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Mehrangiz Kar
June 19th, 2009
Mahdiye, a 20-year-old student taking part in the “silent march” protesting the election results in Tehran last Monday, told a reporter for the New York Times, “We don’t really have a leader.” (New York Times, June 16, 2009.) She added, “Mousavi wants to do something, but they won’t let him. It is dangerous for him, and we don’t want to lose him. We don’t know how far this will go.” The generation of Iranians born after 1979, without having experienced the Revolution first-hand, but possessing, instead, an all-too-complete understanding of their own situation have become "self-leaders." They understand the challenges ahead for Mir Hossein Mousavi. They don’t expect a miracle from him, rather, they are reaching out to him, cautiously lending him their support as he steps into the role of Gandhi.
Iran is one big university in which freshman year starts in the cradle and in which its children learn the ABCs of politics in the school of a ruling power that has penetrated every nook and cranny of their private lives. In this respect, it is post-1979 Iran, that is, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which gets the credit for all that has led up to the recent upheavals in the country.
To such an extent are Iranian children from a very early age picked up and sent to prison and made to feel the stings of whips and cables for the “crimes” of inappropriate attire, socializing with one another, enjoying music, and putting on parties, that prison and punishment have become a part of their everyday life, and of which they have no fear. This is why they have no qualms about taking a completely different course of action and putting an end to this particular lifestyle that has been imposed on them. In other words, so much have they seen the bitter face of violence under the thin veil of “morals,” everywhere that in the end, they have come to notice the thin but history-making figure of Ghandi who carries neither weapon in his hand nor rancor in his heart but has little patience for those who would take away his freedom. These kids, who today have become “self leaders,” trying to fashion themselves a leader, are asking their leader to have a Ghandi-like demeanor, for they know very well what they want and why they want it.
A glimpse at just their political activity over the past month attests to that original savvy which the ignorant have tried so far to write off as merely being caught up in excitement of the moment and a passing vulnerability of youth while the security forces have emphasized, and are emphasizing, that these young people are following the orders of the enemy.
Let's take a brief look at the state of the young generation who have only, within one month, brought the attention of the world to the door of the Iranian nation's demands for freedom:
They accepted the election system along with its own mechanism and did not take the slightest look into its shortcomings. On a large scale, and with their exuberance, they added life and color to the election campaigns. They put to very good use the relaxation of rules that the police force had grudgingly accepted for the purpose of showcasing the extensive participation of people. They did not allow one second of this break to go to waste. They played music and sang songs and chanted slogans. For whom? For those very people who had managed to pass through the filter of the Council of Guardians, two of whom showed a little, only a little, sympathy for their youthful tastes. For instance, they said they did not agree with police control and humiliating and insulting people on the streets and would stop that, and these sorts of promises.
The election system in Iran encountered for the first time people who knew what they wanted and knew they would be better off presenting their demands prior to the election so that they could rebuke the future president if need be and call him on it. The young people were not alone. Other generations sang along in tune with them. It could even be said that after thirty years, an unexpected honeymoon came into being in the relations between the Islamic Republic and an important and silent sector of the Iranian population who live an up-to-date way of life and are aware of civil liberties.
Thankful for this truce which had softened the police-image of the ruling power and had diluted its violent make-up, we were all set to behave differently after the election and assist the tenth administration so that it could free itself from domestic and international crises. Everyone handled his or her ballot lovingly and put it into the ballot box. They could not have made up with a ruling power with a long track record of injustice in a better way.
After the rash announcement of the election results, people who were shocked started one again to challenge the system using its own mechanisms. They felt their exuberance and common sense had been insulted. Following in Ghandi's footsteps, they staged a quiet and peaceful protest. Initially the protest did not carry the slightest hint of violence. It continued to be green and amicable. That is, until the batons and cables were brought in and attacks on student dormitories and humiliation and torture of students in the basement of the Interior Ministry and trespassing on personal privacy in some buildings and many other attacks started. So much so that these attacks even made Mr. Ali Larijani, who is aligned with Mr. Ahmadinejad demand inquiries and identification of those responsible.
Now, the color green, which had heralded reconciliation, is smeared with the color of blood and crowds of Iranians have now added the black color of mourning to it. As described above, young Iranians continue to manage their "self-leadership" with Ghandian methods. The enemy has no hand in this opportune historic event. It is the hands of young Iranians who have swallowed the poison of violence in their normal and everyday lives. They hate violence and have set out to change their fate. Their role model is Mahatma Ghandi. They tread his path and that is what they promote.
Their demand is the enforcement of a right. They are protesting the result of the elections. If governments are committed to this necessity called the support of people's trust, they will allay the citizens’ suspicion through logical methods. A re-election under the supervision of observers will resolve this crisis of trust. Any method other than that will raise the wall of distrust even higher. No one will benefit if the present situation continues. In addition to other harms, the economic state of the country will get worse than what it is. To continue to detain civil demonstrators, journalists and intellectuals will make things more difficult for a government insistent on staying in power. They might manage to overcome people under the pressure of repression for a short while. To what end? Do we not have so many tired and frustrated generations that they still want to dim the enthusiasm and excitement of the young and hopeful generations?
Iran is one vast protest through and through. Yet the crowds do not want to give vent to rage of this scale. They have taken the leadership in their own hands. Their self-control is becoming legendary. If this self-control and silent presence is not judiciousness and prudence, then what is it? Everywhere in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, judiciousness and prudence of high-ranking managers of the country is said to be important; Now the citizens are forced to take it upon themselves to act with judiciousness and prudence due to the absence of these attributes in managers. Avoiding violence in acts of protest is the greatest achievement of Iranians in the last thirty years and they do not intend to lose it.
Published on Gozaar.
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