Tag: Iranian election

This on-the-ground fuzzy YouTube was posted from what looks like Tehran today by "mz3638," with the unsearchable date-edition title: "18062009003." So the Iranian streets are alive. The protests continue. Or maybe not. YouTube commenters are asking what everyone watching it for news value wants to know: When was the video actually shot? And less urgent: What does the chant mean?

I’ve just conducted a phone interview with Akbar Ganji, one of the leading Iranian dissidents and most prominent voices in the international community for a more liberal Iran. He knows its brutality in a deeply personal way: the regime imprisoned Ganji for five years after he wrote a series of articles exposing its human rights abuses. Although the Bush administration sought to fund Ganji’s efforts in the hope of encouraging his fellow dissidents, Ganji took a high-profile stance against American support, arguing that even the suggestion of U.S. backing would set back the cause of human rights in Iran.