Saturday
Sep192009
Iran: Another Qods Day Participant Writes
Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 8:56
The Latest from Iran: Challenge Renewed (19 September)
NEW Iran: The Lessons of Qods Day (Parts 1 and 2)
Iran’s Qods Day: The Participants Speak
The Latest from Iran (18 September): Qods Day
NEW Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)
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Sent by a Tehran resident to an EA source:
Yesterday I had difficulty with my Internet and could not get into my account, but I was a witness of the demonstration, which was beyond my expectations.
This was a long weekend, with Saturday announced as a holiday as well as Sunday, and as it is the last week of summer holidays, usually people get leave of absence to travel before school opens. The city was quite empty; 80 percent of my friends had left the town earlier.
Anyway I headed to the streets, and from the middle of Modarres highway suddenly traffic started. Thousands of cars had been parked in the highway. Then I drove towards Haft-e-tir [7 Tir Square], around noon the crow was getting bigger and bigger, I thought there were millions....It was amazing.
I saw photojournalist colleagues who were not photographing. Journalists had been told not to be at the scene to cover events or they lose their press cards. My photo-journalist friends were just watching and said they had no intention of taking photos for fears of losing their press cards. No wonder there was a poor coverage, especially from agencies who rush to write something before anything happens. The anti-riot police attacked the demonstrators at some point, but there was a funny scene where people were bravely chasing them and they ran away. I could film these moments.
I also saw many buses coming from out of town taking people to Friday prayers. These were governmental buses to organize their event. I am not sure if the opposition demonstration was smaller. I thought it was bigger! The cars were also participating by honking and there was a traffic standstill and people inside cars chanting slogans, "Bullet, tank, rape has no effect" or "Not for Gaza, Not for Lebanon, my life is sacrificed for Iran", "death to you", "death to dictator" etc.
There were demonstrations in other parts of town, northern Tehran's Vanak square, Youssef Abad area, Hafte-tir towards Vali-e Asr and Enghelab Square. Azadi Square and the area between Azadi and Enghelab were locked by security forces.
At some point after riot police increased their forces, we were chased by anti-riot police. I ran inside a building and 20 others joined too. Some of them were beaten, the owner of one of the apartments in the building locked the door but the riot police came, tried to smash the door open, and broke window glasses. We ran upstairs inside the apartment which was a art studio of the owner (an artist and sculptor, it was a beautiful place made of woods and full of abstract arts, which was relaxing a bit :) ) . He locked the door and put tables and chairs behind it and we could watch the security forces, intelligence officers from a closed-circuit camera. They were ringing and we were not answering. It was terrifying and we stayed there for couple of hours; we made friends and exchanged phone numbers. All of these people incidentally were involved in arts, students majoring in theater, music, literature, graphics, industrial design, etc. We started playing a game to keep it cool.
At some point one of the security offiicers in front of building stuck a chewing gum to our camera so we could not check in what was going on and when we can leave. We were scared turned off our cell phones. In the end when the streets were empty we asked friends to check around the area and let us know when we can leave. Anyways I avoid more detail on how we left for safety reasons.
We all got home safely and made new friends!
I was impressed by people's participation and bravery, it was far beyond my expectations.
NEW Iran: The Lessons of Qods Day (Parts 1 and 2)
Iran’s Qods Day: The Participants Speak
The Latest from Iran (18 September): Qods Day
NEW Iran Video: Qods Day Protests (18 September)
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
Sent by a Tehran resident to an EA source:Yesterday I had difficulty with my Internet and could not get into my account, but I was a witness of the demonstration, which was beyond my expectations.
This was a long weekend, with Saturday announced as a holiday as well as Sunday, and as it is the last week of summer holidays, usually people get leave of absence to travel before school opens. The city was quite empty; 80 percent of my friends had left the town earlier.
Anyway I headed to the streets, and from the middle of Modarres highway suddenly traffic started. Thousands of cars had been parked in the highway. Then I drove towards Haft-e-tir [7 Tir Square], around noon the crow was getting bigger and bigger, I thought there were millions....It was amazing.
I saw photojournalist colleagues who were not photographing. Journalists had been told not to be at the scene to cover events or they lose their press cards. My photo-journalist friends were just watching and said they had no intention of taking photos for fears of losing their press cards. No wonder there was a poor coverage, especially from agencies who rush to write something before anything happens. The anti-riot police attacked the demonstrators at some point, but there was a funny scene where people were bravely chasing them and they ran away. I could film these moments.
I also saw many buses coming from out of town taking people to Friday prayers. These were governmental buses to organize their event. I am not sure if the opposition demonstration was smaller. I thought it was bigger! The cars were also participating by honking and there was a traffic standstill and people inside cars chanting slogans, "Bullet, tank, rape has no effect" or "Not for Gaza, Not for Lebanon, my life is sacrificed for Iran", "death to you", "death to dictator" etc.
There were demonstrations in other parts of town, northern Tehran's Vanak square, Youssef Abad area, Hafte-tir towards Vali-e Asr and Enghelab Square. Azadi Square and the area between Azadi and Enghelab were locked by security forces.
At some point after riot police increased their forces, we were chased by anti-riot police. I ran inside a building and 20 others joined too. Some of them were beaten, the owner of one of the apartments in the building locked the door but the riot police came, tried to smash the door open, and broke window glasses. We ran upstairs inside the apartment which was a art studio of the owner (an artist and sculptor, it was a beautiful place made of woods and full of abstract arts, which was relaxing a bit :) ) . He locked the door and put tables and chairs behind it and we could watch the security forces, intelligence officers from a closed-circuit camera. They were ringing and we were not answering. It was terrifying and we stayed there for couple of hours; we made friends and exchanged phone numbers. All of these people incidentally were involved in arts, students majoring in theater, music, literature, graphics, industrial design, etc. We started playing a game to keep it cool.
At some point one of the security offiicers in front of building stuck a chewing gum to our camera so we could not check in what was going on and when we can leave. We were scared turned off our cell phones. In the end when the streets were empty we asked friends to check around the area and let us know when we can leave. Anyways I avoid more detail on how we left for safety reasons.
We all got home safely and made new friends!
I was impressed by people's participation and bravery, it was far beyond my expectations.
tagged Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Qods Day in Middle East & Iran
Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Qods Day in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (6)
BBC , CNN and others better rely on brave anonymous citizen photo journalists than the cowards they have hired in Iran. These so called journalists only care for their pay that is jeopordized if they report anything that the regime dislikes.
It was an absolute lie to report that opposition numbers were smaller than the regime lackys. I was there and saw how the much larger opposition crowd was stopped from reaching Tehran Uni by sec forces and busses parked across the streets.
@ Maziar
I think the Videos speak more then a 1000 words..... Everyone in Tehran knows what time it is...
I also think some journalists have conflict of interest. For instance Christiane Amanpour got back all her seized assets from government of Iran, something most other citizens never succeeded to. You know her assets in northern Tehran is a lot of money. Some areas are comparable with Manhattan in prices. Isn't it a conflict of interest when she is reporting about Iran? doesn't it make her to report with much care, so that she can return to Iran, etc.?
Anyways it makes me think when I hear her reporting. Yesterday it was very bad...it was poor. I used to be a journalist myself and I was at the scene! CNN can do a better job if they try a bit more even if they don't have direct access!
Nona,
A lot of people take Amanpour's reporting regarding Iran as divine Gospel.
What you mentioned up there indeed constitute a conflict of interest.
Would you care to expand about your comments regarding her assets?
Any hard/soft evidence?
I think she makes enough money as it is, the assets were returned to her father who probably needed it more. The greater issue for her is probably the safety of the family she has there ...
Marjan the point is she could get what most citizens could not from government whether she gave these assets to her father or not is another question and not relevant….