Do not forget Iran. Remember Neda. If there are green-clad protests in Tehran this weekend — to mark the first anniversary of the election that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole — they will doubtless again be crushed with casual brutality by the thugs of the Basij militia, the secret police and the Revolutionary Guard.
Faced with violent repression, the green movement is a long way down — but not out. Iran will never again be the country it was before the election of June 12, 2009. In the great demonstration three days later, everything was changed. In the subsequent repression, a terrible beauty was born. The historical process may take years, but one day, as the economy worsens and discontent spreads to more sections of society, the movement will be back in force, though perhaps in a different form. Eventually, there will be statues in Iran of Neda Agha-Soltan — the young woman shot dead in one of the early mass demonstrations — and other memorials to the martyrs of this struggle for freedom.
Continue reading Timothy Garton Ash in the Los Angeles Times…
