A Salute To The Iranian Protesters, Fighting A Theorcracy

It was one year ago today that protests broke out against the disputed Presidential election in Iran which was the catalyst  for the daily protests ever since.

The passion of the protesters won the hearts of many and we’ve been able to watch their continuous fight against a suffocating theocracy each and every day.

On Twitter, there has been a 24/7 amazing show of support to get information from the protesters, then sending it back to other protesters.  The relay of some tweets may have even saved lives.

The Basij last year began marking doors in order to return later to terrorize the residents in order to silence the protesters later during their nefarious nightly raids:

“While most of the world’s attention is focused on the beatings in the streets of Iran during the day, the Basijis are carrying out brutal raids on people’s apartments during the night,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Witnesses are telling us that the Basijis are trashing entire streets and even neighborhoods as well as individual homes trying to stop the nightly rooftop protest chants.”

Still, they did not give up.  The marked doors were tweeted, then information on how to remove the markings were retweeted.  They were ingenious in their thinking.  Some doors were repainted so the marked ones blended in with the others.

When the Basiji were spotted on street corners, the protesters detoured their route avoiding a clash which ultimately could have ended them in the hospital or worse, the morgue.  The Iranian police and Basij waited in the hospitals for the wounded protesters in order to arrest them as they came in for care.  Still unrelenting, protesters sent tweets on how to care for wounds in order to avoid a stay at the infamous Evin Prison where many face execution by hanging.

Neda Soltan became a martyr for the protesters when she was brutally shot in the street with blood pouring out of her strikingly beautiful face.  She died in front of the world.  This video is very graphic:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlehNLfk90c&feature=related[/youtube]

The passion driven Iranians are still a force to be reckoned with.  Personally, I don’t’ think they’ll ever give up.  The theocratic government and stifling regime in Iran attempted to  force them to accept a fraudulent vote,  all the while claiming their vote would be counted.  They stood strong and still do, one year later.

If “President” Ahmadinejad were reading this, I’d have to ask him why he thinks he can stop this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ66E7_5igg[/youtube]

This is what happens if you force your beliefs down the throats of your people.  To believe in God is our choice, our faith.  This is not the way.  What started as a protest asking, “Where is my vote?” ended up being  much more.