Urgh! Politics is boring! Thats what they say and while I understand where its detractors are coming from (white haired old men, stuffy bureaucracies, dreary debate) I also cannot understand it. Humanity, in its current form, exists in a society, so called civilisation. We are a group, a collective entity and how we govern ourselves, the rules, laws and restrictions we place upon ourselves, how we support and define one another, is fundemental to our future and past.
Politics is not dull. The debate rages on. The battle for opposing policies, philosophies, beliefs is unending. We all must let our voices be heard, even if they are questionable, false or morally reprehensible. Free speech is important, it is a required part of a free and vibrant democracy.
Right now, in Iran, free speech is not free. Its cost, its price, is often a bullet.
I am a frequenter of the Onion AV Club, the satirical newspaper's 'arts' section on the internet. They have a feature, 'Videocracy', where they list the top 10 watched online videos of the week. I clicked on one yesterday, not really understanding what I was getting myself in for. I just reacted, and a press of my mouse later, I'm watching a young woman die on the streets of Tehran.
She is standing for a mere second when the video starts. She clutches her chest as a bullet slices into her without notice or fuss. She begins to fall, a friend and several passers grab out for her and brace her. Let me take a moment to dwell on that. This woman is moments from death and those around her, friends, strangers, reach out and catch her as she drops. They do so because the fall will hurt her, damage her. She will be injured, she will feel pain, her soft, pliable form will bounce off of immovable, hard concrete. In short, they don't know she has suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
She falls anyway and they hold the wound, she is conscious. She is silent. Blood pours from her mouth and nose, so very much. I had always assumed that coughing up blood was a Hollywood invention, a way to tell audiences that there is no hope. The person you're watching is a goner. I was wrong. She has been on the floor for mere seconds and a pool of blood coagulates around her head. She closes her eyes, people cry and despair. She is gone. She had no weapon, no placard, she was dressed all in black, a headscarf wrapped around her head, her face uncovered. A bullet has torn through her heart.
So, an unarmed civilian is gunned down by pro-government militia. Here's the score. Iran is a theocratic dictatorship, run by an opressive religious zealot. His name is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a hard liner Muslim who controls his country absolutely. There is an elected, civilian representative within Iran, his name is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The 'democratic' process in Iran is essentially there to allow the people to let off steam, recently the vote ended in bloodshed and violence after reported vote rigging and fraud. The main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi is the probable victor and the people sensing disenfranchment have openly rebelled, an outpouring of anger and rage not only about the civilian leadership, but the Ayatollah himself.
You see the youth, the liberal, the moderates of Iran are numerous and plentiful. Iran is not merely the central point of the 'Axis of Evil' as George Dubya would have had us believe. They are a vibrant, proud, wise and tolerant people. It is the hard-liners, the hate mongers, the religious zealots who are to blame here.
The sorry part is, Moussavi is no better than Ahmadinejad. All candidates swore to uphold the Religious elite, this is how they were allowed to run in the first place. So, both men are puppets, none of them have an solution to the problems which Iran faces.
So a woman, plus hundreds of others are dead. The greed, power-mad, shameful rulers of Iran have blood on their hands. But I'm sorry to say, that I am not the least bit suprised by any of it. Rest in peace Neda Agha-Soltan. I hope your death is not for nothing.
