Desperately looking for a change

A Twitter activist on the reformist movement in Iran (7 Dec)


Source


We shouldn’t forget that ordinary people have been scared with all rights to speak up their minds in over 30 years. They need some time and encouraging examples to defeat that and it is exactly what’s happening in Iran since the Election. Iranian people have once again refunded their so long lost self-confidence. People have desperately looked for a change during the last 28-30 years and any attempt for more freedom has been crushed. After the serial arrests/executions of the political opposition at the end of the 70s and the 80s no opposition worth mentioning has excited inside Iran. The reformist movement gave people some hope of improvement and involved the student activists and the students have supported it since the start. It has been the safest way, NOT the fastest, but again the safest way to implement changes and ideas for the students (and the people) since NOTHING else has been allowed. The reformist movement in Iran is very complex and includes so many ideas and interests, for its survival it can’t deny the “Valihe Faghih” but it has been pushing the limits since the death of Khomeini. The Students are women rights movement, human rights activists, socialist and etc… Students are probably the most radical supporters of the Reformist movement and have paid a high price for that. Elderly people who experienced the 1979 Revolution and the Iran – Iraq war are more cynical, most of them didn’t even want to vote in the last three presidential elections, but each election younger has tried to involve them. The reformist movement has helped to regroup and reorganize a solid opposition at the grassroots level in Iran which has grown day by day despite the crackdowns, arrests and many disappointments.


Something has been in the air in Iran for the last couple of years and having AN as president has only intensified it. The majority of the people united determined to get rid of AN this summer and dared to hope for a better Iran and The rigged election pulled the trigger.


I can’t speak for everyone but now after 5 months fight with the coup I am certain that the majority of the people lead by the students want to have secularism Iran. The majority of the people have desired a secular democracy in Iran for a long time, but now they (Greens) know that they can achieve it and the way to do it has been through reformist and will be for some more time and anything else would be stopped quite easily & violently by the coup-maker even more violent than now. You can just hear it through the chants and slogans in every protests that things are changing in Iran. Each slogan includes a powerful message to the Coup and to the world but mainly to other people in Iran. Don’t be afraid we can do this.. Velayate Faghih’s time is over. We passed the redline June 2009. No return, no surrender. We must just keep fighting patiently until the day... The victory will be ours soon …


/Mani


(I have made some small corrections in the text)