The "green movement" has used imagery of the ancient capital, Persepolis, in opposition posters. In response, the government has derided pre-Islamic Persian culture as un-Islamic. The many Persian sites in Hamadan, like giant billboards advertising against the Islamic Republic, would exacerbate anti-Ahmadinejad sentiment.
As Iranian-American academic and Obama administration adviser Vali Nasr explains in his book Forces of Fortune , Ahmadinejad's economic policies have been extremely damaging to the middle class, shuttering private business in favor of state-run enterprises and arbitrarily re-allocating much of the middle class wealth to the lower classes.
The president has been especially aggressive against the bazaar-oriented mercantile class. Secular, urban, middle class Iranians make up much of the opposition movement and have been increasingly vocal--and angry--in their opposition. Hamedan's middle class residents have good reason to be furious with their president.
The city is majority Persian, so state security and intelligence forces would be less concerned about terrorism, which typically takes place in the ethnic Kurdish and Baloch regions of Iran. State security groups like the Revolutionary Guards may dominate large, student-heavy cities like Tehran, which are often centers of opposition and protest, but a small city like Hamedan does not attract the same attention.
Much of Iran is a police state, and Hamedan is probably no exception, but its demographics would make it a low priority for security forces. Isa Saharkhiz, a prominent reformist journalist and commentator, reportedly suffered broken ribs after being tortured under interrogation. Saeed Hajarian, disabled since an assassination attempt in and in need of daily medical care, was reported by his wife to be undergoing interrogations in degree heat and to be "completely weak and was unable to speak easily".
He may be one of those set to be released. The father of one of the detained, Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, 27, an Oxford PhD student and Mousavi's social media strategist in this interview with the Wall Street Journal, he says he developed many ideas while obsessively following the Obama campaign , compared the jails to Abu Ghraib.
One, however, has been closed: Kahrizak, on the southern edge of Tehran, which Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "lacked the standards" to hold prisoners. It is thought that many of those arrested on the 9 July protests were held there.
Then there are the dead — those who died in jail and those killed in protests, such as Neda Agha Soltan. Our list also includes Mohammed Asghari, who had responsibility for the security of the IT network in Iran's interior ministry and was killed in a suspicious car accident in Tehran. He reportedly leaked evidence that the elections were rigged.
Tomorrow is the 40th day since the shooting of Neda Agha Soltan, an important marker in the Shia Islam practised in Iran. Mousavi and other opposition leaders have asked permission to hold a public mourning ceremony. Sina Azodi. From the reformist camp, Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former adviser to President Mohammad Khatami, and Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri have announced their candidacy for the upcoming June elections.
Meanwhile, the candidacy of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , once strongly supported by the conservative camp, poses a significant challenge to other conservative candidates by dividing their base.
The son of a blacksmith from the village of Aradan near the city of Garmsar, Ahmadinejad grew up in a lower-middle-class family, a source of pride for the future university professor. Ahmadinejad was accepted into a civil engineering program prior to the Islamic Revolution of Ahmadinejad went on to become a political phenomenon in the Islamic Republic. Despite lacking any religious credentials, he frequently tapped into the religious beliefs of his supporters.
For example, upon returning from his first trip to New York to attend the U. General Assembly, he claimed in November that during his speech at the U. Aside from his populism and Iranian nationalism, what distinguishes Ahmadinejad from other Islamic Republic statesmen is his confrontational approach to both domestic and international politics.
Ahmadinejad faced significant opposition internationally too. This resulted in several rounds of U.
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