouster. And all this after the guy that holds the reigns to all true political and military power in Iran showed his hand and ordered the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations that were initially launched against his surrogate - a move that seems to have backfired and exposed a massive rift below the country's homogenized hard-line facade.

Now, the clerics don't like him, the reformers are increasingly calling him out for hypocrisy, there are more and more unconfirmed reports leaking of cracks within the military he counts on to secure his hold on power, and most important of all - ordinary Iranians just don't like him.

And despite his best efforts to muzzle them with batons, tear gas, torture, and murder, they just keep turning out to defy him, like they did today.

#neda #iran

Hope XIV

#neda #iranelection

Hope XIII

 

#neda #iranelection

Hope XII

#neda #iranelection

Hope XI

In 2007, Parvin Ardalan was sentenced to 3 years in prison for threatening national security, when she attempted to gather 1 million signatures in a petition for women's rights in Iran.

The state's official line is that it holds no political prisoners.

Women have been at the forefront of the current struggle against the Ahmadinejad regime, leading protests, and defying the armed Basiji militiamen who continue to wage a campaign of fear and brutality against anyone who defies the current government.

For more on Iran's human rights activists, and the current post-election fallout there, check out The Daily Beast.

#neda #iranelection