arethinn: glowing green spiral (Default)
some babblings on Iran, semi-courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] ontd_political.

The man, who has come from a small town in the eastern province of Khorasan and has never been in Tehran before, says he is being paid 2m rial (£1220) to assault protestors with a heavy wooden stave.

Besides all the D: of the tragedy, this is pretty surreal for me because that's comparable to my salary (slightly less) for cataloging books. I'm not even quite sure what's giving my brain the hiccups; possibly just the huge contrast between our, ah, job duties which are apparently rewarded with similar wages (albeit I'm sure that kind of money buys a lot more in Iran than it does in California).

But I'm desensitized, clearly, because this transcript of a call into CNN is the first thing in 8 "live posts" which actually caused me to well up in tears:

"I was going towards Baharestan with my friend. This was everyone, not just supporters of one candidate or another. All of my friends, they were going to Baharestan to express our opposition to these killings and demanding freedom. The black-clad police stopped everyone. They emptied the buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on. We went on until Ferdowsi then all of a sudden some 500 people with clubs came out of [undecipherable] mosque and they started beating everyone. They tried to beat everyone on [undecipherable] bridge and throwing them off of the bridge. And everyone also on the sidewalks. They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband, he fainted. They were beating people like hell. It was a massacre. They were trying to beat people so they would die. they were cursing and saying very bad words to everyone. This was exactly a massacre... I don't know how to describe it."

And it's possible that @persiankiwi may be some kind of fake, but like @nextrevolution, the tweets are evocative and iconic anyway:

just in from Baharestan Sq - situation today is terrible - they beat the ppls like animals -
I see many ppl with broken arms/legs/heads - blood everywhere - pepper gas like war -
they pull away the dead into trucks - like factory - no human can do this - we beg Allah for save us -


This, on the other hand, is strangely energizing:

>In Baharestan Sq. in the Police shooting, A girl is shot and the police is not allowing to let them help
>In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping people like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher

This is the Iranian regime, wading into its own unarmed people and axing them to death, bludgeoning women (seen as the greatest threat to the regime) [...]


Part of me is like, OMG AWFUL and another part is like, WOO SISTERS ARE DOIN IT FOR THEMSELVES. I feel like there is something very deep and important in this opinion that women are the great threat and I don't know how to articulate it.

Date: Jun. 25th, 2009 07:44 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] fenm.livejournal.com
I actually heard that call on one of the news shows I watch.. )-: Man...
And I know what you mean about the good and bad of women being the greatest threat.
This is just terrible...

Date: Jun. 25th, 2009 08:06 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] heron61.livejournal.com
I read the same transcript, dear gods I hope things improve there soon. As for the rest of your comments, a friend of mine made this excellent and somewhat disturbing post about women and rebellions.

Date: Jun. 26th, 2009 01:43 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] elegantblackcat.livejournal.com
So... that's the going rate to hire someone to assault people with sticks? Oh, the possibilities...

Date: Jun. 26th, 2009 03:02 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] starlightforest.livejournal.com
:P

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Arethinn

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