Dissapearing Act
Oct 4th, 2009 by pedestrian
Ahmadi & Co have learned the way to enter universities for photo ops and signs of student support – and make it look like everything is o.k.: lock everyone out and only bring in your own supporters!
Javad Larijani, the man who just a few days ago linked Mousavi to the MKO was at Sharif University of Technology today.
This is a video of the auditorium before Larijani began speaking. [h/t Sarv]
The photo at the top of the page was taken during his speech. Where did all the protesters go?! where did all the smiley, flirty girls come from all of a sudden?
During his speech Larijani said: “I was once a student, I was once a part of your gang ["ghomash"]. I was part of the same chaos, of course in a time of crime [?].”
Referring to the students’ shouts of “The coup d’état government must resign” [pro-Mousavi students] he said: “I agree with this statement very much. But that coup d’état was defeated and the leader of the coup d’état was Mousavi.”
He continued: “there were individuals who were part of the system and participated in the election, but on June 12th, at 11p.m. they turned their backs on the system. Their actions constitute a coup d’état . They took a very harsh tone against the government, accused it of murder, theft, lying, etc and they used the vocabulary of thugs.”
When students started chanting against Mousavi and the reformists [these are pro-Ahmadi students/supporters now] he said: “we must free our hearts of hate towards Mousavi, Karoubi, … Because with hate, we can not tell truth from lies.” He referred to Mousavi’s latest interview in which “he said that he plans to move inside the system and right the wrongs. I think this is a step in the right direction.”
“Standing against the system was the greatest wrong and I hope they will correct this.”
He referred to Mousavi’s advice about how “each person should be a headquarter of reform and movement” and said: “we ask Mr. Mousavi that if he plans to create a movement, it must be within the frameworks of the law. We ask of him to register a political party within the boundaries of the law.” [I may add, Mousavi's entire point is to NOT create a political party. Because a party in and of itself signifies the intention to run for office, and while the office is being CONFISCATED, it defeats its original purpose. At the same time, if Mousavi is at one with MKO, treason is punishable by death in the IRI, so why are they letting him walk freely?]
In the Question & Answer period when students accused him of being pro-West [pro-Ahmadi supporters again] he said: “We must always keep this in mind, that by nature, the west has a certain animosity towards the Islamic state. But to meet our own interests, we will negotiate with the enemy even if he is buried in the confines of hell.”
He referred to Mousavi’s position towards the West during the early days of the revolution and said: “unfortunately, these days his positions are far from what they used to be.” [I just nearly fell off my chair when I read this. Ahmadi & Co will be negotiating with the U.S. They're the ones speaking kindly of Israel. Now Mousavi is accused of doing a 180?!]
In the end, he spoke of Neda Agha Soltan. You see, Ahmadi & Co. claim that this was a conspiracy and she was killed by the “MKO or some other organization”. Now, this means that in the literature of the IRI, she should be considered a “martyr” since anyone killed by the enemies of the IRI is immediately considered one [and this has legal, economic meaning for the family]. Larijani said that “the fact that she is a martyr or not should be determined by Bonyad Shahid.” [the Martyrs Council, a government organization which oversees the publication and propagation of Iran-Iraq war related products]
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With all this recent talk of Ahmadinejad, Mashaie, Israel, etc … I may add … I personally SWEAR to reading, in the reformist led Khordad newspaper (which has long been closed down) years ago an interview with Javad Larijani in which he said “we should have a political dialogue with Israel.” He’s also given PERSONAL interviews to an Israeli paper (Jerusalem Post)
I’m not going to read into his actions … I may personally agree or disagree – that is irrelevant but (banging head on desk) WHY IS IT O.K. FOR AHMADI & CO TO MAKE THESE STATEMENTS IN THE IRI AND GET AWAY WITH IT?!
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I will be updating this when more news comes out of the meeting.
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Here is the video of a student introducing Larijani. Judging from the video and the photos, they got their supporters to sit at the front and the rest were in the back. Or maybe something happened midway through the speech?
The student at the podium is saying: “… the atrocities they committed towards the field of humanities before the revolution, what they’ve been doing to it for the past thirty years, and what they will god willing [sarcastic] do to it from now on.”
Hi. I am a long time reader. I wanted to say that I like your blog and the layout.
Peter Quinn
What a Fucking bastard! Infuriating! What an Opportunistic asshole is tis man! Argh!
i need to lower my blood pressure now!
why are these thugs running our country?
maybe we don’t deserve better–because we are cowards, because we are all opportunists, because we all hide behind our fears and justify our complicity … we justify our complicity with fear, fear to loose opportunities … none of us is willing to sacrifice. Everyone’s excuse is: “because we want to be able to go to Iran …”
hypocrite nation deserves hypocrite rulers …
Naj, I am one of those people. And sure I can be accused of cowardliness. But I don’t see myself as an opportunist. Inside or outside Iran, I would be cautious and in favor of baby steps. I wouldn’t want to go on a full scale attack against them, not only because there are hawks out there who can justify their own agendas with those attacks, but b/c I am in favor of slow change in Iran. And of course that comes at a big price.
I don’t know, but I don’t think we are all hypocrites.
One of the greatest flaws I see in the so called “Iran experts” is that they haven’t been to Iran for decades. Why? They’ve said things (sometimes true things, unfortunately, sometimes just bullshit, but nonetheless) things that will not allow them to go back to Iran. I think that defeats the purpose. If you want to have a good grasp of Iran, you have to be able to actually go there once in a while. And to be able to go there, you have to restrain yourself to certain limits. The same limits people in Iran have to walk in, to be constantly harassed, but still kept afloat.
I can see why that would be considered cowardliness, but there are other ways of seeing it.
You know, Naj, I see all of this and I’m less phased. Politics is politics. Just about everywhere you go, you see it, unless you live in a totalitarian regime. And the IRI is not a totalitarian regime.
During the previous US presidential administration, we declared a war where a hundred thousand people were killed, millions fled their homes, there was torture, Abu Ghraib, Guantanimo, thousands of muslim men in the country incarcerated for a period without proper charge, etc. It was all something to be ashamed of. It was all bad politics. But I didn’t give up on this country.
The most fundamental weakness of the IRI is not necessarily its politics. There is plenty of flawed politics in America. No, the biggest weakness in the IRI is its judicial system. Here in America, if something goes wrong, we can expect a reasonable outcome from a fair judicial system. Its not perfect, and there are some cases where it doesn’t work, but personally I have a reasonable amount of confidence in it. Unfortunately, I don’t have the same level of confidence in the IRI judicial system. It is because of the weakness of the IRI judicial system that freedoms are stripped, such as newspaper closures, arrests without charges, political vetting processes, prevented political assemblage, etc. The IRI constitution should be able to support these rights. The fact that, in practice, it does not is the fault of a weak judicial system. Sad, because with a strengthened one, a fuller potential for the IRI would be realized.
If you want to have a good grasp of Iran, you have to be able to actually go there once in a while
Therein lies the very essence of the great!! “tradition” of “taghiyeh!” …
Yes this is how we have kept “afloat” .. and in being afloat throughout our history we have … well been afloat, with a revolution in the horizon every quarter of a century …
Pirouz,
the biggest weakness in the IRI is its judicial system. Absolutely, because we have not, collectively as a nation, focused on it! On the one hand, we have shiism as a model for religion, with 100s of clauses and excuses, buts and ifs to circumvent certain outcomes depending on certain situations and etc. On the other hand we have never felt a participant in the legislative bodies with ceremonial elections we suffer. But it is also because of our intellectual and social laziness, and maybe self-hate: we have focused on a lot of nonsense modernist-postmodernist liberalist-democratic blahblah, but have not LEARNED our citizen rights. I dare say, each and every one of us have also curtailed the judiciary, with some form of cowardice, opportunism or absolute survival necessity. The law is constituted on the spot! Some anecdote from Indian driving experience describes us: “we don’t drive on the left side of the road, we drive on the road that’s left”
We are now focusing on the rights of press and rights of prisoners, but everyday the rights of farmers, drivers, workers, immigrants, minorities, us, are violated AGAINST the constitution–and as Ped rightly notes, we are not there to see and record and learn. And, when we go back, are we more than voyeurs? Do we get under the skin of the city? I go there as a guest, act like a guest of IRI, and then return to my Western-worries. The IRI holds me hostage to my longing for voyage to home; I ignore their ever-changing rules and regulations, when they ask, I loosen the pocket and pay, I do anything to be able to go “home” … (I am beginning to understand those who went on self-exile 25 years ago, because they watched their friends hanging from the bridges of town, and decided they will not set foot in the embassy of a government that hanged their friends … )
We have individuals like Gangi, like Soltani, like Nabavi who stand up to the flaws of our judiciary, and become monumental (for me at least).
Naj, I don’t know about you, but if there’s only one thing I’ve
learned in the past three months is that as much as I may try, when
things in Iran get to a certain level (which they have for the first
time in my lifetime), there is no more returning to my Western-
worries. It’s just impossible for some of us.
Now this impossibility may never actualize into anything but a bunch
of crying, whining sissies who get poor grades and do a poor job b/c
they’re busy crying and whining (referring to my own friends and I).
On the other hand, we may be able to discover somewhere down the line, a role we can actually, realistically and constructively play in all of this.
I don’t know which it’s going to be yet.
And yes of course we all bounce out of the helplessness of our own situation: the wanting to do something and being far away. What mousavi said in his latest statement was poignant:
“It is LIFE that remains.” Protest fades, people get tired–it is NORMAL to get tired. My personal challenge then becomes how to ensure my LIFE remains a protest. And yes, this is where we will make discoveries of what to do and how to live.
Exactly! (about grades) – such a petty, puny thing … that’s why I brought it up!
aaaah, delam khonak shod: http://www.parlemannews.ir/index.aspx?n=4246
Mardikeh ghaltagh! In danesgah ro ham haminjoori gabze kardeh
“delam khonak shod”
there’s no better way to describe it!
I have really been so steaming about this idiot–also because this idiot is in charge of Institute of Basic Sciences (or something like that) and he was “sold” to me as an “enthusiastic about science moderate who loves to get new technology in” … and also because this idiot had put a total zombie in charge of the division that was related to me–when I brought my “khareji” supervisor to meet with Mr Larijani’s pick!!, after the meeting he told me: “where the hell have they found this idiot from?”
Anyways … you know, I am a bit calmer now, after “delam khonak shodan” but I feel my real desparation when I came across your post (I have not yet had the stomach to read his talk in Persian) it triggered a lot of self-anger, remembering all the foolish dreams I had of “contributing to science in my country” under supervision of this Larijani … eeeuuuh and now that I think back, I feel DIRTY … I feel like :”gee … I came so close to work with a rapist” I don’t know if you can grasp what I mean, but this particular creature has really affected me in an intolerably traumatic way! Anyways, I am incoherent as I have “western worries” like buying food and gulping it down before I fade and working some more to meet deadlines that are going to make me famous and rich!!! (LOL, kidding, meeting deadlines will only keep me employed!)
Naj, I think I know what you mean. And though I was of course never in your position, I always thought him to be a “fair minded hardliner” who has the country’s best scientific interest at heart, even if his political affiliations discomfort me.
WRONG.
But I admire what you did! EVEN THOUGH he turned out to be a bloody rapist. Going back to our earlier conversation about how my friends and I sit around worrying about grades … I think one way in which we can be different from the previous generation of Iranians living abroad is that we will have to remain involved in Iran – and that means that we are going to have to find ways of COMPROMISING with these thugs. I can’t wash my hands of Iran and just forget about ever going back, like some were able to do 30 years ago. That’s just not an option for me. I don’t want to go there as a tourist. The only way we can keep this connection is by learning how to strike deals with thugs and goons like him … while keeping in mind that “compromise” in this context means that they will always have the upper hand, speaking from a position of power.
That may be an impossibility or just a romantic dream, but we’ll never know unless it is tried. And you actually tried. I think that’s amazing. I hope that one day soon when he’s gone and replaced by a less traumatic thug, you’ll try again.
Dear Pedestrian, Dear Naj,
what you are doing here “on your blogs” is – at least – a thousand times more useful for Iran – and of course for your international readership – (and by the way much more stressing !!!!) than sitting in an Iranian prison [without anyone knowing that you are there and that this prison exists]. I will hardly be the only one who is convinced of that
German
German, thanks for the note of confidence, but I completely disagree.
There are two types of prisoners: the faceless, nameless kids out there – I think that civilians should do their best to stay out of harms way, and that includes prison. I don’t know what their pain will add up to, but I can only pray that it will not be in vain. I don’t know how “useful” it is, but it is certainly leagues more than an internet address! They’re in there because they’ve listened to the calls of a second group:
And as for the more prominent people – many of them are there because they have broken boundaries, because they have defied authority, because they have given a purpose to the likes of me to continue talking about Iran and hopes that amidst all this talking and yapping, something worhtwhile may result. People like Nabavi have been in prison both under the Shah and under the Clerics because they were not willing to keep their mouths shut when they saw what was truly wrong and grotesque in their society – even when they themselves helped build it!
Their time in prison is the price they’ve paid for doing what they do and nothing is worth more than that!
And as for a blog – I do it b/c it’s the only thing I can do at the moment. But I do often wonder what it is for and if it means anything at all. No one ever changed anything in the world with a blog.
As to the main bulk of what you are saying about prisons the prisoners I have to agree!
It seems, that I can’t agree with what you say in the last section: only due to the modern media and the fantastic use made of them (twitter, e-mail, video, blogs) does the world know now that the majority (!) of Iranians are not some very, very strange people, that Iran is not a country full of lunatics, but that the Iranians are in their full possession of their brilliant mental capacities, and only the top/the government and its paid gladiators are insane. That’s why I doubt very mucn, that the US or Europe will seriously think of militarily attacking a country full of highly intelligent and ethically praiseworthy people
Dunno! you are probably right … but this is how I felt before all these things happened. These thugs need to make a major COMPROMISE to get back my half-hearted trust/collaboration … I just cannot … and it is NOT easy!
It is not easy to tell your mother, when she says “you will see when you come here”, that “mother I will not come back”.
Who knows! History will tell!
This kind of decision gives you nightmares, breaks your heart, every time that you think of it. But … maybe those who go on exile do contribute just as much as those who shake hand with the devil
German, “but only due to the modern media and the fanatic use made of them” were the fundamentalists on both sides able to persuade the world that “Iranians might be some very, very strange people, that Iran is a country full of lunatics” to begin with
Yes, history will tell. But it’s also about choices. Some people were able to make those choices and stay away. Some people can’t. So if you’re part of the second group, you gotta start thinking of solutions … and maybe shaking hands with the devil will have to be one option.
1) It’s really not possible to contradict you !
2) [as you are too intelligent!]
3) So, when talking about academic grades and so on, I am convinced that you ought to be/will be brilliant – take them (it’s not “Western-worries”) !
And don’t refute me at least on these three points, …. please ! !
LOL German … won’t refute you on anything but [number 2]!