Iranian supporters of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate
Supporters of Mousavi set burning barricades in the streets and chant slogans as they protest
Holding posters of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, worshippers chant slogans, during Friday prayers, at the Tehran University campus
Supporters of Mousavi 
Mousavi surrounded by a sea of supporters and cameras, as he addresses the crowd
Iranian women take cover from a cloud of either tear gas or smoke at an anti-government protest in Tehran
Iranian riot police clash with demonstrators
A member of a pro-government Basij militia throws a rock from the group's building in the direction of demonstrators as they approach the militia's base, near a rally supporting Mousavi
Supporters of Mousavi take a break from demonstrating
A screen grab taken on June 21, 2009 from a video posted on YouTube reportedly shows Iranian men trying to help a wounded woman named "Neda" after she was shot in the chest during a protest in Tehran on June 20, 2009. She died only moments later. Neda Soltani has become an iconic figure among supporters of the opposition, her memorial on June 22nd was apparently disrupted by Iranian riot police.COMMENTS
She died for nothing. They talk about freedom and liberty but it's all still radical Islam with either side in the Iranian elections. So I guess it's the liberty to choose your Islamist oppressor. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. But I guess it's nice that they're going violent on each other rather than the US.
They are only using the election as an opportunity to mobilize for the fight to overthrow the entire regime. They will succeed eventually. You on the other hand, will be an ignoramus for ever.
And you know that how? Because you dreamed a dream? I suppose that those Ayatollahs supporting the protests are really closet liberals.
I know that because I watch the news. There was an interview with a woman explaining she is actually fighting for women's rights. There are messages coming from protesters saying their hopes are to achieve much bigger changes.
I also know it because I have a brain. If you lived under an oppressive regime, wouldn't you want to overthrow it? Why do you think you are better than Iranians?
Finally, I know it because I was in a similar situation myself, while protesting against the election fraud in Serbia under the oppressive regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
Yes, well I also watch the news and have listened to people say they fundamentally support the status quo with light reforms. If I am a religious Muslim perhaps I am not as extreme as the zealots but still respectful of the Mullahs and the regime. As far as I've read the development of nuclear weapons was hugely popular by both hard liners and reformers. As was hatred of America.
Genius, this is Iran not Yugoslavia. There is nothing in common between the two situations.
You have no idea of the strategy and the tactics involved in overthrowing an oppressive regime which has been in the business of brainwashing the masses for decades. I do, because I was involved in it.
Here is something to think about: if you come right out and say you want a total upheaval, you will immediately lose the support of a huge number of people who may simply be afraid of what immediate pain that may bring.
So, you don't want to come out on TV and say "fuck the Mullahs", you come out and say "hey, look, we are asking for reasonable things, and if they won't even give us that much... well draw your own conclusions".
Think of the "Allahu Akbar" chants. While for you it means they are just showing themselves as religious Muslims, I understood it as the same tactic we employed by chanting patriotic Serbian slogans: it's not because we were nationalists, it's to invoke the authority we knew everyone recognized as above the regime, thus planting the seeds of the idea that the regime is not all powerful, as the brainwashed masses might think it is.
It's good tactics. I dig it, even though I am an anti-religious progressive.
Please comment more. It's good to finally encounter a commenter who knows what the hell it is they're talking about.
Thanks. I think what they are trying to do right now is gather the critical mass. This is why the emphasis on mourning, and the emphasis on being quiet and reasonable. You want to show the regime as being the ones who are the mad dogs in this. It will take a lot of time, however. Years. This is a good start though, the seeds of the idea are planted in many people's minds, even if they don't go out in the next days and weeks to show it.
The main problem is how do you get beyond Tehran. In Serbia, the whole thing finally worked when they (I already left the country at that point) started the rallies in the small towns in the heartland, and then marched towards the capital. This has stretched the security forces into thin bands around the entire country, which were then overrun with almost no violence at all. By the time the mass reached Belgrade, there was a feeling of defeat among the security forces, at which point they decided to switch sides.
On the subject of "they just want free elections": they might as well ask for gay marriages, there is exactly zero chance of the regime giving in on anything. This is why you ask for the smallest change that seems like a really basic right: to show the regime as being absolutely unreasonable and therefore ripe for the fall.
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