Word: basij
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...office manager in northern Tehran, alluding to the days before the 1979 revolution when the country was ruled by the Shah and his much-feared secret police, SAVAK. "They [the security apparatus] are lashing out because they're afraid the system is going to fall." (See pictures of the Basij in action: terror in plain clothes...
...know whom to trust nowadays in Tehran. Members of the feared Basij paramilitary roam the streets at night, often blending in with people lounging in parks or window-shopping at the capital's many squares. Locals are reluctant to discuss anything remotely political in public, let alone divulge their opinions. And looming over everything else is the constant paranoia of surveillance: on the Web, over the notoriously unreliable mobile networks, on the hectic, crowded streets, even at work...
That is mainly to try to avoid bumping up against the Basij, who rule the streets. The government has chosen to rely increasingly on the force, which some believe to number more than 100,000 in Tehran alone, though that statistic is impossible to confirm. In previous days, they were primarily shipped in on a temporary basis from the more conservative countryside to quash planned street demonstrations. But now they seem here to stay. They operate out of the city's mosques, from which they venture out to patrol the streets at all hours of the night on motorcycles, often...
...Iranian women in their early 30s who live in a tony neighborhood in northern Tehran say they do not go out alone after dark, particularly because the Basij have been cracking down on partygoers who try to circumvent the Islamic Republic's strict rules forbidding alcohol, dancing or consorting with the opposite sex. One university student, who claims that the Basij raped his former girlfriend after she left a party last year, says he has avoided venturing out at night since the election. If he does have to go out, he calls a taxi to come directly to his apartment...
...perhaps have less to lose; one man in his 30s, who earns roughly $300 a month working three jobs, has been to almost every protest thus far, with a bag of metal bearings in his pocket and a slingshot under his belt that he uses to target the Basij. "Yes, I'm risking my life," he admits. (See a video of TIME's Joe Klein discussing Iran's election...