Table of Contents

For­ward: Gradual Rev­o­lu­tion: A Marathon, Not a Sprint
Scott Lucas, page 10
Prize fights are set­tled within 15 rounds of 3 min­utes each; the quest for civil rights is not. The elec­tion, after all, was just the public apex of a larger, ongoing climb for polit­ical, eco­nomic, and social recog­ni­tion, respect, and jus­tice. The Green Move­ment, as sig­nif­i­cant as it would become, did not dis­place the move­ments for women’s rights, stu­dent rights, labor rights, legal rights, eco­nomic rights, reli­gious rights, and the rights of Iran’s many ethnic groups. (Indeed, one of the ongoing, deeper issues of this past year has been how the Green Move­ment – if it is more than a sym­bolic entity – inter­acts with the activism of these other movements.)

Pre­view Scott’s article online: http://bit.ly/HVB-SL

“Supreme Leader” Speaks, page 22

Why I Will Vote
Maryam Hossienkhah, page 29
I have a big wish for myself and my country, but I have learned to be patient.
I learned to be patient when I was awaiting the freedom of my friends in front of Evin prison.
I learned to be patient when I was trying to get people to sign a peti­tion in favor of an equality law.
I will vote because I don’t want to afraid of being arrested in the street when my clothes are a bit short.
I vote for these small wishes.

Ahmadinejad-Mousavi, page 30

Iran: Elec­tion Fraud on Friday?
Dylan Matthews, page 32

Vote Against the Whole System
Kamran Ashtary, page 34
Those like me who are plan­ning to vote do so only because we cannot take it any­more. One even told me that he feels like putting his head out of the window and yelling, “I am mad as hell, and I cannot take it any more.”

Tur­bu­lence
Per­sian Umpire, page 36
Tehran has just ended a week so elec­tri­fying, that some are saying that it has been even more exciting than Khatami’s first elec­tion campaign.

Shock to the System
Kamran Ashtary, page 38
Is it too late for us to be a vital part of a free Iran? I ask myself this ques­tion every day. What would I do if Iran became free? What would you do?

Elec­tion, A Crying Game
Hamid Tehrani, page 44
Every four years, I have a date: a date to vote at the Islamic Republic’s embassy in what­ever country I happen to be in at the time. I have never hes­i­tated to vote in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, and have never boy­cotted even one of them.

Tehran on Elec­tion Night
@Tehranelection, page 46

Demon­stra­tion, June 15: The Monday After the Elec­tions, page 56

Report from Esfahan: Vio­lence & Arrests, page 58
The régime wants people to believe that the con­flict is between sup­porters of two can­di­dates. But it was not so. Basij mem­bers were equipped by Rev­o­lu­tionary Guards, and among them were many under­cover Guards and Intel­li­gence Agents. They didn’t hes­i­tate to attack people they were sus­pi­cious of. It means that the régime is offi­cially sup­porting one side to crack down on the other.

A Car­nival of Freedom
Shahab Mirzaei, page 60
We con­quered the streets… Even we had not come out to stay there for­ever. We came just to see our image in other people. We came to build a space to breathe, even a small and lim­ited one.

Pre­view Shahab’s piece online: http://bit.ly/HVB-SM

Friday Prayers: Khamenei Speaks, page 64

Bitter Day
Trans­lated By Pedes­trian, page 66

Com­mandos at the Door, page 68

No Grad­u­a­tion in Iran
Seen-E Sorkh, page 70
My Iranian brothers and sis­ters did not walk across the stage for a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mony.
Instead, they were dragged on cold con­crete pave­ments because they said they want freedom, lib­erty, and jus­tice. Some­body responded: those words are not meant to be lived. He said: the blood­shed has already begun. In Iran, stu­dents were not con­grat­u­lated by their uni­ver­sity pres­i­dent for grad­u­ating.
He did not give them a warm embrace to wish them well. Not even a good luck.

In My Iran, Our Voices have been Sti­fled in Our Throats, page 72
We bang on the doors of houses. People open the doors and let us in. The spe­cial forces run behind us, banging on the doors and cursing people. Son of a bitch! Get out! Oh my God! Where are we? Which place this?

The Democ­ra­ti­za­tion of Per­se­cu­tion
Hamid Tehrani, page 74

Ashura, Bloody Ashura
Per­sian Umpire, page 76
There is nothing like the smell of tear gas in the morning.

Exe­cu­tions Mark the Anniver­sary of the Rev­o­lu­tion, page 82

Anniver­saries Come & Go
Tori Egherman, page 84
I fell in love with Iran in a way that I have never fallen in love with any place before. This made me worry about my sanity.

The Steps of Evin
Per­sian Umpire, page 86
If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be spending my days in front of Evin waiting for the release of a friend who had been arrested on the anniver­sary of the rev­o­lu­tion for having a green wrist­band in his pocket, I would have kindly asked them to go to hell. Iran was a strange place, but not that strange.

Exiled Reflec­tions on Per­sian New Year’s Eve
Naj of Neo-Resistance Blog, page 94
On elec­tion day, for the first time since the incep­tion of the IRI, I wore a green scarf (I had had it for years, a gift of hand– made silk from China), walked to the polls, fin­ger­printed my vote, cast my ballot, smiled at a camera pointing my inky index at the lens, hoping to upload the pic­ture on my blog, Neo-Resistance, waving it at the war-mongering world: “dare not lift a finger on our Iran.” But then, just before I went to bed, every­thing in Iran started going awry.

A Path Towards “Ques­tioning the Cul­ture”
Sohrab Mokhtari, page 96
After the rev­o­lu­tion, polit­ical coöper­a­tion depended on unques­tioning accep­tance. Those who thought dif­fer­ently were boy­cotted and exe­cuted. This was illus­trated dra­mat­i­cally by the mass polit­ical exe­cu­tions of 1988.

Four Kur­dish Activists, Pris­oner of Con­science Exe­cuted
Mana Mostababi, page 98
It was with an over­whelming amount of shock and tears that I found early this morning sev­eral reports of what some­times seems like a total unre­ality: the exe­cu­tion of FIVE pris­oners of conscience.

Iran: The Deadly Game
Nazila Fathi, page 102

It did not occur to me that I might not see my home again on the night of June 30, 2009, when I sat in the back seat of our car, between my shaky mother-in-law and ner­vous father, to go to the airport.

Don’t Fear, We are All Together
Termeh, page 110
I tire­lessly urged people to vote for 4 years, after Ahmadinejad’s shocking elec­tion win in 2005. I had always voted for reformists since the first time I was allowed to vote 12 years ear­lier. I believe we have to change things grad­u­ally… Step by step… But in the 2005 elec­tions lots of people, espe­cially in the middle class, were tired and dis­ap­pointed of slow reforms… They boy­cotted the elec­tions, announcing that “these can­di­dates are not enough good for us!”

The Bran­den­burg Gate at the Gates of Tehran
Farin Fakhari, page 116
We hold can­dles and remember the death of Neda Agha Soltan. We read out names from a list of a thou­sand people who were arrested and are now in deten­tion. Amnesty Inter­na­tional esti­mates that over 2000 people were arrested fol­lowing the dis­puted elec­tions in Iran.

The Land­lord in Prison
Mohammad Nour­izad, page 120
This is my home. I believe I’m a land­lord here, not a lunatic felon who is here to be dis­ci­plined and punished.

Busi­ness as Unusual
Ramin Karimian, page 124
I fought for my country as a sol­dier. In the 1980s, I lost many friends to the twin hor­rors of polit­ical oppres­sion and war. I was pre­vented from entering uni­ver­sity because of my polit­ical activ­i­ties as a teenager and, as a result, wasn’t able to find an offi­cial job to sur­vive. Still I have hung on and con­tinued thinking that it’s better to take part in every polit­ical oppor­tu­nity that presents itself rather than to sit on the side­lines and complain.

That Glo­rious, Hopeful, Hor­ren­dous Day
Pedes­trian, page 128
For my gen­er­a­tion, from now ‘til for­ever, the world will be divided into two chunks: before and after 22 Khor­daad 88 (June 12th, 2009).