In times of stress I always like to read poetry, so I’ve been turning to the Poem of the Day in the Tehran Times, the English language daily here.

This is a paper which carefully toes the government line and favours not-so-subtle and sometimes bizarre unstated comparisons – there was a front page story today about the aftermath of the European Parliament elections in Britain, in the light of the far-right BNP winning two seats, entitled Living in a Pressure Cooker.

Anyway, I think the person who does the poetry section is trying to tell us something about the current situation. Here are his choices for the last three days.

Tuesday
Now, while thou hast the power of utterance,
Speak, O brother, with grace and kindness
Because tomorrow, when the messenger of death arrives,
Thou wilt of necessity restrain thy tongue.
(Sadi)

Wednesday
Beware of the smoke of internal wounds
Because at last an internal wound will break out.
Forbear to uproot one heart as long as thou canst
Because one sigh may uproot a world.
(Sadi)

Thursday
Hafez, thy praise alone my comrades sing;
Hasten to us, thou that art sorrowing!
A robe of honour and a harnessed steed
I send to thee.
(Hafez)

Ah – whatever a government does to try to stop people speaking their minds, there are always ways…

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So did they rig it and if so, how?

So far the evidence seems circumstantial and no-one I’ve spoken to has managed to provide hard proof.

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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.

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TEHRAN, IRAN – Whenever the riot police charge, waving their batons, with their shields to the fore, people run down the streets to escape.

The black-clad riot squad move in phalanxes on motor-bikes, riding up on the pavements, swiping at passers-by. You don’t have to be a protestor to get hit. read more

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I feel as if I went to bed in one country and woke up in another.

Yesterday, I saw thousands of Iranians laughing and happy as they queued in the sunshine to vote. Today, thuggish looking secret policemen with walkie-talkies stood on every street corner, while riot police with truncheons roared around the city on motorbikes beating up the same young people who had been dancing in the streets earlier in the week. The air was full of smoke and menace. read more

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An enormous thunderstorm has blown up over Tehran tonight. Maybe tomorrow’s election results will bring another kind of tempest.  

I’m cautious about opinion polling in Iran, but it’s clear that the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is at the very least a serious challenge to President Ahmadinejad, who seemed so secure just three weeks ago. read more

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ESFAHAN, IRAN – Some snapshots from the Mousavi rally (the video report is here). read more

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ESFAHAN, IRAN – A video dispatch from this historic city, on one of the most passionately fought election campaigns I have ever seen anywhere:

(Read more from Esfahan here.)

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ESFAHAN, IRAN – I can bear witness to the fact that support for Ahmadinejad’s main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is not confined to wealthy north Tehran.

We nearly got crushed in the crowd in Esfahan’s central square yesterday.

It wasn’t even the main man speaking but his prominent and much-loved supporter, former President Khatami. The crowd was mainly young, many with their faces painted green – Moussavi’s campaign colour. read more

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