Heard In Iran - Embassy Seizure Anniversary Brings Anti-Regime Protests

Anniversary of U.S. Embassy Seizure: Iranians Beaten, Arrested
November 4 -- For the first time in 30 years, the state-organized celebration of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Iran served as a platform for large-scale anti-government protests. Radio Farda reported clashes between security forces and demonstrators in several Iranian cities [read in Farsi]:

• A witness from Tehran said, "The Basij fired tear and pepper gas and shots in the air to disperse people; faces were stained with blood... I was hit on the head by a baton."
• "Tehran has turned into a garrison today. What shocked me most was the presence of child soldiers, each protected by one guard while attacking people... I saw a 14-year-old beating a young man by an iron rod," said another witness.
• "I saw people catching two plainclothes agents, taking their IDs and batons, and then releasing them," said a rally participant in Tehran.
• A witness from Shiraz, southern Iran, said thousands of students at Shiraz University chanted slogans against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on campus, while people supported them on nearby streets: "The anti-riot police on motorcycles attacked them severely."
• A female student from a school in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, said students wore green wristbands and defied school authorities' orders: "When they chanted 'Death to America,' we chanted 'Death to Russia' instead."

• A middle-aged protest participant in Mashad, northeast Iran, said police stopped buses heading for Ferdowsi University, where a rally was going on: "Security forces did not let people join the students who were chanting 'People, Support Us.'" He added that some were arrested.




Opposition Leader Attacked

November 4 -- Cleric Mehdi Karrubi, who was a candidate in the June 12 election, was attacked by security forces during the rallies in Tehran today, Karrubi's son told Radio Farda. He said Karrubi's camp considers the violence a "terror attempt" conducted by government forces. [read in Farsi / read in English]




Iran Uprising: A New Phase in Civil Society

November 1 -- Noted scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo said the Iranian people's civil movement will survive because it is based on nonviolence and truth-seeking. "We are currently in a post-ideological era in Iran,:" Jahanbegloo said. [read in Farsi]




Women's Rights Activists Summoned to Court

November 2 -- Ten members of the One Million Signatures Campaign were summoned to court. Leading women's rights activist and campaign founder Parvin Ardalan told Radio Farda that the summons will not affect the women's movement, "which has become so extensive in Iran that women's rights activists themselves cannot control it, let alone the establishment." [listen in Farsi]