Need a Break.... (06/18/2009)

I first posted this on my personal journal on June 18, 2009.

I feel a bit drained.

I'm reading up on things happening in Iran...but it's not as urgent as it was a few days ago. For one, the violence during the protests seems to have stopped and peace has again been brought to the demostrations (there are even spontaneous demostrations, like people waiting for subways just start chanting and clapping hands. However, this does not mean that things are completely peaceful.

It's not so much an organized movment but a movement of the people just trying to show support of change in their government. It reminds me of the Prop 8 protests...just that instead of facing the opposition who won they also face the thugs employed by the ruling government to squash dissent.

It's interesting to note that on Nico's HuffPo page there is a translation from a newspaper about a physical altercation that happened in the Iranian Parliament about the plainclothes people assaulting the students in Tehran University's dorms.

Yesterday a couple of the members of the Iranian parliament started asking question regarding the plainclothes security forces who have been beating the protesters in Iran.

Apparently, Abutorabi (Parliament secretary) questioned the connections of the plainclothes security forces who had earlier storm Tehran University's dorms and killed and injured students. Abutorabi claims that those individuals have been identified and says: "Why do plainclothes individuals without permission from the government get to storm the dorms?"

Then Ansari, a member of the parliament took the floor and talked about the "fact finding" committee and the fact that everyone in that comity is an Ahmadinejad supporter and therefore questioned the legitimacy of the committee.

After Ansari, Abutorabi took the floor again and continued questioning the plainclothes security forces once again. At this point Hosseinian, Koochakzadeh, and resaee, the three biggest supporters of Ahmadinejad in the parliament, started a verbal argument which ended with a number of physical fights. As a result a number of pro and anti Ahmadinejad members of the parliament join the fight and start slapping and pushing each other.

In the end, the anti Ahmadinejad block claims that they will expose the identities of those behind the plainclothes security forces.

Looks like it is not just the people who are making their voices heard.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/18/iran-unrest