7fatcow.com

Tehran, December 1978

Tehran, June 2009

In light of 7FATCOW being as alive as a pro-Mousavi blog in Tehran, it is appropriate to break this track of slow traffic by bringing you DIRECT reports from those in Iran. A Cow has been in regular touch with residents in Tehran since Election Day in Iran over a week ago, and has heard confirmation of many of the reports and images we've been seeing lately. Here are some more details to fill in the gaps. According to 7fatcow's Tehran informant, who lives in the south near Tehran University:

* Already on Election Evening, when they kept the polls open for an extra 4 hours, the feeling was that practically everyone in line to vote expressed that they were voting for Mousavi. And this was in South Tehran. Unlike Iranians' general mannerisms to push & cut in line etc., everyone was very cordial, even letting otehrs go ahead of them.

 * It is rumored that many of a basijis are speaking Arabic, the assumption being that they are Hamas or Hezbollah members trained in Iran.

* It is the women who are the most brave & have been at the forefront of the green movement from the beginning.

* The calls from the rooftops every night from 10PM on reached a cresendo  Saturday night and is still continuing every night.

* Contrary to the images we see, Tehran is not at a standstill (at least not until today), and Tehranis that need to go about their daily business know to avoid certain areas.

* After Saturday, the people were "in a state of shock" on Sunday from the brutality of the forces.

*  The general mood is that this will take a while & that more "sacrifices" will be needed.

* Travel out of the country seems to still be open, as long as you are not "suspect."

* Before the elections, the anti-cleric secular Iranians debated if they should sit this election out too or vote for Mousavi anyways, despite his being part of the Islamic Republic. While some secularists did sit it out, many DID go and vote for Mousavi, for they see him as a catalist to greater freedoms.

Much of the above may be known to some already, but hearing it live from over there directly gives it ever more validity.

Yes, I know the neo-con & right-wing Israeli views that there is no difference between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad, or that this will ironically make it more difficult for the West to halt Iran's nuclear aspirations, or that this is another case of "limakeh Mitzrayim bivchoreyhem" so who cares? — But lifee aniyus da'ati haklushoh this is nisht oysgehalten, for several reasons:

 1) Even if true, Mousavi is "the lesser of two evils."

2) Think of Mousavi as Gorbachov, who was the precursor for Yeltsin.   

3) Despite Mousavi's central role at the beginning of the revolution, he has certainly moderated, and is even at the point of critisizing some essential aspects of the Islamic Republic. Think of him as in the process of "teshuvah." This has been attested by people who know him for the past 20 years since he left politics until a couple of months ago (e.g. the filmmaker Machmalbuf who knows him during this period). Though he may never admit that the revolution was essentially wrong, he is certainly blowing big holes in the fundamentalist abslutism of the status-quo. (Even Rafsanjani seems to have changed his hardline views a=concerning the revolution, though one must certainly view him with more scepticism and opportunism.)

4)  He is certainly more trustworthy when it comes to "the Bomb."

5) Not supporting him now will send a counter-productive message to all those valient protesters, which include anti-cleric secular Iranians.

6) The opposition MUST stay united. The big flaw of 1978-9 was that the Marxists & the Socialists & Communists etc. were factionalized with inner quibbling, which enabled the Islamists under Khomeini to take over. In fact, there was a brief moment of secular rule for a few months until the Ayyatolah took over (not unlike the Reds pushing out the Whites aty the beginning of the Soviet revolution).

7) Not supporting Mousavi now in order for Ahmadinejad to remain in power so that the West can use this as final "proof" that Iran is extremely radical & hence untrustworthy, meriting to bomb their nuclear sites, will only unite the opposition with the currect regime against this external threat.

8 ) Playing into the Shiite ideology of martyrdom, the more protesters killed, the stronger the opposition becomes validated as being the true heir of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet — the creation myth, so to speak, of Shiite Islam and mesiras nefesh. The more the opposition demonstrates and fataly fall, the stronger they become.

 So do not be dismayed if the opposition uses Islamic slogans & scream "allahu akbar." If anything, the protesters are spitting "Virtuous Islam" back in the face of Khamenei, making him unable to claim that they are anti-religious agitators. Let's just hope that the young Iranians do not fall back into an opium stupor, as many of this generation in Iran have.

Yidden! Goyim! it is time to take a stand up for those whose blood is spilling for freedom!!! 

Here are some sites for un-to-the minute info on what is going on.:

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

There are several others, including facebook (e.g. for the young woman Neda who was killed & dies on camera) & flickr photo sites & much video etc. etc., but this is a start. The guardian and BBC have also been on top of it, as has Reuters etc.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article of how Western companies helped Iran install a sophosticated system to spy on the content of all internet & email outlets in the country, & even able to rewrite content with misinformation. Read it here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html

There is so much more, so until next report,  LONG LIVE FREEDOM!!!

Hachoisem bidmo'oys sholish vidam,

Mino'i,

Zoro

Islamo

Yid

(kishmoy kein hu)

PS: Wondering what Neturei Karta's position is on all this. Mohammad, please?