University Protests Grow Under Stern Criticism from Iran's Leadership

No one knows who actually organized the burning (or tearing up or both) of a photo of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during Student Day protests last week. All that’s clear to Westerners like myself is that Iran is a powder keg, waiting to erupt.

The BBC reports that students say the film of the incident have been doctored. The BBC shows a ripped up photo. Opposition Greens today showed loyalty to Ayatollah Khomeini at Tehran University, in an effort to recast media messages about the opposition.

There’s no doubt that Iran’s hardliners seek to discredit the opposition and its leader Mirhossein Mousavi, whose wife Zahra Rahnavard commands increasingly powerful recognition and stature in the West. Google searches for information about Zahra Rahnavard make her a consistent top 10 read at Anne of Carversville.

The eruptive power of ‘insults to Islam’ is a lightening rod in Iran in a way that Westerners do not understand. Our cultures regularly insult those with views different to ours, which often provides for a lower level of public discourse on important topics, but Westerners won’t go to jail or worse over ‘insulting’ the party in charge by words or even a photo burning — even more of Jesus Christ, inappropriate and distateful as such an act is. (There are exceptions, of course …the stories never told.)

Now we have serious talk that opposition leader Mousavi may be jailed.

Iranian women students helping another one who is affected by tear gas, fired by security forces, in a protest at the Tehran University campus in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 7, 2009.It might seem trivial to focus on the fact that women are no longer allowed to wear make-up on Iranian television. “It’s illegal and against Shari’a law,” the head of Iranian state television, Ezatollah Zarghami, was quoted in the Iranian media last week.

Voice of America features a story about journalist Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, one of many women trying to prevent this turning of the tide against women in Iran. She, too, faces imprisonment for her role as a founding member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. An English translation of her book is available but not yet on Amazon.

Mahnaz Afkhami, the former Minister of State for Women’s Affairs in Iran, has been authorized to speak in her behalf. Read comments. Anne

Supreme Leader denounces insult to Imam Khomeini Islamic Republic News Agency

Iran warns opposition over ‘insult’ Al Jazzera English

Burning of imam’s picture sparks uproar in Iran LATimes

Iran: The enemy within Financial Times

Iranian Women Campaign to End Discriminatory Laws Against Them VOA News

Iran opposition accused of insulting founder Khomeini BBC News