Accounts of 22 Bahman from Tehran – Part 1

The fragments below are translations of eyewitness accounts mostly posted to Google Reader by those who participated in today’s protests:

1. We arrived at Tohid Sq at 10:30. There, small groups of 50 people or so were following one of these trucks that carried loud-speakers. Proponents of the green movement were in that rally as well, but they seemed to be feeling that they couldn’t form their own group.

Security forces viewed everyone with suspicion and tried to stop people from gathering around one another. I had a green wristband. One of the [members of security] saw it, walked toward me, and forced the wristband out of my hand. I did not resist because I didn’t want to get detained. Since we had sensed danger around Tohid Sq, we didn’t stop there and walked elsewhere.

From Tohid Sq, we walked to Sadeghieh Sq [where Karoubi had announced that he would join the people]. There were more people there, and they had managed to make a crowd. But the presence of security forces was very heavy. I heard the sound of tear gas firing multiple times. There were slogans of ‘death to the dictator’ here and there but scattered; the situation was dangerous.  We didn’t feel secure enough, and we didn’t want to get detained – that’s why we didn’t get out of the car.

We were driving from the Sadeghieh Sq toward Ashrafi Isfahani St. Both sides of the street were filled with people and security forces. We then drove to Haf-Tir Sq; from there to Vali-Asr Sq; and then to Vanak Sq. There was a heavy presence of security forces all the way. There were people, but due to security they couldn’t come together and form a crowd.

If I were to compare, today looked more like the 13 Aban rallies, the difference being that on 13 Aban we could at least shout slogans. But today we couldn’t even do that. In any case, my observations are not complete because we couldn’t get to Revolution St. and we didn’t see many of the other regions. Moreover, because of the harsh reaction in the beginning, we mostly stayed in the car and did not walk around anywhere.

2. Special kiosks had been set up the day before, playing the Koran from loudspeakers and stocking up on fruit juice and cookies. The night before, these kiosks had been filled with militia and security forces, and along with the special guards, they had closed down all routes to Azadi Sq; they were controlling the flow of traffic. They were body-searching everyone, arresting those who had green symbols, and taking them to cars parked in adjacent streets. Eyewitness reports indicate that more than 30 people were arrested in just 15 minutes. Another eyewitness who wishes to remain anonymous said: I’m so worried for those detained. They’ve detained so many. Anyone who was going to chant anything and anyone who was carrying green was taken away.

3. A large number of protesters (including me) had no green symbols with them in the demonstrations.  The environment was such that we could not show ourselves. If you are watching the videos, you will not be able to recognize this, but correct your analysis of the numbers: those you see on State TV in Iran are not all government supporters. A large group of these folks (I don’t know how much, but in Ariya Shahr where I was, about half) were opposition forces.

4. Before the demonstration, we screamed, we shouted: this is such a stupid idea. We kept arguing that we could not “capture” Azadi Sq, and this will only help the enemy. No one listened.

I let a pedestrian get into my car. She was crying. She said they were all on our side, but we did not dare move.  [Government supporters] had come from 6 am; there was a boy who had a very religious look to him, with a beard and a keffiyeh. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with his keffiyeh, and asked her: “How do you know they were all on our side?” The girl responded, between tears: “Because they were not repeating the chants heard over the loudspeakers.” And the boy was calling the system every unprintable name under the sun.

I asked: “So why didn’t you shout something else?”

She said: “Because there were scores of security forces between us. And, besides, you couldn’t tell if the one standing beside you was a government supporter or not.

I asked the boy: “So, why have you made yourself look like this?”

He said: “They told us to. I read so in Balatarin.”

When my wife heard the word “Balatarin” she shook her head and I wished that I, too, had a keffiyeh to wipe off my sweat.

5. . I was happy to see the faces of green people; I had missed it.  We were in Sadeghiyeh Sq. from before 10 to around 12. We found each other quickly, chanted a bit, and sang the Yare Dabestani song. There may have been around 100 of us . They dispersed the crowd ..  there were many, many, many anti-riot polic, basij, plain-clothes militia..

6. Nothing [really] happened from the boulevard and Enghelab Sq as far as Sharif [university]. From Kargar intersection to Engelab, anti-riot police [were seen] wearing gas masks! They were standing at every 10 cm!

7. I went from Vesaal to Vahidiyeh … I was going crazy .. I thought the greens were not to be found anywhere … basij were everywhere  … I lost my mind; I was stuck in traffic for an hour and went crazy.

8. : The three roads to the north of Iran (Rasht, Hezar & Firouzkooh) [a popular travel destination for  Tehranians, whenever there is national holiday]  have been closed down since 6 am (Tehran time); not because of snow or storm but because of traffic caused by travelers. Maybe if the roads were a little more vacant,  today would have been a better day.

9. … we were at Sadeghiyeh around 10-10:30 … kept walking around the square …  crowds of people were standing around the square .. Guards had circled the square … [the area arrouned] Sadeghiyeh , Jenah and Ferdous was full of basij … we could not even [display] our green signs.. Wherever we stopped they would threaten us with batons  and sticks and ask us to move …  the funny part was that [the person responsible for calling out the official  slogans] shouted: Brothers and sisters, unity, unity .. I am not sure which brothers and sisters he was referring to .. anyways, I don’t think he was talking to us …. We were trying hard only to stay in one position, I did not care if they would beat us … [thinking about] it makes me cry .. we really could do nothing …  there were many who came with families, carrying the Iranian flag – they could see that the basij were threatening us with batons and coming our way, but they were still shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was painful to see their five or six year old child looking at us, waving his flag, and shouting “death to hypocrites.”

It was even more painful to see hatred in everyone’s eyes.  [ I am afraid to think] that this will be  the only unity we will [be allowed to have] – this hatred makes me really scared.