Letter from Tehran 06.24.2009
This thread is a tribute to a friend in Tehran who wrote this today “Imagine There is No Heaven.” By all accounts it sounds as though the state has stepped up all its security measures and is hitting with full force. There are reports of mass arrests of young and old, shootings, severe beatings, people with broken limbs nursing their wounds in the streets where blood runs yet another day. I brace myself for the wave of videos that are sure to come this evening. I don’t want to look anymore than you do.
“We saw 7/8 militia beating one woman with baton on ground – she had no defense nothing.”
“The Basij has entered the crowd on their bikes, they are injuring people with cable, and baton, there is blood everywhere.”
“They pull away the dead into trucks – like factory – no human can do this – we beg Allah for save us – Iranian military, you must take sides with and defend your people!”
“Baharestan [Tehran] we saw militia with axe chopping ppl like meat – blood everywhere – like butcher”
Tehran Bureau has just released its latest UPDATE . Here’s an excerpt:
“People have started to scribble slogans on money that is passed around. On one bill I got yesterday someone had written “Where is my vote?â€
If people are not turning up in the streets to protest, they are finding other ways to engage in civil disobedience. On Monday, for example, Mousavi had asked people to turn on their headlights in the street from 5 to 6 pm.
Those who are middle aged are taking this a lot better than we are. They have been through something like this before (1978-79) and have a lot of patience. They are hopeful about all this. My generation is glum. They’re depressed. There is so much crying.
I wish there was a way the world could do more. Even embassies like the Italian one, which tried to open its doors and take in those who were injured, was stopped from doing so by the police here.”
