Word: iran
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...pictures from Iran's tumultuous election...
...coincidence that Mousavi's backers are on Tehran's rooftops shouting "God is great," evoking the spirit of the 1979 revolution when Iranians spontaneously poured into the streets, the army laid down its weapons and the Shah had no choice but to flee. It's impossible to tell whether Iran has reached this point again. But even if it hasn't, the open war between the house of Khomeini and the house of Khamenei will forever change Iran...
...just over a week, Iran will see the 40-day anniversary of the death of protest bystander Neda Agha-Soltan - an emotionally charged religious observance that is likely to draw widespread public mourning - and the scheduled presidential inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dates will be opportunities for opposition leaders to press their case. But are they organized enough to do it amid the official repression? And do they know exactly what they are aiming for? (See pictures of plainclothes terrorism in Tehran...
After the postelection crackdown in Iran, presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, in one of his few public statements, declared he was founding a new political organization that would represent the demands of the opposition candidates and their supporters - what is now being called the Green Movement. A Facebook page allegedly organized by Mousavi supporters recently put out an open call for ideas on civil disobedience and new forms of protest. (Read Robin Wright on Phase 2 of Iran's protests...
What kind of organization would this be? Iran currently does not really have national political parties with broad public participation, just political factions and loose associations of like-minded politicians. The history of parties over the past 30 years has not been encouraging. Ayatullah Khomeini founded the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) during the 1979 revolution that ended the rule of the Shah, corralling his various supporters into a single organization. Yet Khomeini used the IRP to push out the competing groups - secular and Islamic - that had taken part in the revolution, consolidating the postrevolutionary government under his auspices. Afterward...