More Protest In Iran

[Darth Rotor]

Will it do any good?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33614787/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

Note the caption for the picture:

This photo, taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, shows anti-government protestors chanting slogans on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies Wednesday
Disclaimer, or caption? ;)

AP probably does not want its reporters imprisoned.

Or something like that.

DR

[tyr_13]

Will it do any good?


Hopefully.

[GreNME]

Nice to see some in the US media still paying attention to the protests that haven't stopped over in Iran. They protested during the al Quds celebration, they've protested at least once in an organized fashion between then and today, and today the "official" (read government) celebration was of the taking of the US embassy. What's more, since August these protests have been completely un-sanctioned by the Iranian government, which allows for political protests just prior to and, in some cases, shortly after political elections, but not after inauguration, at which point people are 'encouraged' to STFU.

As for whether it will help: well, it didn't help back in 2005 when people protested for nearly a year after Ahmadi was elected. However, more people were attacked, injured, arrested, and/or killed this year, which doesn't bode well for the old-school hardliners in the Iranian government. Four years from now even more youth will be of voting age, and if the current opposition can keep up a relative momentum during the interim (which seems likely so far) the current regimes, both of the Supreme Leader's absolutist and Ahmadi's more nationalist faction, will hopefully see more open and vocal opposition highlighting the increasingly obvious lack of free and fair elections in Iran. Overall, this should help Iranians, but that doesn't speak to what that will translate to on the international stage (yet).