What is going on in Iran?

[drakethelegend]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6vtvCMhWuU

You have to sign in to watch it (it's pretty graphic) but this is a video that was taken 2 days ago, of a woman named Neda that was shot to death by Iranian police. In the video it shows her on the ground, shot through the lungs, blood coming out of her mouth and nose, blah blah... it's pretty disturbing, and is well worth taking the two minutes to create an account on youtube for it.

Can someone please tell me what the *^(# is going on over there? I know there has been protests and demonstrations (such as the one above), and that there was something about rigged (or supposed rigged) elections, but can someone tell me what is basically going on over there and why horrible things like this are happening? I hear so many different things I don't know what to believe, anybody keep up with politics and the like?

[~HentaiXXX~]

well sh*t

[virus003]

This just shows how ugly the world is. People in Iran die for there country's freedom, and this is what they get. As for the woman who died in the video, she of course died for the same reason. Do you think that's a crime to die for, wanting Freedom? No. May she Rest In Peace for sticking up for her country.

[Nyokou]

Iran is just one of many countries to fight through a revolution. Political, mostly. Trying to get rid of their corrupt and evil government, the same way many other countries have done or tried to do.

[DossarLX ODI]

Well if you look into World war I, the killings at Battles such as those of Verdun and Somme resulted in millions of casualties, which didn't help any country that much.

[Plan_Bsk81127]

Something politically going on, and they are pissed at us for trying to interfere with the situation, so ya, basically should just let them do what they want to do.

On another new with them being pissed at us for interfering, we got North Korea probably going to launch a nuclear missile towards hawaii. How cool is that. :P

[Oni-Paranoia]

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

Well if you look into World war I, the killings at Battles such as those of Verdun and Somme resulted in millions of casualties, which didn't help any country that much.

It helped though, didn't it? Some countries need to sacrifice more than others, which is a shame.

[A2P]

Originally Posted by Plan_Bsk81127

Something politically going on, and they are pissed at us for trying to interfere with the situation, so ya, basically should just let them do what they want to do.

You're not serious are you

I mean, by letting them demoralize their people for power, they are proving how the Iranian government has gone drunk with power, not to mention that this wrong on just about every level.

You can't be serious, right

[insanefreddy926]

Check out this article to learn about what's going on.

And after you read that, keep up with this site for real news and media from Iran.

[Relambrien]

I was wondering if anyone would ever make a thread about this.

Basically, here's what happened that brought the situation to where it is today. In 1979, the Iranians held a revolution which overthrew their dictatorial Shah and installed a new government based on Islam. Thus, the Islamic Republic of Iran was created.

Fast forward thirty years, and all the "baby boomers" born after the revolution make up the majority of Iran's population. These 20-somethings also have a very large number of degrees in things like engineering or medicine, and as such tend to be more educated, secular, and liberal than Iran's older, rural population.

So the 2009 election comes around, and there are two main front-runner candidates. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man we all know and love as being the one to say that Israel should be wiped off the map (however I have heard this is actually a mistranslation), and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who runs on a platform of relatively-liberal political reform. In the end, the vote result was that Ahmadinejad won by a very large majority--and this caused a lot of people to wonder about the legitimacy of the election.

Besides the fact that Mousavi got a seemingly-ridiculously low number of votes in comparison to his perceived popularity, the final vote tally was released only two hours after polling closed. Additionally, there have been reports of people seeing election officials substituting actual ballot boxes with those previously prepared by the government. Candidates lost their hometowns by ridiculous margins. Finally, there has been voter turnout of over 100% in a very large number of districts in the country. The conclusion is that the election was rigged so that Ahmadinejad would win.

Of course, the government came out and denied this. Also, it doesn't really make sense that this election would be fraudulent, since the actual people in power have no motivation to do so. Because Iran is a theocracy, the President (Ahmadinejad) doesn't have all that much power. The majority of the power lies with the Islamic clerics, who select which candidates can even run for the Presidency. Their leader has the title Supreme Leader, currently held by Ayatollah Khamenei (different from Khomeini, a name you've probably already heard of). Additionally, there is another council of 86 clerics known as the Assembly of Experts, who are the only ones capable of removing the Supreme Leader from power. The Assembly is currently led by a man named Rafsanjani. Anyway, since the clerics select the presidential candidates anyway, what purpose would they have in rigging the election? Whoever wins, it's someone they've approved.

Although evidence strongly suggests that the election was rigged (over 100% voter turnout all over the place being the most incriminating evidence), no one can really say for certain what happened. Maybe it was a plot orchestrated by Ahmadinejad so that he could stay in power, maybe the government was just incompetent, maybe it wasn't actually rigged, who knows. That's not the most important part. The most important part is that the young, relatively-liberal Iranians felt that they had their intelligence insulted with this pathetic attempt at election fraud, and took to the streets to fight for their rights.

Originally it started with massive amounts of people swarming the streets of Tehran. Estimated numbers range from the hundreds of thousands to a couple million. In response, the Iranian government shut down communication, throttling Internet traffic, phone lines, virtually everything you could find. At this point, Twitter became the primary method of outside communication that Iranian citizens had, and there are several people who have faithfully kept the rest of the world updated on their experiences through the site. The people rallied under Mousavi and the color green, historically a symbolic color of Islam, and the symbolic color of Mousavi's campaign. If you look at pictures from the early protests, you'll see people in green clothing, holding up a V-sign with their fingers, perhaps with a sign saying "Where is my vote?"

So then the government reacted, and this is where things get confusing. There are several different branches to Iran's military and police forces. There's the general army, which has declared neutrality in the conflict as they are only to fight -foreign- threats. There's the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, or IRG, the personal army of the Ayatollahs. There are the normal police forces, similar to those in most other countries. Then there's the "basij," sort of like a militia, sort of like the National Guard, sort of like the Boy Scouts, it's weird. The basij are essentially volunteer policemen, and while they don't have any uniforms or anything, they are often called upon by the government to do things. In this case, they are the ones going around beating people with batons, shooting protesters, etc. The reason for this is that a good number of the basij are violently religious, to the point where they believe it is alright to hurt or kill protesters in the name of Islam. These people now have the government's blessing to do what is necessary to control the riots, and are abusing that blessing.

Additionally, there are reports of the Ansar-e Hezbollah, a foreign group, being brought into Iran to quell the protests.

Anyway, time passed and the protests grew stronger and stronger as the government refused to acquiesce to the protesters' demands. Eventually, it grew to the point where although Mousavi is the figurehead of the "revolution," it has gone far beyond simply protesting the election result. The Iranians protesting now are fighting for additional freedoms and a potential restructuring in government. You'll often find them shouting from their rooftops at night, "Allah-u Ackbar!" It translates literally to "God is great!" but isn't really used as a religious thing. It's not even the language spoken in Iran (Arabic vs Farsi). There's nothing I know of that's an English equivalent, but it's sort of like an inspiring, unifying, rallying cry.

In the protests themselves, people will often say "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we are all together."

There have also been the typical other marks of protests: strikes, work stoppages, protesters storming buildings such as basij headquarters, etc.

Other ways in which the government has responded include blaming the protests on Western influence (the UK and US specifically), as well as Israel. There have been religious threats made against the protesters, and now the basij are actively shooting them, as the video with Neda shows. The current situation is delicate in that the basij are the only major players at the moment. If the IRG or army get involved on either side, things will really break out into chaos.

This is another reason that various Western nations haven't been pledging to support the protesters. With the government trying to blame the UK and US on the protests, if one of those nations were to actively say "We support the protesters in their fight against the Iranian government," it would validate those claims and unite a large number of the Iranian people against that country. President Obama has done, in my opinion, an excellent job with his responses, carefully treading the line between appearing too apathetic and too supportive, reminding Iran to respect the rights of the protesters, and warning that the world is watching.

That's the gist of what's been happening. I could write more, but this is long enough as it is, and I'm sure I've made some mistakes somewhere. Anyone more familiar with the situation, please make sure I didn't say anything egregiously incorrect.

[Nyokou]

Yeah, but what pisses me off is that people in America are watching this drama unfold and then blaming President Obama for not doing anything. He's not like a God or anything. It pisses me off that people think America can easily fix problems by just interfering. If anything, America is only adding to the fire right now rather than fixing it. Anything more and it will be an explosion.

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by Plan_Bsk81127

Something politically going on, and they are pissed at us for trying to interfere with the situation, so ya, basically should just let them do what they want to do.

On another new with them being pissed at us for interfering, we got North Korea probably going to launch a nuclear missile towards hawaii. How cool is that. :P

This is what caused the problem in the first place. People with guns took power and did whatever they wanted.

[A2P]

Nyokou:

So...we just let the Iranian government be corrupt?

You know, there was this person that we interfered with a long time ago, and that prevented him from taking over the world. What was his name...Adolf...something, IDK! ?_?

[Nyokou]

Of course not, but with the way things are now, it would be stupid to interfere. They're pissed as hell already that outsiders are trying to interfere already in their country, quite obviously. And what does Hitler have anything to do with this? The only connection he has to the Iranian government today is that they are as psychotic as the Nazi party. I just don't think they have any real intentions of "taking over the world". Not with a super power like us around. I agree that something has to be said by our President to make a bold statement towards the Iranian government but does it have to be said so soon?

We can't really stop the murder and chaos going on in Iran without risking further conflict that could involve Americans. We can't effing save every country out there with a corrupt government.

We have left North Korea alone for well over 50 years now. We have left Fidel Castro in power just as long too. Why don't we just leave the Iranian government alone now too? What's the point in involving ourselves now when we can't solve our older problems? Answer me that? Why involve ourselves in new problems?

I'm frankly just sick of watching America get dragged into the conflicts of other nations.

[DotKritic]

There is voting going on over there. People you see in the video are protesting it.

[Cherubi]

not enough profit to free them so nobodys going to do anything