Ariana A. S.
TEHRAN/WASHINGTON—The demonstrations in Iran on December 7 show that the sacred image of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which was present for many years, is no longer taken for granted. Now, people do not fear calling him an unjust leader or even a dictator. They want him to know that he is no longer a legitimate religious leader in the eyes of the people.
These dissidents have developed as a political force—even to the extent that they tear down billboards of Khamenei and Mahmoud Amadinejad—and stomp on them on the National Student Day, the time historically when Iranians used to walk all over the American flag. Now their enemy is not America, but their own leaders. You can hear them shout aloud: “Khamenei is a murderer, his leadership is not legitimate,” and “We do not want a dictator, whether a Shah or a doctor (referring to Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president).”
As an insider and a campaign leader, I have witnessed enormous passion and determination for democratic changes among the Iranian people. What changed on December 7 is that the situation intensified. This is because of the fierce clashes between the security forces and the dissidents on the streets. Until now, the opposition has been a peaceful and respectful movement. But the violence has escalated to such a degree that dissidents feel they no longer can remain docile, and have now unleashed their anger by fighting back against the basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. In the future, this intensity could get out of control because the millions of people within the opposition have diverse views and objectives.
Two months before the disputed presidential election on June 12, I witnessed the Iranian passion and sense of determination. Although Iran’s leadership tried to dismiss and discredit this new movement inside the country, even by saying the unrest was “fuelled by Western media and governments,” few inside Iran believe this explanation. Having a large youth population has been a great advantage to the opposition because it provides a great deal of energy to the Green movement. Many people on the outside may think this movement just began. But in fact, its origins can be traced to a decade ago, when Mohammad Khatami was president, and those who elected him supported reforming the political system. Although that movement failed, still the Iranian people never gave up hope over the last ten years of fundamental change. This is not to say we want another revolution, but we want political and social reforms.
Today, although the government security forces are more skilled than ever in confronting and crushing dissidents, the dissidents are also more organized. The recent demonstrations prove that, almost six months after the controversial presidential election in Iran, people still pour out into the streets, despite the dangers of being arrested, physically assaulted, or even shot dead.
During the summer, I worked as a campaign organizer for Mir Hossein Moussavi, who ran against Ahmadinejad. The peaceful campaign marches, which were designed by Moussavi’s campaign, included a green chain along the longest street of Tehran, which is some twenty-five kilometres. Not only in Tehran, but also the other major and even smaller cities showed their loyalty to Moussavi, a former Iranian prime minister. Yet, it was difficult to determine if geography determined who would vote for Moussavi and Ahmadinejad.
Surprisingly, in many cases, poor people living in villages and who were illiterate were supporting Moussavi, while rich people in affluent districts of Tehran were supporting Ahmadinejad.
As part of our campaign work, we gathered together in roundtable discussions Iranians who were supporting Ahmadinejad. We gave them information and data about how his policies as president had contributed to the economic crisis. What these discussions showed us was that Ahmadinejad’s supporters reasons for backing him included: He has the courage to stand against the United States and the West, and to draw international attention to Iran, particularly Iran’s nuclear program; he is a man of modest means, and therefore supports poor Iranians in many ways, from giving them loans to providing stipends in the form of subsidies; and, other Iranians had a subversive objective in supporting Ahmadinejad. They believed that his re-election could bring the country down to its lowest point, and that would force a change in the Islamic system.
Our roundtable discussions were an enormous success in explaining to all groups why they should not vote for Ahmadinejad. The success was revealed when some of Ahmadinejad’s campaigners joined us in the Moussavi camp. Those who did not plan to vote also joined the Moussavi campaign. We received further evidence on the day of the election; some former Ahmadinejad supporters called us, and asked us to escort them to the polling stations so they could prove that they had changed their vote for Moussavi.
Our hopes were high, even as we received word that fraud was taking place at the voting booths. Election monitors for the Moussavi campaign had been kicked out of the polling stations by forces from the Interior Ministry, and the Ministry officials began counting the ballots without their presence. There was nothing any of us could do because the Interior Ministry and Guardian Council both publicly supported Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
We tried to remain optimistic that Moussavi could still win because we believed he had by far the most votes, and we thought because of this huge victory, the election could not be rigged. However, we were shocked at the fast pace of counting the ballots, and suddenly the results were announced that Ahmadinejad had won, even before the voting was officially over and the polling stations had closed.
All throughout that night, although in shock, many of us were planning how to react to the unreasonable announced results. Major figures of the opposition were being arrested; this plan was made by the government before the election because they feared the opposition would organize major demonstrations. The government has never believed that the opposition movement is run by the people themselves. This government is still living in denial over the fact that the opposition movement comes from inside Iran and is comprised of ordinary Iranians.
The question to be asked now is, where is this going? The opposition movement is gaining more strength over time. Some clerics also are showing support for the opposition and are speaking out against the current government and Khamenei. The younger generation leading the opposition movement has one goal: democracy and freedom, even though different groups have different ideas of what this means and how to get there.
Ariana A. S. is a university student who was arrested last summer.