Word: basij
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...recent days, despite the regime's heavy-handed efforts to stifle the resistance, public demonstrations have become more decentralized and frequent as protesters become increasingly bold and defiant. This shift in mood - from despondency in late June after the Basij fired on protesters following the June 12 presidential election, to a renewed sense of optimism - signals that the vocal opposition movement will not be going away anytime soon. "It's the national duty of every single man and woman to go to the streets," said a university student protester in her mid-20s. "This is far from over...
...tied to significant dates; for instance, in the past week demonstrators marched to protest the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term, to object to the renewed mass trial of political dissidents and, on another occasion, simply to take advantage of a religious holiday when many devout Basij members would be in mosques. (See pictures of the Basiji terror in plain clothes...
...trash bins on fire in the middle of streets to block the entry of motorcycle gangs. According to several protesters, many in the crowds have carried handbooks detailing how to fight against the security forces, including giving suggestions such as how to disable the ubiquitous red motorcycles of the Basij paramilitary. Forum boards have called for people to scatter ball bearings in the streets or place upside down frying pans on the sidewalks to look like IEDs to scare off the Basij. (See a story about the Tehran protests on Neda's 40th-day anniversary...
...more spontaneous protests, with turnouts of perhaps a few hundred, are still a cat-and-mouse tussle with wary security forces, most of whom are no longer armed with guns. But the Basij have responded to the increasing fearlessness of the protesters - many no longer run away from tear gas, and according to one witness, some have kicked the canisters back at the riot police. Now the Basij go at the demonstrators with chains, whips, Tasers and metal pipes. One protester said she has seen them use paintball guns to tag protest leaders for later arrest. At a recent press...
...able to hold public concerts that hundreds of fans attended. Now, even concerts held at private residences are likely to be interrupted by the religious police. He describes a recent rock party thrown by his friends where some 200 concertgoers were arrested in a late-night sting by the Basij; later, the government issued a news report that a "Satanic underground movement" had been infiltrated and broken...