Elcid Asaei
United Kingdom
EUROPE
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![University College London Union was in the eye of the storm following successful co-ordinated protests against a controversial talk on the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which critics had dubbed "regime-sponsored". During the ensuing chaos, Press TV's Yvonne Ridley had to be ushered out by her bodyguard as the police evacuated the building.
Entitled, 1979 - The Revolution that Shook the World, UCLU's James Hodgson had defied calls to cancel the provocative talk organised by the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society, on grounds of "a moral and a legal duty to uphold freedom of speech on campus." His decision had stoked up anger from students and the Iranian ex-patriot community who accused the University of fermenting extremism and implicitly condoning the brutal actions of the regime in Iran.
Hours before Ridley's speech, security had been tightened and guests were asked to show their university identification cards, with a number of attendees turned away. The atmosphere was tense, and according to leading protester Amir, "there was a deliberate attempt to stop protesters from attending." He tells me that he had received information of an Ahlul Bayt organiser overheard on his mobile, saying "your friends are here, the green movement, the green movement."
Following a delay to the proceedings, Ridley finally began her speech in the Darwin Lecture Theatre, juxtaposing the struggle of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Gaza, with the events of 1979. Yet even as she avoided mention of the current situation in Iran, her description of the period prior to the Islamic revolution was unintentionally reminiscent of the present crisis.
"Tens of thousands of Iranians had already paid the ultimate blood-price of standing up against that brutal regime," she said, "[but] the people's movement, despite this horrendous oppression, continued to grow and flourish. By the early 70's the Shah's savage repressive machinery, had set out to crush these dissenting voices."
Ashkan, an organiser of the protests told me later that Ridley was merely a Press TV mouthpiece for regime propaganda: "It's typical and convenient, she is speaking with the voice of the regime ... we wanted to spread the truth to the audience to make them aware of what was really going on in Iran."
In fact, it was when Ridley mentioned the "great rise in peoples power," that Ashkan and the other protesters seated in varying clusters, stood up to unveil flags and banners, declaring aloud: "As a token of respect to the Iranians who were arrested and tortured in Iran."
Chants echoed throughout the lecture theatre: "Stop killing Iranians," "down with dictator," "death to Khamenei" and "Press TV shame on you," could be heard amongst others. At this point witnesses, including myself can report that a number of peaceful protesters were manhandled and some physically assaulted by members of the Ahlul Bayt.
The organisers and some of their supporters attempted to remove flags and banners, and as this proved unsuccessful, in some cases threats were issued both verbally and physically. Amir describes how he was "barged" forcefully and at one point verbally threatened: "One of the organisers grabbed me by my collar and said repeatedly 'you bloody MK [People's Mujahedin of Iran],' even though I'm not with the MK", he tells me.
Others report being branded "royalists" or "enemies of god" which in Iran has already led to the execution of two protesters, one aged as young as 19 years old. Amir also discloses that he saw another protester attacked by Ridley's bodyguard: "He pushed him hard and was going to run at him again when he was thankfully held back – it was very scary."
The situation could have escalated further had the fire alarm not been pushed by one of the demonstrators. Maryam, who was sitting near the back of the lecture hall, recalled how the fire-drill tactic had previously forced a pro-Israeli talk at the School of African and Oriental Studies to be abandoned.
"I tried to break the glass but it was useless at first," she explains, "so I punched it hard with my phone," she laughs. "The girl next to me who I first thought was a supporter of the regime noticed and said, 'well done, I seen what’s been happening in Iran.'"
Yet for many of the demonstrators, the real success of the night was preventing Dr Mohammad Marandi from making a live speech over an internet link from Iran. In recent interviews, Marandi of Tehran University has inflamed anger over his support of executions and the ongoing clamp down on demonstrations.
Speaking on the following day about the controversy, Hodgson said he was "disappointed" but maintained his previous statements that UCLU has "the legal right as one of a few unions in the country without a 'No Platform' policy for speakers." Asked whether it was an embarrassment to UCL, he said: "Not at all, but clearly we underestimated the depth of feeling."
However, critics of the event are adamant that all societies under the University of London banner are subject to their constitution, and that part of the Ahlul Bayt constitution states it is a religious society.
Harrison Cohen, the Students of Faith Welfare Officer and former president of the Jewish Society in 2007, had told me earlier that the religious motives of Ahlul Bayt should not really be the issue; the problem is the political nature of the event.
"Whilst it doesn't over-surprise me that the Ahlul Bayt is doing this event, what surprises me more on examining it today, is that it doesn't seem to be one that's open to dialogue; it seems to be very one sided in supporting the regime, which I don't think is a good thing at all."
Amir says that "by actually hosting this event, they [the Ahlul Bayt] are playing politics and directly supporting the terrorist government of Iran." Ashkan adds: "We are working through the University of London Union to force pressure onto UCL to answer why they allowed such an event to take place."
Revelations of this latest controversy came hot on the heels of damaging allegations that UCL is rife with Islamic extremism, following the failed terrorist bombing on Christmas Day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who studied at UCL and was the president of the Islamic Society in 2006-2007, the second Islamic society at UCL alongside Ahlul Bayt.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph in January disclosed the number of radical Islamic preachers who've attended talks held in the Darwin Lecture theatre, which ironically include "Muslim radicals who have challenged the theory of evolution".
Of the keynote speakers invited, one had "suggested that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed", reports The Telegraph. Abu Usamah, a preacher at Birmingham's Green Lane mosque had been filmed in a 2007 Channel Four documentary, where he praised Osama bin Laden and said: "If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that's my freedom of speech, isn't it?"
Hodgson reiterated to me that in the case of Abdulmutallab, "it was very easy to point the finger of blame at the university because we were his primary point of contact in the UK, but there is no evidence that he was radicalised here," he says.
A proposed official "review" process chaired by UCL President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, is underway into the actions of UCL Union, following the Abdulmutallab affair. However, Cohen is less confident in light of this latest controversy involving another Islamic society at UCL.
He tells me: "It's a slippery slope if you say that you can't have radical views voiced on campus because you clearly can from all sides of the debate ... but what concerns me is the timing of the event ... I'm concerned about that, that it's something that's only going to cause more division on campus."
Prior to, during and following the talk, both the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society and the UCL Iranian Society have declined from commenting on the story. For video coverage of the protest, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcSdr6A1JDo](http://static1.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_crop_medium_aspect/200-1/photos/251461.jpg "University College London Union was in the eye of the storm following successful co-ordinated protests against a controversial talk on the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which critics had dubbed \"regime-sponsored\". During the ensuing chaos, Press TV's Yvonne Ridley had to be ushered out by her bodyguard as the police evacuated the building.
Entitled, 1979 - The Revolution that Shook the World, UCLU's James Hodgson had defied calls to cancel the provocative talk organised by the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society, on grounds of \"a moral and a legal duty to uphold freedom of speech on campus.\" His decision had stoked up anger from students and the Iranian ex-patriot community who accused the University of fermenting extremism and implicitly condoning the brutal actions of the regime in Iran.
Hours before Ridley's speech, security had been tightened and guests were asked to show their university identification cards, with a number of attendees turned away. The atmosphere was tense, and according to leading protester Amir, \"there was a deliberate attempt to stop protesters from attending.\" He tells me that he had received information of an Ahlul Bayt organiser overheard on his mobile, saying \"your friends are here, the green movement, the green movement.\"
Following a delay to the proceedings, Ridley finally began her speech in the Darwin Lecture Theatre, juxtaposing the struggle of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Gaza, with the events of 1979. Yet even as she avoided mention of the current situation in Iran, her description of the period prior to the Islamic revolution was unintentionally reminiscent of the present crisis.
\"Tens of thousands of Iranians had already paid the ultimate blood-price of standing up against that brutal regime,\" she said, \"[but] the people's movement, despite this horrendous oppression, continued to grow and flourish. By the early 70's the Shah's savage repressive machinery, had set out to crush these dissenting voices.\"
Ashkan, an organiser of the protests told me later that Ridley was merely a Press TV mouthpiece for regime propaganda: \"It's typical and convenient, she is speaking with the voice of the regime ... we wanted to spread the truth to the audience to make them aware of what was really going on in Iran.\"
In fact, it was when Ridley mentioned the \"great rise in peoples power,\" that Ashkan and the other protesters seated in varying clusters, stood up to unveil flags and banners, declaring aloud: \"As a token of respect to the Iranians who were arrested and tortured in Iran.\"
Chants echoed throughout the lecture theatre: \"Stop killing Iranians,\" \"down with dictator,\" \"death to Khamenei\" and \"Press TV shame on you,\" could be heard amongst others. At this point witnesses, including myself can report that a number of peaceful protesters were manhandled and some physically assaulted by members of the Ahlul Bayt.
The organisers and some of their supporters attempted to remove flags and banners, and as this proved unsuccessful, in some cases threats were issued both verbally and physically. Amir describes how he was \"barged\" forcefully and at one point verbally threatened: \"One of the organisers grabbed me by my collar and said repeatedly 'you bloody MK [People's Mujahedin of Iran],' even though I'm not with the MK\", he tells me.
Others report being branded \"royalists\" or \"enemies of god\" which in Iran has already led to the execution of two protesters, one aged as young as 19 years old. Amir also discloses that he saw another protester attacked by Ridley's bodyguard: \"He pushed him hard and was going to run at him again when he was thankfully held back – it was very scary.\"
The situation could have escalated further had the fire alarm not been pushed by one of the demonstrators. Maryam, who was sitting near the back of the lecture hall, recalled how the fire-drill tactic had previously forced a pro-Israeli talk at the School of African and Oriental Studies to be abandoned.
\"I tried to break the glass but it was useless at first,\" she explains, \"so I punched it hard with my phone,\" she laughs. \"The girl next to me who I first thought was a supporter of the regime noticed and said, 'well done, I seen what’s been happening in Iran.'\"
Yet for many of the demonstrators, the real success of the night was preventing Dr Mohammad Marandi from making a live speech over an internet link from Iran. In recent interviews, Marandi of Tehran University has inflamed anger over his support of executions and the ongoing clamp down on demonstrations.
Speaking on the following day about the controversy, Hodgson said he was \"disappointed\" but maintained his previous statements that UCLU has \"the legal right as one of a few unions in the country without a 'No Platform' policy for speakers.\" Asked whether it was an embarrassment to UCL, he said: \"Not at all, but clearly we underestimated the depth of feeling.\"
However, critics of the event are adamant that all societies under the University of London banner are subject to their constitution, and that part of the Ahlul Bayt constitution states it is a religious society.
Harrison Cohen, the Students of Faith Welfare Officer and former president of the Jewish Society in 2007, had told me earlier that the religious motives of Ahlul Bayt should not really be the issue; the problem is the political nature of the event.
\"Whilst it doesn't over-surprise me that the Ahlul Bayt is doing this event, what surprises me more on examining it today, is that it doesn't seem to be one that's open to dialogue; it seems to be very one sided in supporting the regime, which I don't think is a good thing at all.\"
Amir says that \"by actually hosting this event, they [the Ahlul Bayt] are playing politics and directly supporting the terrorist government of Iran.\" Ashkan adds: \"We are working through the University of London Union to force pressure onto UCL to answer why they allowed such an event to take place.\"
Revelations of this latest controversy came hot on the heels of damaging allegations that UCL is rife with Islamic extremism, following the failed terrorist bombing on Christmas Day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who studied at UCL and was the president of the Islamic Society in 2006-2007, the second Islamic society at UCL alongside Ahlul Bayt.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph in January disclosed the number of radical Islamic preachers who've attended talks held in the Darwin Lecture theatre, which ironically include \"Muslim radicals who have challenged the theory of evolution\".
Of the keynote speakers invited, one had \"suggested that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed\", reports The Telegraph. Abu Usamah, a preacher at Birmingham's Green Lane mosque had been filmed in a 2007 Channel Four documentary, where he praised Osama bin Laden and said: \"If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that's my freedom of speech, isn't it?\"
Hodgson reiterated to me that in the case of Abdulmutallab, \"it was very easy to point the finger of blame at the university because we were his primary point of contact in the UK, but there is no evidence that he was radicalised here,\" he says.
A proposed official \"review\" process chaired by UCL President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, is underway into the actions of UCL Union, following the Abdulmutallab affair. However, Cohen is less confident in light of this latest controversy involving another Islamic society at UCL.
He tells me: \"It's a slippery slope if you say that you can't have radical views voiced on campus because you clearly can from all sides of the debate ... but what concerns me is the timing of the event ... I'm concerned about that, that it's something that's only going to cause more division on campus.\"
Prior to, during and following the talk, both the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society and the UCL Iranian Society have declined from commenting on the story. For video coverage of the protest, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcSdr6A1JDo")
by Elcid AsaeiDMTX. A controversial event at University College London Union celeberating the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, was left in chaos following successful co-ordinated protests against the event, with Pr
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by Elcid AsaeiDMTX. A symbolic candle-lit vigil for Neda Agha Soltan was held outside the Westgate House headquarters of Iranian state-owned 24-hour broadcaster Press TV, to mark her 27th birthday. A diverse crowd
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by Elcid AsaeiA blue 'wave' swept through the streets of central London as an estimated 20,000 blue-clad protesters marched to urge world leaders attending the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen to bring
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by Elcid AsaeiThe OneVoice movement is a charity aimed at re-invigorating and eventually resolving the long-standing Middle-East conflict, and as part of a UK Campus tour it held a presentation in University London
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by Elcid AsaeiAl Quds Day rallies are traditionally used to mark the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but outside the Iranian embassy in London, the message on this occasion was against the controversial re-election of Ahmadinejad. London, UK, 17/09/2009
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by Elcid AsaeiAround ten people were arrested as clashes broke out between police and a minority of Muslim youth during a demonstration outside Harrow Central Mosque in Harrow, north-west London, where an anti-Isla
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by Elcid AsaeiParaiso School of Samba kicked off Notting Hill Carnival 2009, London, with style, showcasing breathtaking displays by dancers wearing outlandish costumes in fantastic colours that lit up the surround
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![On the 25th of July 2009, the 'United for Iran' global protest movement hit the streets of London, England, as mass crowds of demonstrators converged outside of the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, where previous demonstrations have taken place. However, where before it was competing factions that flanked either side of the embassy, on this most beautiful warm summer day, the merging of crowds all singing the same songs and voicing a variety of opinions will stick long in the memory of any naysayer who has doubted more than once the ability of Iranians today to unite.
What is more, it wasn't only Iranians that showed up in unifying green, white or black, but the number of non-Iranian participants who were there as one young girl put it to me: "to show that fundamental human rights were a universal value that all people in all nations had the right to aspire to". If anything, the partaking of Amnesty International in the protest was testimony to the universality of the Iranian people’s challenge to the quid pro quo.
It was here also on this day that I met one of those challengers. After he gave an interview to the BBC, I met Mohammad, a 20 year old student who had recently fled Iran following his arrest and detention by the secret police. For his family’s security in Iran, his second name was withheld and there was no way to verify his statements.
The noise was heavy so we walked away from the grandstands and into a small park down Kensington Road. He recounted his campaigning for Mousavi, the post election crackdown, and the moment leading up to his arrest. "My family doesn’t have any [political] connections in Iran; but it was because of my brother ... that I took part in [Mousavi’s] campaign; but he wasn’t involved in anything political before and I don’t think he will be involved in any politics after because of what happened to him."
Immediately, those last words almost prompted me to ask more about his brother, but I momentarily refrained and he went on. "The most suspicious thing happened on election day ... they wouldn't let us into the voting stations at 1030pm, [when] they are meant to close at 12pm. I don't know why, but they said you can't come in even though we had an [identification] card and everything."
"We had a couple of phone calls from other, smaller cities, and they were telling us they didn't have enough ballet paper, or they also couldn’t let anyone in to vote", he adds with the sense of bitter irony in his voice.
These shadow of doubts on the Iranian election were to many Iranians who took part in the June 12 vote, a bitter pill to swallow after Ahmadinejad's disputed victory. For some it gave legitimacy to the regime, and for others it was a way to transform the regime from its innards. How did he feel when he posted his ballot and heard on a website early morning that the incumbent had won convincingly?
He doesn't pause to think, talking straight from the heart: "Not great. We voted for freedom. Not simply the western perception of 'let's free woman by taking off their scarves', but to have free speech; to be able to talk to one another; to talk to other nations and not say things [like Ahmadinejad] which weren't good for Iranian people and our country."
For a second he seemed caught up in the moment, and relayed to me his suspicions following the news of Ahmadinejad's victory. He recalls how all normal lines of communication were "disconnected" between Mousavi's campaign team, and how these doubts led to green scarves and green bracelets gathering in the public squares of Tehran early in the afternoon, chanting their disgust at the result.
"We couldn't believe what was happening, but then we saw the secret police hovering outside, except they weren’t dressed in their normal uniforms, and came wearing safety helmets.”
The moment of attack was both basic and brutal to begin with: "The first and the second day they didn't use any gunfire or tear gas. They were using batons and stones, and actually the stones we were throwing at them, they would pick up and throw back at us."
One of the strongest rumours doing the rounds at the protest has been that many of the Basij forces used in Iran are in fact non-Iranians; trained Hezbollah militia-men whom the government has used brutally to suppress the protests. Mohammad said of one encounter with a Basij who they had grabbed in one of the fights: "We tried to ask him why he had been hitting us, but he couldn’t speak Farsi or even English. We could hear on his Walkie Talkie some Arabic, and when we tried to record it with a camera phone, two or three vans pulled up with around 15 secret police running at us."
Can you explain to me why the government would be doing such a thing; using non-Iranians in the Secret Police and Basij, I asked. "Our first idea is if you're Iranian, it's harder to attack the same person from your country because if you attack me, your brother could be one of the protesters, and if I attack you, I won’t attack my brother. Second of all, Hezbollah are getting money from Iran in return for support. They come to train in Iran near Qom; and their training is realised in their actions so far."
Yet Mohammad's detention came on a Monday two weeks later. He told me he wasn’t involved in any protest then, but was out looking for his brother who had disappeared. "I had heard the Italian embassy was giving sanctuary to injured protestors, but he wasn't there. When I came out [the secret police] were waiting, and then some of them came and lifted me off up the ground, took me into their van and hit me with batons; they put their hands around my arm and blindfolded my eyes, taking me somewhere I couldn’t see."
A week prior, Mohammad told me he had been injured with a dislocated shoulder in one of the protests. Now in secret police custody and under interrogation, his worry was his English driving licence, with the accusations against 'British plots' made by the regime on a daily basis. "But they didn’t realise the significance of it", Mohammad says half-relieved.
"They noticed my dislocated shoulder, and one of them squeezed it hard. When I screamed they immediately accused me of being in the protests, and I remember one of them pushing me onto the floor, and sitting on me."
Mohammad is now very hesitant, and I carefully push forward the question of what was said: "'You are a pretty boy I'm going to fuck' the guard told me ... I was scared and I thought they were really going to fuck me up."
For Mohammad, unlike the many cases of male and female rape including the horrifying murder of Taraneh Mousavi under the custody of the secret police and Basij, he was fortunately given his phone call and his father who was formerly in the army rang a colonel he knew to set him free. "When I came out, the safest place I could go was to my grandmas."
Mohammad's situation meant his contact with his family was minimal, but he had not seen his brother since the 14th of June, and when I could refrain no more I asked him about it. "I hadn’t seen him but he used to call me until the 16th [of June] ... he had been in pain after breaking his arm in the Basij raid on Tehran University. He told me he badly needed to go to the hospital but couldn’t trust anyone, so I found him a place in Shiraz where a [doctor] friend of mine operated on him."
As Mohammad talks I try to sense the stress he must be under, but he seems almost assured that nothing has gone wrong or can go wrong anymore: "I'm confident he's safe; I just know that but can't say why". With that answer it was over, and we returned to the protest where the sound of music and chants once again engulfed the eardrums with a call to revolution. Only now that call seemed of a greater urgency having spoken to Mohammed. His story is one of many, and away from all the noise, hearing it made me understand better why there were so many people demonstrating with one voice. Hope was alive at 'United for Iran'.](http://static4.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_crop_teaser_aspect/100-5/photos/112875.jpg "On the 25th of July 2009, the 'United for Iran' global protest movement hit the streets of London, England, as mass crowds of demonstrators converged outside of the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, where previous demonstrations have taken place. However, where before it was competing factions that flanked either side of the embassy, on this most beautiful warm summer day, the merging of crowds all singing the same songs and voicing a variety of opinions will stick long in the memory of any naysayer who has doubted more than once the ability of Iranians today to unite.
What is more, it wasn't only Iranians that showed up in unifying green, white or black, but the number of non-Iranian participants who were there as one young girl put it to me: \"to show that fundamental human rights were a universal value that all people in all nations had the right to aspire to\". If anything, the partaking of Amnesty International in the protest was testimony to the universality of the Iranian people’s challenge to the quid pro quo.
It was here also on this day that I met one of those challengers. After he gave an interview to the BBC, I met Mohammad, a 20 year old student who had recently fled Iran following his arrest and detention by the secret police. For his family’s security in Iran, his second name was withheld and there was no way to verify his statements.
The noise was heavy so we walked away from the grandstands and into a small park down Kensington Road. He recounted his campaigning for Mousavi, the post election crackdown, and the moment leading up to his arrest. \"My family doesn’t have any [political] connections in Iran; but it was because of my brother ... that I took part in [Mousavi’s] campaign; but he wasn’t involved in anything political before and I don’t think he will be involved in any politics after because of what happened to him.\"
Immediately, those last words almost prompted me to ask more about his brother, but I momentarily refrained and he went on. \"The most suspicious thing happened on election day ... they wouldn't let us into the voting stations at 1030pm, [when] they are meant to close at 12pm. I don't know why, but they said you can't come in even though we had an [identification] card and everything.\"
\"We had a couple of phone calls from other, smaller cities, and they were telling us they didn't have enough ballet paper, or they also couldn’t let anyone in to vote\", he adds with the sense of bitter irony in his voice.
These shadow of doubts on the Iranian election were to many Iranians who took part in the June 12 vote, a bitter pill to swallow after Ahmadinejad's disputed victory. For some it gave legitimacy to the regime, and for others it was a way to transform the regime from its innards. How did he feel when he posted his ballot and heard on a website early morning that the incumbent had won convincingly?
He doesn't pause to think, talking straight from the heart: \"Not great. We voted for freedom. Not simply the western perception of 'let's free woman by taking off their scarves', but to have free speech; to be able to talk to one another; to talk to other nations and not say things [like Ahmadinejad] which weren't good for Iranian people and our country.\"
For a second he seemed caught up in the moment, and relayed to me his suspicions following the news of Ahmadinejad's victory. He recalls how all normal lines of communication were \"disconnected\" between Mousavi's campaign team, and how these doubts led to green scarves and green bracelets gathering in the public squares of Tehran early in the afternoon, chanting their disgust at the result.
\"We couldn't believe what was happening, but then we saw the secret police hovering outside, except they weren’t dressed in their normal uniforms, and came wearing safety helmets.”
The moment of attack was both basic and brutal to begin with: \"The first and the second day they didn't use any gunfire or tear gas. They were using batons and stones, and actually the stones we were throwing at them, they would pick up and throw back at us.\"
One of the strongest rumours doing the rounds at the protest has been that many of the Basij forces used in Iran are in fact non-Iranians; trained Hezbollah militia-men whom the government has used brutally to suppress the protests. Mohammad said of one encounter with a Basij who they had grabbed in one of the fights: \"We tried to ask him why he had been hitting us, but he couldn’t speak Farsi or even English. We could hear on his Walkie Talkie some Arabic, and when we tried to record it with a camera phone, two or three vans pulled up with around 15 secret police running at us.\"
Can you explain to me why the government would be doing such a thing; using non-Iranians in the Secret Police and Basij, I asked. \"Our first idea is if you're Iranian, it's harder to attack the same person from your country because if you attack me, your brother could be one of the protesters, and if I attack you, I won’t attack my brother. Second of all, Hezbollah are getting money from Iran in return for support. They come to train in Iran near Qom; and their training is realised in their actions so far.\"
Yet Mohammad's detention came on a Monday two weeks later. He told me he wasn’t involved in any protest then, but was out looking for his brother who had disappeared. \"I had heard the Italian embassy was giving sanctuary to injured protestors, but he wasn't there. When I came out [the secret police] were waiting, and then some of them came and lifted me off up the ground, took me into their van and hit me with batons; they put their hands around my arm and blindfolded my eyes, taking me somewhere I couldn’t see.\"
A week prior, Mohammad told me he had been injured with a dislocated shoulder in one of the protests. Now in secret police custody and under interrogation, his worry was his English driving licence, with the accusations against 'British plots' made by the regime on a daily basis. \"But they didn’t realise the significance of it\", Mohammad says half-relieved.
\"They noticed my dislocated shoulder, and one of them squeezed it hard. When I screamed they immediately accused me of being in the protests, and I remember one of them pushing me onto the floor, and sitting on me.\"
Mohammad is now very hesitant, and I carefully push forward the question of what was said: \"'You are a pretty boy I'm going to fuck' the guard told me ... I was scared and I thought they were really going to fuck me up.\"
For Mohammad, unlike the many cases of male and female rape including the horrifying murder of Taraneh Mousavi under the custody of the secret police and Basij, he was fortunately given his phone call and his father who was formerly in the army rang a colonel he knew to set him free. \"When I came out, the safest place I could go was to my grandmas.\"
Mohammad's situation meant his contact with his family was minimal, but he had not seen his brother since the 14th of June, and when I could refrain no more I asked him about it. \"I hadn’t seen him but he used to call me until the 16th [of June] ... he had been in pain after breaking his arm in the Basij raid on Tehran University. He told me he badly needed to go to the hospital but couldn’t trust anyone, so I found him a place in Shiraz where a [doctor] friend of mine operated on him.\"
As Mohammad talks I try to sense the stress he must be under, but he seems almost assured that nothing has gone wrong or can go wrong anymore: \"I'm confident he's safe; I just know that but can't say why\". With that answer it was over, and we returned to the protest where the sound of music and chants once again engulfed the eardrums with a call to revolution. Only now that call seemed of a greater urgency having spoken to Mohammed. His story is one of many, and away from all the noise, hearing it made me understand better why there were so many people demonstrating with one voice. Hope was alive at 'United for Iran'.")
by Elcid AsaeiOn the 25th of July 2009, the 'United for Iran' global protest movement hit the streets of London, England, as mass crowds of demonstrators converged outside of the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate.
