What now, end of demonstrations

A beautiful and heart breaking article, on basically: "what now." 

http://www.sidewalklyrics.com/?p=797

While there please take a moment to scan through all the articles, each more well written and relevant than the next. My compliments to the Pedestrian for keeping such a fantastic blog.

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The truth of the matter is, the reason that Pedestrian’s writing has touched me is I have always wondered about the generation that was OF the IRI. The generation that was born after the regime came to power; the ones who live there now still. The Average 2- something who attends university, is not particularly wealthy or poor and lives in relative stability albeit the social and economical issues. I have found many weblogs over the last 6 years but none that have been as clear in their words, in English, and so well thought out and above all so very honest.

Pedestrian’s observations on inaccuracies and distance between those living inside and those now abroad for many years has always rang true with me as well. So much so that I have said again and again, both here and to anyone who has been patient enough to bear with me. That, I have no right to judge. I have left. Iran no longer is mine. All I can do is watch, try to educate others and more than anyone myself. To just try to observe and understand what it means to only know the current regime your whole life.  

In the recent few years I have also witnessed a trend among the twenty-somethings that have come from Iran recently to live or visit abroad. It used to be that you could clearly tell which "side" was an Iranian in; either clad in the latest fashions, hair and make up fully complete and laced with torrent of heavy clone and perfume which spelled: independent wealthy regime haters. And then there were the ones who kept up with head scarves, men still wore their unshaven looks and simple shirts and bad hygiene habits which spelled: government funded regime supporters.

No more. It has come to my attention that more and more I see a new pattern. Women dressed quite well in fitted clothing or the "unacceptable" tight fitting mantous that would bring down the moral police on them had they been in Iran. They look to be in their early twenties and all wear headscarves as well. Often they are also in company of men who are just as well dressed, maybe not over the top but smelling clean and looking quite presentable. This I find extremely confusing. It used to be, that if you broke the law in Iran and did not adhere to the accepted dress code then you were basically against the government, and hejab and could not WAIT to get rid of it. The minute the plane would leave the Iranian air space on a plane for example, headscarves would disappear and cleavage would be the order of the day. Then why on earth would someone still choose to dress in the "IRI uniform" in an environment where you don't have to any more when clearly you are not of the regime .... or are you?! Perhaps its not as clear cut as before anymore.

Pedestrian writes a hunting sentence that has stayed with me: " DespiteWestern media claims, the IRI has always been legitimate in the eyes of her population".  If this is indeed true, then my gut feeling, what has been gnawing at me now for years is, that this fact is very much the truth of today. That the current twenty-something year old does not want a regime change, they want reform. But something HAS changed: 

"A lot of us view this establishment very differently now. And we are NOT only the Westernized students living abroad, or the residents of North Tehran. Young or old,Tehrani [a person who lives in Tehran the capital] or Shahrestani [from other cities or rural areas], we view this system, this man [supremeleader, Khamenei], with different eyes. The Islamic Republic will continue to be backed by popular support in the face of foreign adversary, but inside, it will never feel the same again."

In the next few days I will continue with my efforts at translating the debate between Moussavi and Ahmadinejad, in the hope that shedding light on both candidate will allow for a deeper understanding of who and what they represent.

My sense of feeling powerless is now at its peak.This is all I CAN do. I hope others will find it as insightful as I do.