Radio Farda sends along another letter it received from a journalist Teheran last night. It is written under the pseudonym E. Ahmadi:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I woke up with a splitting headache this morning as the sounds of honking cars, loud explosions and screams and chants of last night were still echoing in my head. After sipping a dark coffee I headed towards the newspaper that I work. To my surprise the editor asked all ladies to leave the premises and not to come back to work until the situation becomes calmer. The secret police and "Ministry of information Militia" have warned all journalists and anybody who works in newspapers that their lives are in their own hands. So the editors and the managers did not wanted to take any risks and respectfully asked all female employees to leave. It seems that the tramodern (modernizing traditional) society of Iran still considers all women as "zaeefeh" (less powered).
I met a friend of mine for lunch in a hip coffee shop at 1 pm and our conversation as well as every other conversation at all tables was about the elections, cheating, riots, and killings. My friend Maryam was not feeling well; she had been in "Atieh Hospital" in Shahraq Qarb (North-West of Tehran) that morning and had witnessed two people being treated in the emergency rooms: a person shot in the head and another one attacked by an Axe who had lost his kidney. As Maryam was speaking a man sitting next to us brought out a picture of a person who was shot during Monday's demonstration near Azadi square. Conversation flared up as every person lost their appetite and the anger grew over the killings and the utter violence of the ruling elite in attempt to control the situation and scare off people. Rumors about foreign mercenaries grew, about Russians, Venezuelans, Lebanese, Sudanese, and Palestinians who might be the ones who are doing the actual beating and shootings. But then one person said "hey, these are our own people, with a twisted fundamentalist mentality. The guns maybe Russian made but we have to accept that our own people are killing us. We have to find a way to bring them back to us….." His words ringed in my ears.
I knew that communications would be lost in the afternoon (an interesting technology provided by a particular Scandinavian IT company that results in total disruption in mobile phones) therefore I called my friends and coordinated our actions for the afternoon demonstration in "Hafte Tir Square" and started to move to the area around 3 pm. On my way towards Hafte Tir Square in "Hemmat highway" (going west to east) I saw a column of black painted automobiles (VW vans and Toyota trucks) carrying anti-riot guards towards Hafte Tir square. They were from Sarallah Garrison, 13th division. At first I wanted to roll down the window and start swearing at them from the bottom of my lungs but then my ears started to ring again so I rolled down the window and screamed "Khaste nabashin" (a phrase in Persian that wishes relief of hard work for the other party) while showing a victory sign with my fingers. It worked. A couple of them smiled back at me and one of them secretly showed a V sign while holding his hands hidden from others. The ice broke. "Don't hit us" I cried while Maryam sped off.
5 pm, Hafte Tir square, as usual fearful of persecution we met with our friends in a small quiet street in Bokharest Avenue (north of Hafte tir square) and decided to walk in groups of two, just like we did on Monday's mass rally, to reach Hafte tir square. As we walked down Bokharest Avenue and then Ghaem Magham Farahani Avenue (the continuation of Bokharest Avenue south of Motahari blvd.) our numbers grew. It was like small streams of water making a thunderous and roaring river. By the time we reached Hafte Tir Green colors of Mr. Mousavi supporters and in smaller groups "white and red banners" of Mr. Karoubi supporters dominated the whole square. I lost all fear. Safety in numbers! There was no sign of the black colored vehicles or any of the guards. The demonstrators started to educate the world, it was the most peaceful, cultured, civilized and silent demonstration that I had ever seen or heard. Over half a million people did not chant a single word for over three hours. After 8 pm again the "uncomfortable annoying but effective honking of the horns of the cars" campaign restarted. As I headed home I did not see any burning garbage carts, tires, or motorbikes. But I wondered if we have the right unity to see a change and if this cultured attitude would continue or lead to another fascism. Right before I went to sleep I heard some explosions from faraway.
E. Ahmadi
Tehran
