Omid Memarian reflects on yesterday's protests:
“American-backed autocracies, like Mubarak’s Egypt, are more vulnerable than anti-American dictatorships like Iran, for they are subject to the scrutiny of American politics and public opinion,” said [Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment]. “Iran can slaughter its people without worrying that China or Russia is going to hold it accountable or withhold aid money.”
An Iranian reader writes:
Two protesters were killed yesterday. One was a Kurdish Sunni student of arts. The regime shamelessly decided he was actually Basiji and killed by Greens.
The head of Tehran's police went before cameras and claimed so. All because they
found a Basiji membership card in his university file. Turns not only was he not Basiji but also an activist in the Green movement and visited Ayatolah Montazeri last year before he passed. This report on BBC Persian sums it all up. Even if one doesn't speak Persian, the pictures tell the story.
And this handsome young man, Mohamad Mokhatri. He was also shot at and reportedly died in the hospital. His pic is attached.
Our reader follows up:
Mokhatri's last status update on Facebook before going out to the streets yesterday was:
????? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??
[Dear God, Help me stand like a man as I am tired of sitting down and done living a life without dignity]And then he writes in English:
Happy Valentine's Day
Hours later he was shot.