Source:

February 11th & 12, 2010

The fragments below are translations of eyewitness accounts mostly posted to Google Reader by those who participated in today’s protests:

1. at 10:30. There, small groups of 50 people or so were following one of these trucks that carried loud-speakers. Proponents of the green movement were in that rally as well, but they seemed to be feeling that they couldn’t form their own group.

Security forces viewed everyone with suspicion and tried to stop people from gathering around one another. I had a green wristband. One of the [members of security] saw it, walked toward me, and forced the wristband out of my hand. I did not resist because I didn’t want to get detained. Since we had sensed danger around Tohid Sq, we didn’t stop there and walked elsewhere.

From Tohid Sq, we walked to Sadeghieh Sq [where Karoubi had announced that he would join the people]. There were more people there, and they had managed to make a crowd. But the presence of security forces was very heavy. I heard the sound of tear gas firing multiple times. There were slogans of ‘death to the dictator’ here and there but scattered; the situation was dangerous.  We didn’t feel secure enough, and we didn’t want to get detained – that’s why we didn’t get out of the car.

We were driving from the Sadeghieh Sq toward Ashrafi Isfahani St. Both sides of the street were filled with people and security forces. We then drove to Haf-Tir Sq; from there to Vali-Asr Sq; and then to Vanak Sq. There was a heavy presence of security forces all the way. There were people, but due to security they couldn’t come together and form a crowd.

If I were to compare, today looked more like the 13 Aban rallies, the difference being that on 13 Aban we could at least shout slogans. But today we couldn’t even do that. In any case, my observations are not complete because we couldn’t get to Revolution St. and we didn’t see many of the other regions. Moreover, because of the harsh reaction in the beginning, we mostly stayed in the car and did not walk around anywhere.

2. the day before, playing the Koran from loudspeakers and stocking up on fruit juice and cookies. The night before, these kiosks had been filled with militia and security forces, and along with the special guards, they had closed down all routes to Azadi Sq; they were controlling the flow of traffic. They were body-searching everyone, arresting those who had green symbols, and taking them to cars parked in adjacent streets. Eyewitness reports indicate that more than 30 people were arrested in just 15 minutes. Another eyewitness who wishes to remain anonymous said: I’m so worried for those detained. They’ve detained so many. Anyone who was going to chant anything and anyone who was carrying green was taken away.

3. (including me) had no green symbols with them in the demonstrations.  The environment was such that we could not show ourselves. If you are watching the videos, you will not be able to recognize this, but correct your analysis of the numbers: those you see on State TV in Iran are not all government supporters. A large group of these folks (I don’t know how much, but in Ariya Shahr where I was, about half) were opposition forces.

4. : this is such a stupid idea. We kept arguing that we could not “capture” Azadi Sq, and this will only help the enemy. No one listened.

I let a pedestrian get into my car. She was crying. She said they were all on our side, but we did not dare move.  [Government supporters] had come from 6 am; there was a boy who had a very religious look to him, with a beard and a keffiyeh. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with his keffiyeh, and asked her: “How do you know they were all on our side?” The girl responded, between tears: “Because they were not repeating the chants heard over the loudspeakers.” And the boy was calling the system every unprintable name under the sun.

I asked: “So why didn’t you shout something else?”

She said: “Because there were scores of security forces between us. And, besides, you couldn’t tell if the one standing beside you was a government supporter or not.

I asked the boy: “So, why have you made yourself look like this?”

He said: “They told us to. I read so in Balatarin.”

When my wife heard the word “Balatarin” she shook her head and I wished that I, too, had a keffiyeh to wipe off my sweat.

5. . I was happy to see the faces of green people; I had missed it.  We were in Sadeghiyeh Sq. from before 10 to around 12. We found each other quickly, chanted a bit, and sang the Yare Dabestani song. There may have been around 100 of us . They dispersed the crowd ..  there were many, many, many anti-riot polic, basij, plain-clothes militia..

6. Nothing [really] happened from the boulevard and Enghelab Sq as far as Sharif [university]. From Kargar intersection to Engelab, anti-riot police [were seen] wearing gas masks! They were standing at every 10 cm!

7. I went from Vesaal to Vahidiyeh … I was going crazy .. I thought the greens were not to be found anywhere … basij were everywhere  … I lost my mind; I was stuck in traffic for an hour and went crazy.

8. : The three roads to the north of Iran (Rasht, Hezar & Firouzkooh) [a popular travel destination for  Tehranians, whenever there is national holiday]  have been closed down since 6 am (Tehran time); not because of snow or storm but because of traffic caused by travelers. Maybe if the roads were a little more vacant,  today would have been a better day.

9. … we were at Sadeghiyeh around 10-10:30 … kept walking around the square …  crowds of people were standing around the square .. Guards had circled the square … [the area arrouned] Sadeghiyeh , Jenah and Ferdous was full of basij … we could not even [display] our green signs.. Wherever we stopped they would threaten us with batons  and sticks and ask us to move …  the funny part was that [the person responsible for calling out the official  slogans] shouted: Brothers and sisters, unity, unity .. I am not sure which brothers and sisters he was referring to .. anyways, I don’t think he was talking to us …. We were trying hard only to stay in one position, I did not care if they would beat us … [thinking about] it makes me cry .. we really could do nothing …  there were many who came with families, carrying the Iranian flag – they could see that the basij were threatening us with batons and coming our way, but they were still shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was painful to see their five or six year old child looking at us, waving his flag, and shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was even more painful to see hatred in everyone’s eyes.  [ I am afraid to think] that this will be  the only unity we will [be allowed to have] – this hatred makes me really scared.

Today, the main streets of Tehran were under martial law. Martial law in the full meaning of the word. Keshavarz Boulevard, Valiasr Square, Haft-e Tir Square, Taleqani Street, Kargar Street, and all strees an avenues leading to Azadi Square and Enghelab Square were flowing with police and security forces to keep protesters from those areas where state gatherings were being held.

Even with this, you could see people walking in Keshavarz Boulevard or Haft-e Tir Square with green signs, and security forces were taking pictures of them [I head this from another friend as well]. In Valiasr Street, before Valiasr Square people were gathered too, but no demonstrations occurred.

This might cause hopelessness and despair in followers of the green movement, but this came about more because of a lack of planning then the lack of presence of people. Inviting protesters to locations which pro-government forces had sealed off from weeks before was very wrong. Maybe Mehdi Karoubi did the best thing, by announcing a separate route. Despite the fact that the street he had announced led to Azadi, it was not inside the main routes announced by government and thus, protests did occur there. If more routes beside that of the government’s were announced, like last time, we might have seen the gathering of protesters. The main problem of the greens this time was a lack of ingenuity and giving in to plans that were made by people who have no familiarity with the routes.

Even with all this, the movement is very much alive and the sound of Allah o Akbar which were louder than ever last night, is a proof of this. Last night, Basij centers everywhere, who have brought in extra forces from other cities around the country for 22 Bahman, loudly starting chanting Allah o Akbar and pro-government chants. But then, hearing this, people took to their rooftops and loudly shouted Ya Hossein Mir Hossein, and their voice was louder than any other.

I was personally invited to a friend’s home near Fatemi Square less night [roughly, central Tehran] when, suddenly, at 9 p.m. we heard loud cries of Allah o Akbar. So we went to the windows and started shouting Allah o Akbar, and soon, neighbors joined us. We also heard loud cries of Ya Hossein Mir Hossein, and this went on until 10 p.m., despite the fact that my friend said that for the past 5 months, no shouts were heard at night in his neighborhood. The funny thing was that we heard some dim sounds calling the name of the leader, and when we went outside, we saw 10,15 people standing in the street, shouting for the leader, and no one on the rooftops was answering them.

I spent some time going through central Tehran, and I can honestly say that despite the fact that they seal off so many streets, in most streets, they can gather only a small number. In Haft-e Tir Square, there was literally only 14 to 15 youngsters carrying photos of the leader.

I know that from today, some will start saying the people are hopeless, and in despair, and that they have gone back home. But as someone who has roamed the streets of Tehran very well today, I can seriously state that the problem was not the lack of people, the problem was ignoring the most important aspect of this movement: creativity … and also, underestimating the rivals. Those who suggested Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square [the same route as the government] did not think that the state would use the experiences of previous demonstrations [e.g., protests for Ashura were announced along those routes]. It is not hard for the state to lock down a few streets and to bring in thousands of supporters to those streets.

From now on, instead of listening to folks like Sazegara or Nourizadeh who are not even in Iran, who only appear on TV from afar and tell us where to go, we have to sit down and plan for Chaharshanbeh Suri. Let’s think of a good plan for Chaharshanbeh Suri because people across the city attend and security forces can not seal off the entire city. We must not forget our own creativity, and our ability to take them by surprise.

From Tohid Sq, we walked to Sadeghieh Sq [where Karoubi had announced that he would join the people]. There were more people there, and they had managed to make a crowd. But the presence of security forces was very heavy. I heard the sound of tear gas firing multiple times. There were slogans of ‘death to the dictator’ here and there but scattered; the situation was dangerous.  We didn’t feel secure enough, and we didn’t want to get detained – that’s why we didn’t get out of the car.

We were driving from the Sadeghieh Sq toward Ashrafi Isfahani St. Both sides of the street were filled with people and security forces. We then drove to Haf-Tir Sq; from there to Vali-Asr Sq; and then to Vanak Sq. There was a heavy presence of security forces all the way. There were people, but due to security they couldn’t come together and form a crowd.

If I were to compare, today looked more like the 13 Aban rallies, the difference being that on 13 Aban we could at least shout slogans. But today we couldn’t even do that. In any case, my observations are not complete because we couldn’t get to Revolution St. and we didn’t see many of the other regions. Moreover, because of the harsh reaction in the beginning, we mostly stayed in the car and did not walk around anywhere.

2. the day before, playing the Koran from loudspeakers and stocking up on fruit juice and cookies. The night before, these kiosks had been filled with militia and security forces, and along with the special guards, they had closed down all routes to Azadi Sq; they were controlling the flow of traffic. They were body-searching everyone, arresting those who had green symbols, and taking them to cars parked in adjacent streets. Eyewitness reports indicate that more than 30 people were arrested in just 15 minutes. Another eyewitness who wishes to remain anonymous said: I’m so worried for those detained. They’ve detained so many. Anyone who was going to chant anything and anyone who was carrying green was taken away.

3. (including me) had no green symbols with them in the demonstrations.  The environment was such that we could not show ourselves. If you are watching the videos, you will not be able to recognize this, but correct your analysis of the numbers: those you see on State TV in Iran are not all government supporters. A large group of these folks (I don’t know how much, but in Ariya Shahr where I was, about half) were opposition forces.

4. : this is such a stupid idea. We kept arguing that we could not “capture” Azadi Sq, and this will only help the enemy. No one listened.

I let a pedestrian get into my car. She was crying. She said they were all on our side, but we did not dare move.  [Government supporters] had come from 6 am; there was a boy who had a very religious look to him, with a beard and a keffiyeh. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with his keffiyeh, and asked her: “How do you know they were all on our side?” The girl responded, between tears: “Because they were not repeating the chants heard over the loudspeakers.” And the boy was calling the system every unprintable name under the sun.

I asked: “So why didn’t you shout something else?”

She said: “Because there were scores of security forces between us. And, besides, you couldn’t tell if the one standing beside you was a government supporter or not.

I asked the boy: “So, why have you made yourself look like this?”

He said: “They told us to. I read so in Balatarin.”

When my wife heard the word “Balatarin” she shook her head and I wished that I, too, had a keffiyeh to wipe off my sweat.

5. . I was happy to see the faces of green people; I had missed it.  We were in Sadeghiyeh Sq. from before 10 to around 12. We found each other quickly, chanted a bit, and sang the Yare Dabestani song. There may have been around 100 of us . They dispersed the crowd ..  there were many, many, many anti-riot polic, basij, plain-clothes militia..

6. Nothing [really] happened from the boulevard and Enghelab Sq as far as Sharif [university]. From Kargar intersection to Engelab, anti-riot police [were seen] wearing gas masks! They were standing at every 10 cm!

7. I went from Vesaal to Vahidiyeh … I was going crazy .. I thought the greens were not to be found anywhere … basij were everywhere  … I lost my mind; I was stuck in traffic for an hour and went crazy.

8. : The three roads to the north of Iran (Rasht, Hezar & Firouzkooh) [a popular travel destination for  Tehranians, whenever there is national holiday]  have been closed down since 6 am (Tehran time); not because of snow or storm but because of traffic caused by travelers. Maybe if the roads were a little more vacant,  today would have been a better day.

9. … we were at Sadeghiyeh around 10-10:30 … kept walking around the square …  crowds of people were standing around the square .. Guards had circled the square … [the area arrouned] Sadeghiyeh , Jenah and Ferdous was full of basij … we could not even [display] our green signs.. Wherever we stopped they would threaten us with batons  and sticks and ask us to move …  the funny part was that [the person responsible for calling out the official  slogans] shouted: Brothers and sisters, unity, unity .. I am not sure which brothers and sisters he was referring to .. anyways, I don’t think he was talking to us …. We were trying hard only to stay in one position, I did not care if they would beat us … [thinking about] it makes me cry .. we really could do nothing …  there were many who came with families, carrying the Iranian flag – they could see that the basij were threatening us with batons and coming our way, but they were still shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was painful to see their five or six year old child looking at us, waving his flag, and shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was even more painful to see hatred in everyone’s eyes.  [ I am afraid to think] that this will be  the only unity we will [be allowed to have] – this hatred makes me really scared.