think about this the next time you get an "unfair" ticket...

[phredgreen]

these guys are the true heroes in my eyes... standing up to insurmountable odds to make their voices heard. my heart goes out to their well being.

<i>as seen here:http://www.nationalreview.com/commen...shar061703.asp</i>
<b>The Blood of Iranians
Fighting our way to regime change.

By Koorosh Afshar</b>


TEHRAN, IRAN — During the past few nights, we Iranian youth have been agitating — at great risk to our lives — to remove the 24-year-old plague that has stricken our homeland. Our goal is to topple the theocratic regime of the mullahs. Our opponents are barbarian vigilantes — members of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah — who are backed by heavily armed Iranian riot police.

Westerners may have difficulty imagining what these people are like. In fact, it's quite easy: Simply remember the Taliban. The only difference is that they don't wear Afghani clothes.

In the past few nights, my peers — and our mothers and sisters — have poured into the streets of our city. Some of us have been arrested and many have been injured by the ruthless attacks of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah. These people attack whomever they see in the streets with tear gas, sticks, iron chains, swords, daggers, and, for the last two nights, guns.

It has become almost routine for us to go out at night, chant slogans, get beaten, lose some of our friends, see our sisters beaten, and then return home.

Each night we set to the streets only to be swept away the next dawn by agents of the regime. Two nights ago, on Amirabad Street, we wrote "Down with Khomeini" on the ground. Before long, the mullah's vigilantes attacked us on their motorcycles. They struck a female student before my eyes so harshly that she was no longer able to walk. As she fell to the ground, four members of Ansaar-e-Hezbollah surrounded her, kicking her. When I and two other students threw stones at them so that they would leave her alone, they threatened us. We escaped into a lane and hid in a house whose owner, an old lady, had left the door open for us. A few minutes later, we saw the young lady being carried away by riot police, her feet dragging on the ground, her shattered teeth hanging out of her still-bleeding mouth.

At least three of my best friends have been detained; nobody knows anything about their fate.

Yesterday I heard that the prosecutor of Tehran has announced that most of the detainees are hooligans with criminal records. What sort of criminal record does he mean? Perhaps the crime of walking with a person of the opposite sex? Of wearing Western clothes or playing a cassette in the car?

I was just talking to a friend who lives in a dormitory called Allammeh tabatabayee. He told me about what happened three nights ago when Ansaar-e-Hezbollah attacked the dormitory:

It started just before 10 P.M. We were chanting slogans against the regime, specifically the so-called leader. At first we were behind the gate of the dorm, inside the yard. When we went to the highway in front of the dormitory, a group of around 100 riot police arrived and started throwing stones at us. We retaliated from the roof of the dormitory building. At 2 A.M. Ansaar arrived.

They got shields from the police and entered the dormitory. There were about 600-700 of them — armed with swords, sticks, daggers, iron chains, and tear-gas guns — to 700 of us students, mostly in pajamas. We had run out of stones to resist any longer….

They entered the dormitory and shot tear gas, sending all the students fleeing to their rooms; then they entered the buildings, and started kicking in and breaking down the doors....

They were shouting "Rahbaraa az maa bepazir" — "Leader accept this from us." They captured my roommate and tried to stab him in the stomach with a dagger. He managed to grab the blade of the dagger, holding it tightly in his hands. His attackers pulled it out and struck him on the back. He now has a wound 15 centimeters long and 3 centimeters deep. As a result, he has been hospitalized, his thumbs almost detached from his hands....

Three attackers found an unlucky student alone in his room. Two held his hands at his sides while a third sodomized him with a dagger, inflicting a wound 12 centimeters deep. The student was taken to a Shariati hospital and bled for hours. He is still fighting for his life....

In another room, a student jumped from a third-floor balcony to the ground when he saw the tip of an attacker's sword breaking through the door to his room....

I visited the dormitory myself. The blood spots were still there. The doors were mostly broken. But we will continue to shed our blood, if that is what it takes to obtain the freedom we seek.

so as much as i don't like our government, i'm still happy as hell i'm here and not somewhere like that.

[vermin]

Kinda makes ya glad to see jokes about the president, even if you like him.

At least here no one's gonna kick in your door and sodomize you with a knife. Since Janet Reno's gone.

[MSD]

I think that we're to the point where all they have to do is ask and we'll help them. I think that a request from the people would clear us with international law, and [I've decided to remove my politically motivated rant seeing as this isn't the politics board]

[asquint]

They deserve assistance but it has to be a multinational force, we are currently stretched to thin to effectively assist them. I am a firm believer in exporting democracy, but, we have many irons in the fire right now and the addition of a conflict this size will overextend the military. We are overextended now and there is already talk of providing military assistance in Liberia.

[WhoaitsZ]

i hate our government, but i'm with phred here. compared to their sittuation we basically don't have the right to THINK of our woes.

what is sad, we be back to our woes quicly. i will not lie: i'll be back to that stage soon.


i hope they get reliefe.. and north koreans too.. africa...

as for doing it multi-national, asquint, i agree but the problem with true need is it goes very quickly for most people. if they do not get reliefe all we have done was carry false, albeit good, intentions.

[Slims]

This makes me glad to live in America. I admire the courage of the 'agitators' and I think that change is inevitable, eventually.

[Fire]

Sad stuff- note that here we have these things called armed citizens- hard to sodomize you with a dagger after you shoot them a few times.. standing up against that kind of stuff takes some mighty mojo, especialy when all you got is rocks.

[The.Lunatic]

Originally posted by WhoaitsZ
i hate our government, but i'm with phred here. compared to their sittuation we basically don't have the right to THINK of our woes.

what is sad, we be back to our woes quicly. i will not lie: i'll be back to that stage soon.


i hope they get reliefe.. and north koreans too.. africa...

as for doing it multi-national, asquint, i agree but the problem with true need is it goes very quickly for most people. if they do not get reliefe all we have done was carry false, albeit good, intentions.

What do you hate about our government. Because the government is just a reflection of the people in this country so bassically you just said that you hate the people in this county.

I wonder what your beef is with this country the fact that we're not perfect?

That seemst to be common ground for most.

I'm sure you also hate the countless freedoms we have that no other country has obtained to the extent that we have.

Or maybe its the prosperous economy.

Or the abiltiy for a person of any stature in life to climb the social ladder if he/she has a litte bit of luck, and a good work eithic.

Or maybe its the outstanding education you can get in this country if you apply yourself.

Who knows maybe your problem is that this country is our amazing military in which trained service men die every day to maintain your way of life. Everybody hates that our country is fine and people are constantly trying to improve it further have a little respect. Its not perfect, but then again democracy isn't the most efficient government its just the best.

[Cynthetiq]

countries without due process sucks...

[troit]

*shaking head in disbelief*

We should all bookmark this thread and re-read it the next time we're sitting around at our desks, sipping our Starbucks coffee and complaining about mundane and complicated our lifes have become....