The street demonstrations in Iran are as much about pent-up frustration as the immediate possibility of fraud. Many who expected to see a Moussavi victory were bitterly disappointed. What they learned was that the regime decides who the winners will be when it suits it to do so. What we see in the streets is about ongoing human rights abuses and lack of freedom. A lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her defence of freedom and human rights in Iran, found herself in Evin Prison along with the clients she was defending because of the threat she posed to those in power.
The illustrated novel Persepolis, which was made into a film, shows how a girl in her formative years who has rebellious tendencies has to be sent abroad because her parents fear for her safety if she stays in Tehran. An entire generation, many educated and articulate, have had to live under these conditions.
Iran has a turbulent history; in creating a revolution thirty years ago its people have been able to accomplish what has been vouchsafed to few others. Their zeal and courage brought about major changes during their own lives; now the people are imprisoned within their own system. The upside is that this cultural tendency toward passionate involvement has not died, and now poses a danger to the dictatorship.
Looking at the videos of Tehran in revolt on the internet, the whole thing seems reminiscent of the West in the sixties, with young people passionately involved and wanting change. The time and place are different, but the spirit seems the same. The videos showed masses of people coming out of the vanishing point of broad avenues, police with sticks beating demonstrators, people running. The soundtracks recorded screams and chanting.
** Latest Google news alert, which pings for my attention as I write this piece: The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has said that an inquiry will be held into the possibility of electoral fraud. This is really tremendous! And the people are marching again, defying threats.** Power to the people!
Tehran is a large, hot, modern city with lots of educated young people, many with time on their hands due to unemployment. There is a huge gap between what these people perceive and what they are fed in lies. In the words of Langston Hughes, black American poet:
What happens to a dream deferred?
does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?……
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load
Or does it explode?