Mousavi, the – School – President
Oct 28th, 2009 by pedestrian
This is one of my favorite photos to come out of the euphoric pre-election gatherings … before it all turned into blood and savagery. The guy in the middle is holding a Mousavi poster.
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This is a story about the Imam Reza junior high school in Mashad which is overseen by the Imam Reza Foundation, and more specifically, the leader’s rep in Mashad, Vaez Tabasi.
There are 630 students in this school and they were to have an election for their student council. According to Mowjcamp and Pezhvak, out of the 598 students who voted, 452 voted not for a classmate … but for Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Mowjcamp reports that two officials from the province’s school security office came to the school and the boxes were taken away.
When Khatami ran for president the first time and won an overwhelming majority of the vote, I wasn’t old enough to vote yet. And I had just gotten back to Iran. I didn’t know Khatami, Nateq Nouri (his opponent), or anyone but Khomeini (who was dead by then) and Rafsanjani.
Although we couldn’t vote, our school (a very conservative shahed school) went CRAZY for Khatami. All our teachers, even the super religious, dedicated-to-the-establishment kind spoke about Khatami. They spoke about the need for “reform” and the need “to take the country to a new direction.” They spoke about the need for politicians to pay more attention to women (Khatami had been the first candidate to bring women’s issues to the forefront of his campaign). They encouraged us to watch the debates (more like interviews back then) and “think hard” about what each candidate said and what he really meant. “Don’t believe empty promises” I remember our math teacher saying, “think!”
We also had Nateq Nouri supporters, though they were only a handful. But I remember how fascinating it was to listen to the “debates” that would happen sometimes. They would get heated, and then end on a friendly handshake.
Khatami’s posters were everywhere in our school and when we were going to choose the class rep in our class (I think we were about 30 to 35 students) the overwhelming majority voted for “Mohammad Khatami”.
No one from the security office showed up however. Our teacher laughed and said something like: “since Khatami has to run the country and may not have time to represent our class, we’ll need to vote again.”
Yes, politics comes to Iranian kids at a very early age.
“The guy in the middle is holding a Mousavi poster.”
Hey as much as I can see it’s AN’s poster!!!!
Mitra, the guy wearing the aghigh ring, whose eyes are covered by the girl’s hand?
He’s holding a Mousavi poster. I have the bigger photo too, and I can even make out Mousavi’s face.
A very passionate campaign, where people thought, finally, some “real” reforms would be implemented. I have watched some of the nightly gatherings in the cities before the election on youtube, and how people were so happy and engaged in the electoral process.
A lot of people were in a state of shock when the results were read. I think the regime made a big mistake, they should have narrowed the spread between Ahmadinejad and Moussavi, and they should have also given Karroubi more than 5million votes, similar to what he got in 2005. The regime miscalculated the level of disdain the Iranian people have for them. The position of the supreme leader is now not different from any politician in the country.
As Ayatollah Montezeri siad: “No one in his right mind believes these results”
The regime should do the decent thing, and implement some of the reforms the people are asking for. It is only a matter of time before they thrown into Evin prison themselves. I only hope the people would show them mercy even though the regime did not show them any mercy.
Do you happen to know what they were discussing in the photo?
Iran, Chatami and Germany – a retrospective view
[in the following excerpts/quotes from the interview with the then German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer, on the occasion of the state visit of President Chatami in Berlin, given to the broadsheet serious national daily "SZ" / "Süddeutsche Zeitung" – respected for its reporting of international affairs - 13th July, 2000 under the headline]
“We have to support the reformers in Teheran.
[…] The democratic reform process under President Chatami offers a great chance for human rights, democracy, peace and stability in a region which is also for us extremely dangerous.
[…]
He is supported by the broad majority of the Iranian nation and is facing adversaries who a determined to do anything [against him]. In Iran there is something like a diarchy [ = two power-centres are in rule]. But it would be a decisive mistake not to support the reformers. That is not only a matter of political reason but lies clearly in the interest of Germany.
[…]
Chatami and the majority of the population behind him do want democracy and thus an Iran that is making use of its potential of a civil society and is on this way to become anchor and mainstay of stability in a region which is lacking in anchors/mainstays of stability. [As to different views, critical of Chatami:] Anything else is wishful thinking.
[…]
We see a country in a time of awakening and change towards democratic reforms. It does not make any sense to call such a state a “risky state” in the sense of a “rogue state” [he criticizes here the hardline Western/American view at that time].
[…]
When viewing the archipelago of crises of the coming decades, […] Iran is coming more and more to the fore as a potential factor of stability.
[…]
Chatami is clearly organizing policies of opening up. […] I was favourably taken aback and surprised about the potential of Iran as civil society. […] Iran is probably the country offering the greatest/most excellent opportunities towards a civil society in that region.
[…]
Cultural exchange with Iran is becoming more and more relevant also in view of democratic basic values, the rule of law – values which are not tied to western culture, but are universally compatible principles. […] ”
[…] = omissions by the undersigned
[xyz] = annotations by the undersigned
translated by the undersigned
German
Source:
SZ, 13.07.2000 –
http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/regionen/Iran/fischer-interview.html
dmnari, no idea! Probably an argument over territory
German, I’m in class … I’m not supposed to be doing this
… will read your post tonight! Just thank you for taking the time to translate it for me!