I haven’t seen this story anywhere in the mainstream media…Any ideas as to why that is? From Pajamas Media:
Iranian Shoppers Riot Against Modesty Police
It happens every day on the streets of Tehran: a police squad grabbed a young woman for dressing immodestly. But this time, the young woman fought back, and a crowd defended her and attacked the police.
At approximately 7 pm on Saturday, February 23, the Ershad patrol, modesty police assigned to enforce clothing regulations, accosted and attempted to arrest a young woman at Goldis Shopping Mall…the woman fought back. A young man - it is unclear whether he was accompanying her - came to her defense and joined her in fighting the police. In an attempt to subdue - and humiliate him - the police grabbed the young man and threw him into the garbage can nearby.
That was when the large crowd, predominately made up of young people, rose up against the police and attempted to liberate the young woman themselves. Faced with a full-blown riot - complete with angry crowds with garbage cans being set on fire - the frightened police jumped into the van and fled the scene…
In a report on the event that appeared the Iran Press Service web site, student web sites are quoted as saying “to disperse the angry mob, heavy police and anti-riot units that arrived fired into the air but were met with a crowd of more than 300 people, now changing slogans against the regime and its leaders, mostly Ayatollah Ali Khameni and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, chanting “We don’t want dictatorship,” “We don’t want emergency and martial law.”…
Read the whole story by Ardeshir Arian here.
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one comment
I haven't read the article, but the whole thing seems rather scary to me. More power to her for pushing back, but causing a would-be riot probably was petrifying for her and many others involved. It's one of those damed if you do, damed if you don't situations.
Posted by Myra
February 29, 2008, 9:53 AM
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