Asia Scope

Relative calm in Tehran

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Asia Scope

Relative calm in Tehran

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An insider reveals the protest movement’s change of strategy


Today was a quiet day. The demonstration took place peacefully. Mousavi participated and people dressed up in black to pay their respects to the victims and wounded. 

I reported yesterday that we were going to participate tomorrow [Friday] at Prayers to show our anger to the Supreme Leader, but we have now changed our plans because Iranian television may report it as a show of support for the leader.

Some friends of mine live in the areas of the city worst affected by the rioting. They’ve told me that Ahmadinejad’s radical supporters have smashed car windscreens and beaten and shot people, all the while shouting, ‘You gonna destroy our country!’

Today, the television showed people who claimed to have been injured by our protestors, but they were actually the guys that beat people to provoke them. Our media is really, really, really shitty and makes us sick. The people are watching reports and cursing them. Unfortunately, satellite news channels like BBC Persian are down, so are Facebook, twitter and many other websites and blogs, sms services, mobile phones after sunset and sometimes even the land lines. Yahoo! Messenger and Skype are also still down. So we just have to watch the local news and see more lies. It makes us sick.