November 4 has been a big day in Iran for the past 30 years — ever since the “students following the imam’s line” stormed and seized the American embassy in Tehran in one of the most memorable moments of the Islamic revolution of 1979.
The unremarkable brick building that Tehran taxi drivers still universally identify as the “nest of spies” is the scene of annual mass rallies designed to highlight the regime’s enduring hostility to the United States. But today’s ritual protests against “global arrogance” could turn into one of the biggest displays of opposition to the Iranian
government since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in last summer’s disputed elections.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the man who says he won in June, plans to exploit the occasion to remind Iranians – and the world – that the flame of democracy has not been extinguished despite a crackdown that has seen about 70 dead,
thousands of arrests, show trials, a gagged media, divisions at the top and a profound crisis about the legitimacy of the Islamic system.
November 4, Mousavi told his supporters this week, was a “rendezvous so we would remember anew that among us it is the people who are the leaders&… >>>
