This year on Ashura, Iran's opposition Green Movement stays below ground
The Christian Science Monitor / Scott Peterson
16-Dec-2010

“You remember what [authorities] did to protesting mourners during last year’s Ashura: They threw the protesters off the bridges, ran over their defenseless bodies with cars, and shot at their love-filled hearts,” wrote Mousavi. “Little did they know that suppressing the anger of informed and oppressed people is more dangerous as these voices seek justice.”

Despite widespread frustration, some read hope in signals from the regime, which long ago declared the opposition dead.

“If the sedition is over, then why do [they] keep talking about it?” asks Hashemi. The continued obsession is “evidence the regime knows their basis of support is considerably narrowed.”
Opposition wants action, not just words

But taking advantage of that has not proven easy for the opposition. And not all activists are convinced that Mousavi and his fellows can do so.

Mousavi “is a man of words – great words, too – but we are beyond that,” suggests the young Iranian man sympathetic to the Green Movement. “We don’t need convincing anymore. We need action plans.”

None have emerged yet, he says, and the effort could take years. “The one thing we know for sure is that people have not changed their mind about the regime,” he says.

Even ultra-conservative Iranians in his own family “fumble now when they talk about the [Islamic system], they can’t really solidly support it anymore.”

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