Word: basij
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...Ahmadinejad's supporters remain confident, however. On Monday, tens of thousands gathered to hear the President speak at a large mosque in central Tehran. Although many were clearly recognizable by their dress as religious conservatives and members of the basij militia, there were also liberally dressed attendees throwing their support to Ahmadinejad...
...government and the Revolutionary Guards corps. The Mahestan mall sells mostly religious paraphernalia--Koranic software, recordings of religious chants, speeches from modern Islamic heroes like Khomeini, Ahmadinejad and Lebanese Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah--that constitute a kind of state-sponsored Islamic pop culture. Such a culture sustains the Basij movement, which is itself part of the way the government tries to channel a generation that grew up with no memory of the Shah into continued support for the revolution. "Basij is not an organization only--it's a spirit," says Mariam Saemi, 22, a student at Tehran University. "The purpose...
...Abolghasemi is the leader of 300 basij women, a network of volunteers allied with the Revolutionary Guard and political conservatives. It was the grassroots efforts of groups like hers that helped conservatives take control of the legislature from reformists in 2004, and swept President Ahmadinejad to victory in the 2005 presidential election...
...quarters of Guard members voted for moderate President Mohammad Khatami, suggesting its majority have more in common with ordinary Iranians chafing under a poor economy, than with the hard-line newly rich leadership clique. In working-class districts of south Tehran, the discrepancy is visible among members of the Basij, a voluntary paramilitary organization that overlaps with the IRGC's membership. The sons of some elite IRGC commanders carry the latest mobile phones, attend top universities, and are as Internet savvy as teenagers in the West. The foot soldiers of the Basij, in contrast, often cobble together work as motorcycle...
...Some analysts say the growing activities of the IRGC's engineering arm reflect an effort by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to extend the economic privileges within the Guard's lower ranks. "That the President owed his election to Basij support naturally supported this trend," says Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert and professor at the University of Hawaii...