Friday in Tehran

Although, outside of the green gravatars, it has pretty much dropped off the radar in the blogosphere here, the situation in Iran remains volatile. The Iranians aren't backing down from confronting their government. Juan Cole has an eyewitness account of a demonstration last Friday.

Everytime Ansari mentioned the Supreme Leader, the crowd booed. Everytime he referred to the opposition as traitors, chants of "liar, liar" started. When he mentioned that everyone should listen to the advice and dictates of the Supreme Leader, chants of "Death to the dictator" were loudly shouted. When he derailed America and Britian for muddling in Iran's affairs, the crowd erupted in chants of "Down with Russia" (because Russia immediately recognized the re-election of Ahmadinejad and congratulated him). As he spoke of the recent killings of Muslims in China, the crowd chided him and the system for its hyprocrisy. Though there was a visible show of force by the Basij and supporters of Ahmadinejad, almost all the women were decked in green ribbons or scarfs, and many men had on green shirts or hats. The women had all gathered on one side of Qods and wouldn't let the crowd remain silent during Ansari's speech. Many had climbed onto large trash bins or light posts and led the entire streets in chants---all were decked in green and in the face of the Basij, people put their arms in the air, with the peace/victory sign.

Read the whole thing. Riveting. If only Americans had the same courage, we might be able to "change how DC works" for real.

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