A funeral in Iran for a student shot and killed in protests on Monday has become a catalyst for anti-government demonstrations in the country’s capital.
The 26 year old student at Tehran University was killed during a rally of thousands of opposition members, sparked by the wave of civil discontent spreading across the Middle East in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.
A report on Iran’s state-run media claimed that supporters of “sedition” clashed with the pro-government supporters during the funeral, while the BBC reported that police had blocked all roads around the university.
“Students and the people attending the funeral ceremony of the martyred student Sanee Zhaleh have clashed with a limited number of people apparently linked to the sedition movement and forced them out by chanting slogans of death to hypocrites,” the media outlet stated, while opposition groups claimed 1500 people had been detained.
The government has claimed that Zhaleh, a Sunni Kurd and fine arts student, was a member of the volunteer Islamist Basij militia – a claim disputed by the opposition, who accuse the government of pressuring his family to say Zhaleh was pro government.
The protest is the first since an uprising in February 2010 was suppressed by the government, however rising discontent directed at the region’s more unpopular leaders makes Iran a likely candidate for further civil strife.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has meanwhile embraced the Egyptian revolution and departure of President Hosni Mubarak as the dawning of a “new Middle East” – drawing parallels with his own country’s 1979 revolution.
Ahmadinejad reportedly told crowds in Tehran that Mubarak’s departure was likely to bring major changes to global politics.
“In spite of all the (West’s) complicated and satanic designs … a new Middle East is emerging without the Zionist regime and US interference, a place where the arrogant powers will have no place,” he said.
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where is the revolution in Egypt? Still the same old faces in the army is in control. Mubarak has not fled the country or arrested. He is enjoying his holidays in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-al Sheikh. Nobody heard him say he was resigning. The old order is still in place. All what the people got were empty promises from the US funded army.
See the history of revolutions like American, French, Bolshevik, Chinese, the collapse of the Soviet Block, the Revolutions took years to complete.
JJ Robinson, I am not surprised that you put this news on MN. I am sure you are one of those anti Itanian foreighners who would love to high light anything that defames Iran. But I am thinking why didn't you mentions about the protests going on in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya? The US is very worried about Bahrain as it is a strong allie of US and hosts its one of the navy fleet at its port. May be its time all you westerns realise that middle east is changing and very soon it is not going to be the puppet you guys want it to be. If true democracy comes to middle east, I guess US and Israel would have to agree the practical existence of Palestine and please the arab world too.
If JJ has been listening the news he would find Bahrain more chaotic than Iran and the regime there more vulnerable.
you're right Thasmeen faction, the king of Bahrain has already started apologising his people. The Iranian backed shia majority protesters (70% of the population) in Bahrain is more systematically organised and pose more of a threat to US interests in the region.
the protests in Iran are not likely to bring a regime change in Tehran.
Neda Agha-Soltan was shot dead by her fellow anti-government protesters in Tehran in February 2010 to blame it on state security forces. The student Sanee Zaleh too was killed in a similar manner on Monday.
I do not know why you haven't mentioned how the Iranian protesters are pretty much the same green movement supporters which are funded by US govt annually in trying to create trouble in Iran in order to bring down a government which is hostile to US foreign policy. Remember the reactions the US had against the Egypt and Tunisian governmentt? Nothing? Why talk so big against Iran and not Egypt and Tunisia. They only started talking big once those leaders left their positions. All political crap made in U.S of A.
Do not think people in Maldives are that uneducated these days. We know that the US only speaks against a government for its own interest and only in support of a party which it sees as positive and supportive of its interest in the region.
The protesters in Iran have no equal relations to the protesters in Egypt or Tunisia. But the Iranians anti government demonstrators have one thing in common with dictators like Mubarak and Ben Ali. They are all supported and funded by United States Government with its congress approval.
'about 2000 people took to the streets of Tehran' reported aljazeera. In a country 70 million people just 2000 protesters is a drop in the ocean. That too only from a certain suburb in Tehran. US need more money to fund anti-Islamic elements in Iran. The war in Afghanistan costs the US 300 million dollars a day. Better withdraw from Afghanistan and switch that money to anti-Islamic terrorist groups in Iran.
Maldivians do not like if anybody talks bad about the Islamic government of Iran.