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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran men don veil in protest against government |
| 2009-12-13 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Five days after renewed student protests across Iran showed that the dispute over the country's presidential elections is from over, hundreds of Iranian men posted pictures of themselves wearing the Islamic headscarf on social networking website Facebook in solidarity with a detained student leader. Majid Tavakoli of Tehran's prestigious Amir Kabir University was arrested on Dec. 7 during anti-government demonstrations and pictures of him wearing the chador, the women's full-length black wrap, were published on the semi-official Fars news agency, which reported that Tavakoli attempted to flee Iran dressed as a woman. The pictures provoked a furious response from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents who claim the government faked the photographs, which were also deemed derogatory to women, to embarrass him. A "Free Majid Tavakoli" group was created on Facebook, calling the student leader "a symbol of integrity and courage," and more than 380 Iranian men have showed solidarity with him and posted pictures of themselves wearing a veil or chador with captions such as "I am Majid Tavakoli" or "It is not shame to be a woman, it is shame to be a man like you." Tavakoli has spent two previous stints in jail and was among a group of students arrested and allegedly tortured in 2007 following a demonstration that disrupted a visit by Ahmadinejad to Amir Kabir University the previous year. Human Rights Activists in Iran reported that government "agents severely beat and injured Majid during the arrest. The amount of violence and brutality used in the arrest shocked passer[s]-by." One witness told the human rights group: "All the pictures published by the state media are false and a clear use of immoral means against student and civil activists in Iran." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Add to #1 comment... and... without support of the POTUS... |
| Posted by: toes192 2009-12-13 14:47 |
| #1 good for the people of Iran. They're dealing with cowardly scum and doing it without complaint. |
| Posted by: 746 2009-12-13 11:21 |