With America's independence day just around the corner, thousands of Iranian students and perhaps millions of Turkisk-speaking ethnic Azeri Iranians are preparing for large uprisings against the theocratic regime of Iran. July 9 is the anniversary of student uprisings in 1999 against the mullahs who rule Iran. There appears to be renewed interest in individual liberty in Iran now that Saddam has been routed. "Iraq has given the masses in Iran the belief in themselves that they need to be free. They are not scared of the clerics any more," said Mahmudali Chehregani, a linguistics professor and popular former MP currently championed by U.S. Senator Sam Brownback to help instigate regime change from within Iran.
The mullahs aren't just standing idly by, of course. They have announced that Tehran University's campus will be shut down from July 7-14, and students staying on campus over the summer will have to get a new access pass making it easy to identify potential protesters for punishment.
For daily updates on events in Iran you might want to check out the Iraniangirl blog and IranMania news.
UPDATE: If jk can step on a post, there are a few more blogs that have done a great job tracking the Iranian Revolution: Pejmanesque, Zogby, and of course Michael Ledeen. "Azadi, Arak, Eshgh!"
Posted by JohnGalt at July 2, 2003 09:51 AMYes, there is a shot at bringing freedom to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, liberalization in Pakistan, and pressure on Hamas and the PLO.
Nothing is guaranteed but there is a shot at it. This is what I hoped for when we went to war in Iraq. These are tremendous times.
Happy 4th everybody. I am going to celebrate it over here in the UK. I'm sure they'll have a nice fireworks display and some hot dogs.
Azadi, Arak, Eshgh
Posted by: jK at July 2, 2003 10:28 AM