Spring of freedom

By Mahmoud Hakamian This past Sunday, on the anniversary of the “Ashura uprising” that occurred in December 2009, when thousands of Iranians took to the streets in several cities and confronted security forces in heavy clashes, the regime held “anti-demonstrations” — government organized gatherings arranged to prevent protests from breaking out. Despite government efforts, the events drew few attendants besides agents of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij. High-ranking Iranian officials made remarks at the occasion that displayed the tension the regime is experiencing over the continuing protests across the country, as well as the role played by the Iranian opposition. For instance, Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian regime’s parliament, warned, “Opportunists and anti-revolutionaries want to take advantage of the political turmoil inside the country,” when he spoke on the occasion of the Ashura uprising. “The opponents of the revolution are seeking an opport...

Hard questions Warnings about the future of the Iranian regime are abundant among Iranian officials these days, while its state-run talks about the “danger of explosion,” the “poverty pit,” and “competency crisis.” Arman newspaper, close to the so-called moderate faction of regime president Hassan Rouhani, wrote on December 23: “Currently, only the private-public companies are working. Thus, many job opportunities are destroyed and socially, a powder keg is created that threatens to explode at any moment.” Public-private ( khosulati ) has become a  distinct word in the Persian  language which consists of the beginning of the word private and the end of the public. If it existed in the English language, it would be something like “prilic” or “pubate.” Thanks to the widespread corruption in the so-called privatization process of the formerly publicly owned companies in Iran, the media and opposition figures invented this word combination to better describe the situati...