Every now and again you get a day in journalism which you will never forget. Monday was one of those. We set off in the morning not knowing what the day would bring. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition candidate, had said he and other reformists would attend a mass rally but the Interior Ministry had banned it.
We went to see Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated candidate, more liberal than Mr Mousavi. I was amazed that we managed to get the interview because he had not spoken since the election, but when I asked his campaign aide, he simply said yes, and gave us the address.
Mr Karroubi is a cleric, but unlike many mullahs I’ve met, he does not speak in elliptical phrases. He was quite clear. Here’s the translation of what he said:
“We’re taking to the streets because we want to at least be actively faithful to the message we gave to all those whom we had encouraged to participate in the elections, that if you participate they won’t be able to cheat and your votes are secure.
“Secondly, we know the actions of the government to be worse than this. It won’t suffice to sit here and explain in one sentence, because the government completely changed the destiny of the elections and has undermined the whole concept of elections.
This is a challenge for the Islamic Republic. It is unprecedented… for a government who is responsible for the elections to corrupt and ruin them in this way. Our fast and firm response is because of this. The republic nature of the Islamic Republic is crucial. When you make such a strike to the republic system then the Islamic character of it will also feel the blow. We believe the actions of the government are a grave danger to the Islamic Republic and therefore to the country as a whole.”
Another reformist mullah, Abtahi, was there – the two of them whispered together as they planned their strategy. The former mayor of Tehran, Karbaschi, whose release from prison I witnessed in 1998, also turned up. So we joined their crazy, helter skleter convoy to the rally.
Tehran traffic is the worst in the world and it doesn’t stop just because there might be an uprising going on. Our driver somehow managed to keep up as Mr Karroubi’s jeep wove its way, lights flashing and horn beeping, sometimes at great speed, sometimes jammed up to a halt, through the morass of vehicles. Then drivers began to realise who it was so they started to beep thir horns and suddenly the whols road was beeping its horns and eveyone was leaning out of cars shouting “Death to the Dictator!”
After a while, Mr Karroubi’s car was totally blocked so he got out and was mobbed by the crowd shouting “Allah Akbar!” as he walked amongst the vehicles. Ahead of me I could see the top of Mr Abtahi’s black turban as he was engulfed by the crowd. We leapt out too, and Bruce our cameraman took pictures.
The clerics were going to walk to the rally but we needed to get there quickly, because we would have to file our story. So we abandoned our vehicle – and our poor driver who was now going to miss his brother’s wedding – because it would be stuck for hours.
What to do? No taxi could take us. Motorbikes! I’m not sure how we managed to flag them down but I faintly remember standing in the middle of the road waving my arms around. These guys were great. We purloined three of them and they entered into the spirit of thing, determined to get us to the rally to film it and get the story out. They speeded through the mass of cars, taking alarming turns and squeezing through 6 inch spaces. They shouted at vehicles trying to come out of side roads. They rode up on the pavement and wove through the pedestrians. And they got us to the rally.
And suddenly it was quiet. The leaders, finally after two days of sporadic protest and violence, had told the people not to chant slogans or clap but to walk quietly. It was extraordinary. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, with fingers raised in the Victory sign, walking calmly and the police looking on, overwhelmed by the numbers, no longer able to beat people off the streets with their batons.
We never made it to Engelab Square where Mr Mousavi was making his address. It was just too far, and too crowded. We filmed and talked to people, and then made our way to the hotel.
These days communication is instant and everyone expects the story without delay, but the Iranian government doesn’t want this story out. They have blocked mobile phones and text messaging. The internet slows to a crawl in the evenings. We edited our piece, but technical problems meant my voice-over did not arrive in London. But we got the pictures and words out, even if someone in London had to voice what I said.
Just before we went on air, we manged to obtain – and I won’t say how – pictures of a terrible scene of violence which had just occurred as dusk fell. People – who knows if they were real protesters or agents provocateurs – attacked a base of the basiij, the paramilitary shock troops of the Revolution. They set fire to the place shouting “You killed our brothers, now we’ll kill you.” People hate the basiij, and this assault was a shocking manifestation of that. The basiij shot into the air and then into the crowd. A man fell, dead; his body was pulled away.
As I write this morning, I have no idea what today will bring. The violence which broke out at the end of the day was a terrible contrast with the peaceful protest we had seen earlier. I don’t know how many died, but certainly now people are being killed and injured.
The protesters say they will come out on the streets again today. Who knows what will happen now?
Commentsoldest first
Err…
Mohammad-Ali Abtahi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abtahi)
Gholamhossein Karbaschi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gholamhossein_Karbaschi)
Goodluck….
This government has crossed all lines. We accepted the Islamic Republic even when it was oppressive, even when they banned our leaders to take part in free elections simply because at the end of they the day our votes counted. When we voted for liberal cleric Khatami for reform against the will of the regime in 1997 they were shocked but accept it. In the next 8 years they blocked our reform movement in other ways.
Now, we voted in unprecedented numbers to remove this cheat, this man full of hate, this man who says he is disgusted by democracy, with another politician who is not even too liberal, who’s been a prime minister in the most difficult years for Iran and didn’t give khatami style promises of freedom, all he offered was respect for people and an end to madness and and end to defying the world.
10 million voted for the firs time. Four years ago in the second round Ahmadinejad had just about 17m against Rafsanjani’s 10m. I know many who voted for him, they did so because the thought he would end corruption and economy will be better under him. They soon realised their mistake. I know they voted for Mousavi and Karrouboi this time.
The 10 million who voted for the first time voted for Mousavi, they voted to say No to Ahmadinejad. In the best case for Ahmadinejad he would have had fewer votes than he had four years ago. He stole our vote and used it against us, he called us dust! And now he ended our peaceful rally with bloodshed. He ordered killing of our brothers and sisters as the rested in University dorms. He is no more just a pity, a liar and a cheat, he is now a murderer. These rallies may be oppressed but it is just the beginning. The rallies may end but our unity in discontent has just started. We have not yet forgotten the 1951 coup; he must me truly stupid if he thinks we ever forget this one.
Incredible footage last night on C4News, our thoughts are with the Iranian people. Let’s hope that they can sort through this mess without resorting to full scale violence/civil war.
Be careful, good luck.
Thank you for this story! Can you please post a link to the pictures/video you mention having taken? Thanks!!
student solidarity from a ny journalism student. stay safe, but dont stop reporting. thanks-
Stay safe- but please try to keep doing what you do Lindsey. Your reports are crucial to our comprehension of this event.You have my thanks
It’s a long way to libarty
keep up the fantastic journalism, a lot depends on what is happening in Iran now
The riots and processions are reminescent of the days before the Shah
was unseated in 1979. Then the people inserted roses in the barrels of the soldiers’ rifles, which appeased them and they merged with the crowd. They should follow the same technique with the Bssij. But then the soldiers were ordered not to shoot by the Shah’s officers.
They also applied the false trick of carrying out funeral processions to excite the crowd. These were all the techniques obviously prestaged and cunningly planned, by the blacks and the reds ( eg the Mullahs and the Troskyites.
Unfortunately, the masses were so ignorant and fanatic that they followed slavishly the guidelines imposed by the Ayatullahs and Mullahs of the great land of Iran.
The picture is different today, with more of the educated and enlightened youngsters from the university taking part.
Sadly, they all have been diselusioned after the revolution and have now realised that enough is enough and the time is come to march on and reverse the backward attitude of the present regime.
God bless them all. I hope the Iranian people do not withdraw, till they win their freedom, this may be their last chance.
As you all may know the world is undergoing the worst and prolonged recession that all the ecconomists can ever remember. The reflection of this is thousend time worse on the economy of courties like Iran and the life of ordinary people in dependendant countries.
The economic pressure coupled with lack of any social and political freedom and democratic rights of people is the ingrediant in bringing all these masses out to the street. However, at the same time lack of any any organised and progressive organisation in leading and offering leadership to people causes either people choose between bas or worse, like they are doing now, or undergo under any fanatic undemocratic alternative like they did thirty years ago!
I think it is duty of any Iranian anywhere in the world to ask the world for support of the movement in Iran. At the same time ask and support any alternative progressive opposition whom will support democracy in Iran and offer separation of religious from constituation of the country and social life of people.
As you all may know the world is undergoing the worst and prolonged recession that all the economists can ever remember. The reflection of this is thousands time worse on the economy of courtiers like Iran and the life of ordinary people in dependant countries.
The economic pressure coupled with lack of any social and political freedom and democratic rights of people is the ingredient in bringing all these masses out to the street. However, at the same time lack of any organized and progressive organization in leading and offering leadership to people causes either people choose between bas or worse, like they are doing now, or undergo under any fanatic undemocratic alternative like they did thirty years ago!
I think it is duty of any Iranian anywhere in the world to ask the world for support of the movement in Iran. At the same time ask and support any alternative progressive opposition whom will support democracy in Iran and offer separation of religious from constitution of the country and social life of people.
I cannot believe you don’t have more comments… what you are doing is amazing. stay safe. may God bless you.
not sure if you saw, but according to Abtahi’s english weblog, he was arrested today.
The media seems to ignore the fact that last week 100,000 people (accordin to western media reports) celebrated the victory of President Ahmadinejad, yesterday there was a further demonstration in his favour. The media is only interviewing persons,showing and reporting, on the twitters and blogs in support of Mousavi, Western media is making the error of concentrating on northern Tehran, areas dominated by students and middle class. The media is becoming a propanganda machine for Mousavi. The media should recognise that Ahmadinejad does have a grat deal of support
Ahmadi nejad is not our president , please help us and cover all of the news for another countries beacuse if you don`t care this devil kill all of us,,,,
I have to tel you today like yestreday many people come to haft te tir squer and they will continue this until they can clean ahmadi nejad from iran, I repeat again please cover us ……I`m hearing the sound of guns from my window right now the time is 23:05 tehran,
sa adat abad.
Dear Lindsey, what you are doing is priceless and Iranian people will never forget your hard work and risk taking job and god bless you and your team.
http://www.insideofiran.com/en/?p=2190
it seems to me, we are in interesting times in the world today. peoples of the world are divided in to two groups. one of these groups represent the majoraty of humans. this majority which i am part of are the diecents but they have huge flaw which somehow they are blind to it so they can’t see it. there problem here in iran and the world is the lack of acceptance that nothing and no human being is perfect. so the diecen humans fail to put their diffrences aside or compormise, negociate and the recognition that there is no a thing called perfection in humance.
so i hope irans people don’t let them selfs down. and be gratefull for what they got and don’t fall for it for the few whos goal is one thing, which is equering material things. whos motto in live is me me me. good luck iran.
IT is a sorry fact that Iranian protesters are losing heart. How come they were so fired up 30 years ago when led by Ayatullah Khomeni against the late Shah
Reza Pahlavi?
The disruption then caused by the protesters
was immensely effective and paralysing
by strikes, closing banks and shops.
I had witnessed the shouts in Tehran
against the Shah, his generals and ofcourse the ever standing adversary, Satan (Shetoon in Persian) Amrica, and Israelis and both were being cursed to death. But strangely enough, both Amrica and Israelis ae doing fine and progressing, but poor Iran has been pulled down by the present regime to a state of nonentity and has earned a name for itself for being evil, promoting terrorism internationally, with a ruined economy.
The present day Iranian regime has taken the role of fascists, communism and religious autocracy and bigotry.
Unlike the Chinese and Russans who are progressive atheists, the Iranians have acted as introverts but still believing in the ‘abstract’ to help them.
The way they practice,preach and propagate their ideals are by suffocating the young, by not letting them say freely and act freely and enjoy life to the full as intended by God.
My message to the Iranians is, to live long, by eating, drinking and being merry, but before you do that, please be careful who you elect, and never trust your fate in the hands of one man, however pious and religious he may be.
BE SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC AND PROUD TO SHOW ONCE AGAIN THE MIGHT OF THE MEDES AND THE PERSIANS.
The name of Iran has been permanently
etched in the annals of history.
Therefore, go for it and
MAY YOUR GOD GO WITH YOU.
[...] One of those journalist, Channel 4’s Lindsey Hilsum, says yesterday was a day in journalism that she will never forget. [...]
Leave a comment
* Required field.