UPDATED Iran: More 13 Aban Videos

Video: The Announcements for the 13 Aban Marches

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

UPDATE 3 November: With 13 hours to go before the marches begin, we've added another video.

Last week we noted the emergence of videos on the Internet anticipating and promoting the demonstrations of 13 Aban (4 November). Helpful readers informed us that, while we had not noticed such videos before previous marches, they are spread inside Iran through various means to build and encourage the Green opposition.

More and more examples are appearing on the eve of the protest. Here are five of the latest:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhTAFaplgnA[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NejCbX174Ac[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7rLVMjfRo[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ16mlpLyBE[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qvPS2YD6Hs[/youtube]

Comments

[Adam]

What is that song they are playing in the second video? I hear the students on the youtube videos of the protests singing that song alot during demonstrations, it seems to be a rallying cry for them. What is the song and what does it mean? Why is it an anthem for the Green movement?

[Arshama]

Adam,

"Yar-e dabestani-e man" is a famous protest song, here comes the translation:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/004035.html

MY PRIMARY-SCHOOL COLLEAGUE

My primary-school colleague,
You're with me and along with me,
The alphabet stick is above our heads,
You're my spite and my woe,
Our names have been carved,
On the body of this blackboard,
The hit of the stick of injustice and tyranny,
Has remained on our body,
All the grass of the plain of our not being cultural,
Is weedy,
Its people's hearts are dead,
If it's good,it'll be good,
If it's bad,it'll be bad,
Our hands should,
Tear these curtains up,
Who can except me and you,
Cure our pain?

[Payom]

A Quick qualifier if you don't mind Arshama (in the possible event other readers might or might not be confused) -
Primary School Colleague = Elementary School classmate

(Based on my understanding Dabestan is an equivalent to elementary school)

[Megan]

Adam,

This song is a call for solidarity and a call to action. It addresses his classmates by saying you and I who have our names embossed on this board (referencing the board in the classroom) and still have marks of abuse on our bodies need to together tear up this tyranny.

I must say when I first heard this song last June; it did not do much for me. But listening to it over and over during every protest, I have started to appreciate its profound meaning.

My favorite song, however, is this one http://twt.fm/208952. Toward the end in the background you hear people trying to resuscitate Neda after she was shot.

[Iranyar]

I know that Fereydoon Farokhzad has sung the song but I can't find the youtube clip I heard it from. Not necesseraly that it's his song but I wuldn't bet against it :).

[Iranyar]

I found it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmeeoaYkENg

[whereismyvote]

I have read the translation of Arshama and Megans interpretation, and although both have tried to come close, really the true meaning of the song, can not readily be translated. Unless you attended elementary school in Iran, got beaten by the stick of the principle, under the pretense of learning and enlightenment, unless you understand the innocence of youth and the simplicity of the Iranian elementary school, with its uniforms, books, lesson plans and all, the pain of nostalgia, you will miss the poetry and the deep emotional sentiment that this song invokes. This is also I like to remind you all a song of the revolution that we have taken back. It does not belong to the green wave, as much as it belongs to the revolution, and with all symbols of the revolution, we the greenites are reclaiming it.

[Megan]

WMV,

I want to respectfully leave you with a word of advice. Please do not assume and pass judgment based on a few data points. For example you cannot assume, based on one’s writing in this blog, that they are not the product of Iranian school systems. Indeed some may have been both pupil and teacher in Iran elementary school system.

My sensitivity to your comment has nothing to do with interpretation of a song or getting the meaning of it as you put it. It has to do with exclusiveness. Many (I am not suggesting you are one of them) keep pushing others out as if they have monopoly on understanding Iranian society, culture, custom or Iran's history and politics. This behavior especially at this sensitive time in history is futile.

If you are in Iran, at this moment in time you and the rest of us are separated only by a few thousand miles of space and not the desire for living free. If you are outside of Iran you are just like us.

I would like to see us all pushing the door together until we busted it wide open and let the sunshine in. As Hossein writes, from Iran, on this blog enough is enough.

I hope I see you all in Azadi Square soon.

[parvati_roma]

Here's the same 13 Aban marching song featured in the first video, but with English subtitles (linked from Mousavi's FB page) - very eloquent!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98zgLNLj8s

+ best English-subtitled version of Yare Dabestani Man I've found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdKDtQRvMFM

[whereismyvote]

Sorry Megan and all Iranians.

[Tessa K]

whereismyvote: I actually liked your description of Iran's grade schools and how they were. Made me quite nostalgic, and sad. So many bright, creative minds crushed systematically in the Islamic Republic school system, told to cry "death to" people and countries they knew nothing about. Truly those who went to those schools can appreciate this song.

[Hamid]

I personally like the "Yar-e dabestani" song because it's not fatalistic. Contrary to what many among the older generation (mine) still think, our destiny is in our hands and only through our own efforts can it be changed: "Who can except me and you, Cure our pain?". This by itself is a major cultural change in Iran where common wisdom used to be that all changes, including the 1979 revolution, were decided and implemented by "foreigners" (USA, UK, Russia, take your pick depending on your political leanings). IE we Iranians were only powerless bystanders and the victims of "machavelian foreigners". I'm delighted to see the younger generation debunk this fatalistic mentality.