Standing Up to Ahmadinejad
TEHRAN, Dec. 18, 2006 — -- This is my fourth trip to Iran and it's the first time I haven't been arrested. Encounters with Iranian police are a rite of passage here for foreign reporters -- and more often than not, the journalistic equivalent of getting pulled over for speeding.
The first arrest was for filming inside the parliament building during a protest by pro-reform lawmakers (they eventually let us in).
The second was for filming shoppers without the correct permission from the Information Ministry (that got us an hour or so down at the police station).
The third was more serious. We filmed police dragging away a woman at a pro-democracy protest. Our sound technician was beaten up and we were confined to our van for a few hours while police decided what to do with us (they eventually let us go -- and we aired the footage on ABC News).
The Iranian government has surprised me on the positive side as well -- opening up its nuclear power plant to myself and other reporters during last year's presidential elections, for instance. The trouble is, harassment remains a very real risk to Iranians themselves.
Still, many continue to speak out. This weekend, we met one of the people who last week organized a protest where university students burned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's photograph during a speech he gave. They shouted "Death to the Dictator." He called them "Americanized." It was, by far, the most public grilling of his presidency.
The organizer, 23-year-old Babak, hobbled into our interview on a broken foot, an injury he sustained when paramilitaries beat him up after another anti-government protest.
When I asked him why he wasn't scared to criticize the government so openly, he said, "The risks are inevitable, but we're determined to continue. Patience has its limits and our patience with the government has run out."
Afterwards, Babak asked me if I would promise to spread the word if he was ever arrested. I said I would.
Other Iranians we've met make less dramatic, but equally confident stands.
At a polling station during city council elections last Friday, we interviewed a 21-year-old university student who told us on camera and without hesitation that Ahmadinejad is doing "very bad things" and must go.
Young people may very well have made a difference in the elections, as some of the president's supporters lost out to more moderate conservatives and pro-reform candidates. Iranians younger than 30 largely boycotted the previous elections out of frustration and apathy. But many came back this time.
And while these elections won't significantly reduce Ahmedinejad's power, they have sent a message -- that despite the risks, many Iranians are not scared to voice their frustration with today's Iran loud and clear.