The opposition is still alive: You could see that in video footage of a crowd defacing a poster of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an act of public defiance that would have been unimaginable a year ago. But this is a movement in retreat, for now, driven back by the ferocity of the regime.
Repression comes at a cost. Iran’s power in the Middle East came from the idea that it was different from the undemocratic police states of the region, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. That moral legitimacy has been shattered. The men who run Iran are now revealed as just another clique holding on to power.
That’s what the world saw today in Tehran: The commemoration of a revolution whose moral, spiritual and political force is being wasted by the people who now claim to speak in its name. All revolutions have arcs: This one has crested and is heading gradually but inexorably downward.
>>>Person | About | Day |
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نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |