‘Victory for the people of Iran’

Dear editor,

Since the fraudulent election on June 12 last year, Iran’s rulers have responded to each successive public outpouring of dissatisfaction by ratcheting up the number of security forces and Basiji thugs on the streets of Tehran and clamping down tighter on freedom of expression.

Last Saturday’s one-year anniversary of the election was no exception.

Never before have riot police and Basiji thronged the capital in greater numbers and never before have they assaulted such basic freedoms of expression, particularly of women. Yet in spite of their efforts, the day again proved a victory for the people.

Dissatisfaction with the government managed to express itself in an incident so small and spontaneous that no amount of planning or mobilization could have prevented it. The massive attempt to stave off just such a symbolic act is what made the tiny spectacle cry out in a voice heard around the world.

At 2:30 p.m. a little old lady under the Hafez Bridge called out some antigovernment slogans. The riot police moved in to lay hands on her and drag her away. Hundreds of bystanders rushed to her rescue. The police had to retreat without their arrest.

How hugely expensive the rulers of Iran must find it to continue this yearlong assault on the country’s populace, particular its youth and its women; when all the riot police, revolutionary guards, and Basij thugs a veritable army of occupation backed up with motorbikes, clubs, tear gas, rifles, hangmen, prison cells, willing torturers and rapists prove powerless to prevent the truth from slipping out.

The truth is that: (1) The people of Iran don’t approve of their government. They want their country back.

They want the real problems of the nation to be addressed. (2) And the government of Iran doesn’t approve of its people. It wants to keep the country to itself for its own corrupt profit, its narrow and twisted ideology, and its fanatic geopolitical design.

That a little old lady under a bridge could prevail against the arrayed forces of the regime in getting this truth out raises the question of whether Iran’s rulers can survive another year. Certainly they can’t be toppled by the popular uprising they so fear and guard against.

But it begins to seem like a mere feather might somehow accidentally do the trick.

William R. Stimson Taichung, Taiwan bstimson@gmail.com