By Masih Alinejad

As a reformist journalist, I prepared to go to the campaign headquarters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate in Iran’s presidential election.  I scheduled a meeting at the campaign’s main office on Vali-Asr Street with Mr. Massoud Heidari, the former director of Kar news agency, who works at his campaign. I coordinated the plans with my producer - who was making a documentary on the exciting life of an Iranian journalist - so we could go together.  But a simple incident changed everything:  I found my car vandalized.  My car door was jammed, apparently with a crow bar; the vehicle’s tape and CD players yanked out and hung on my home’s entrance door.  A wristband I had in the car also hung next to the players on my door.  They put my reporter’s card under the wheel of the car and left.  I called the police and when they arrived, the officer asked me my occupation.  “Journalist,” I responded. “Oh, so you are a journalist.  I see.  So you know better than I do that this was not an everyday burglary. This kind of vandalism should be considered a warning. Someone wants to warn you. Do you have any suspects in mind?” he said quickly, as soon as he heard my answer.

“Yes. I suspect President Ahmadinejad”, I answered, jokingly.

***

These days, my bitter joke has turned into a bitter reality in Iran. Almost anyone who voted for change and reform has suffered some personal damage or demolition and when asked whom they suspect, they reply, “I suspect President Ahmadinejad’s vote.”

It started when the televised debates in advance of the tenth presidential elections excited people, who poured into the streets in record numbers to support their favorite candidate by chanting slogans. Such images from the city were unprecedented.   

At Tehran University, on one side of the street, on the sidewalk, a group of women, wearing hejab and other conservative attire, shouted slogans in support of Ahmadinejad’s agendas.  On the other side, a seemingly more modern group of youths had their own slogans asking for a renewal of democracy and in defense of Mousavi. At times, the groups threw flowers at each other, but there was no sign of violence, anywhere. Such maturity, rationality and calmness were apparent in people’s faces.

The closer the election approached, the more controversial the color green – the color of Mousavi’s supporters – became. The Islamic Republican Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement cautioning against green and its potential affiliation with other color revolutions, and saying that if reformists sought a velvet revolution in Iran, it had to be stopped and uprooted.  This was where the violence first ignited, later to burst into flames when Ahmadinejad’s victory was announced prematurely. By the time Mir-Hossein Mousavi deemed the results suspect and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rushed to bless Ahmadinejad for winning the election, the Iranian society was in full flames.

This is not just fun and games anymore.  Everyone is suspicious of Ahmadinejad, and no one is throwing flowers at each other anymore. The city is full of security forces.  They first attacked Mousavi’s headquarters in Vali-Asr and Ghaytariyeh streets in Tehran and assaulted the staff. They then staged a mob attack on the reformist newspapers and sites and changed the headlines to reflect support of the government.  Several newspapers have been shut down and several Internet sites are filtered. YouTube, Facebook, Blogfa system and a few other important websites that were used by Ahmadinejad’s rivals are also filtered.

The home offices of several parties have been attacked and the heads of the Participation Front (Jebheh Mosharekat) and the Mojahedin Organization (Mojahedin Enghelab Eslami) have been arrested, so they won’t organize and lead the protest marches. Armed guards are positioned in front of the homes of presidential candidates and anti-riot police beat up people all over the city.

Public anger has increased for the people who now have no access to the reformist leaders, and the anger is manifested in setting buses and banks on fire.  Tear gases and rapid fire cannot keep the crowd at home. 

This how the Iranian conservatives have responded to the doubt – of the nation and the candidates – that has been cast on the results of the election.

After the Supreme Leader approved the election results, the conservatives imposed their control over the capital before the protests and violence could transmit to other cities, such as Shiraz, Mashhad, Esfahan and to even smaller cities.  However, Tehran is still bloody.  The government’s goal is to keep the news imprisoned and send a calm and quiet picture of the country to the world – and wait for official congratulatory messages to be sent to Ahmadinejad by global leaders.   Iranians, however, keep using their cell phones and other small devices to shoot videos and pictures from the demonstrations. They find ways around filtered sites and post these images – to tell the world what is going on in Iran today.

Now is the most bitter moment for me – to sit behind my computer and follow events by connecting to news sites, by connecting to the 3500 “friends” that I have on Facebook, and by publishing the news and the images that the Iranian government has worked to block. This way, maybe these images reach the world, and the world finally hears the voice of a nation that suspects Ahamadinejad and his vote.

And this is not a joke with the police anymore.

–

Published on June 26, 2009