Iran has another hero, this one still living, in Mahmoud Vahidnia
Dissidents in Iran have a new hero in Mahmoud Vahidnia, a deceptively mild-looking math student at Sharif University in Tehran.
During a meeting last week between Sharif students and Supreme Leader Ali Khameini, Vahidnia raised his hand to ask a question. Asked to step forward to the microphone, he confronted Khameini and the Iran theocracy, directly criticizing the government’s handling of the recent election and its suppression of dissent and criticism. Vahidnia reportedly spoke for 20 minutes, without notes, in a confrontation that initially was broadcast live by Iranian television. (Not surprisingly, the broadcast ended suddenly a few minutes into his presentation.)
Although things are a bit unclear, the latest reports suggest that Vahidnia has not yet been arrested. Regardless of his fate, it was a remarkable act of courage, a statement as powerful in its way as that made 20 years ago by the unknown man who stood before a line of tanks at Tiananmen Square.
(The most complete version of the event that I’ve been able to find is here.)
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337 comments Add your comment
Brad Steel
November 2nd, 2009
4:19 pm
gutsy dude.
Bud Wiser
November 2nd, 2009
4:20 pm
Stoning, hanging, beheading, or just disappearing…..
So many choices for the Islamic fascists.
Bud Wiser
November 2nd, 2009
4:21 pm
Oh I don’t know, Al Gore just had a questioner’s microphone cut off recently when he was asking a question about the farce known as global warming.
Maybe they should just ask themselves “What would Al do?”
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
4:25 pm
Yes, looks can be deceiving. What does a courageous person look like? Just like Mr. Vahidnia.
What does a brutal tyrant look like? Like anyone. What do they wear? Anything. The ones in the clerics’ robes are among the worse.
Mr. Vahidnia’s courage is sobering. But more like him is what it’s going to take to get that society to change. Religious wars are always the bloodiest and most brutal.
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:28 pm
Just saw my first “Palin 2012″ bumper sticker going down Bells Ferry. It was on a Beemer too.
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
4:29 pm
Normal
Words fail me…
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:30 pm
Wanted to post this downstairs, but…oh well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3ad7V30ZU
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
4:30 pm
He gets my vote for Cajones of the Year award!!
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
4:30 pm
Normal
You’re late. The’ve been floating around here for a while.
Brad Steel
November 2nd, 2009
4:31 pm
Bud Wiser,
Reassuring to see your pulling for your “Islamist fascists” (hmm, wonder where you got that phrase? I think someone has an transistor AM radio)
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:31 pm
This one is one I missed yesterday…gotta pay…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ohvqwsNkk&feature=related
pat
November 2nd, 2009
4:32 pm
He’s got a pair! To bad he is a dead man. Many of the protesters have suffered greatly, I see this as no different. He is alive for now, as soon as the spotlight moves he’s a goner.
My condolences Mahmoud Vahidnia you were a brave, brave man.
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
4:33 pm
Good afternoon, ABM
Saw your post downstairs.
Texas is still gonna take it all –
Top three’s really meaningless. I do think ‘Bama’s been doing a better job than the Tebow adulation committee, though.
Jay
November 2nd, 2009
4:41 pm
For those who want to know more, the most complete account I can find is available at http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2009/10/student-criticizes-khamenei-at-official.html
F. Sinkwich
November 2nd, 2009
4:42 pm
Too bad Obama doesn’t show that same kind of courage when dealing with our ememies like Iran.
Wuss.
Midori
November 2nd, 2009
4:45 pm
Yeah, Sinkwich – Obama should show REAL guts just like Bush did.
Who do you suppose he should invade? Timbuktu?
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:48 pm
F. Sinkwich, make sure you join the Marines and get a front row seat when we invade…please.
josef nix
November 2nd, 2009
4:48 pm
NORMAL–
Great minds! I had been looking for a chance to post both and you beat me to it…I won’t ever forget when “Mr. Businessman” cam out…was this really the same guy who did “Ahab, the Arab?” Well, yes…
QUESTION:
Where’s Mahmoud Vahidnia’s Nobel? Wouldn’t it be a great man who would decline the prize and say it belongs to him instead?
Matilda
November 2nd, 2009
4:48 pm
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! **up goes M’s fist**
mike
November 2nd, 2009
4:52 pm
“Obama should show REAL guts just like Bush did”
Well, at least Bush served.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
November 2nd, 2009
4:52 pm
He is an enemy of Obozo’s, mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
How dare he mess with the thugacracy when our “president” is so close to being in his back pocket.
The nerve of this guy.
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:52 pm
I guess it’s a good thing that Jay doesn’t have a secret police, huh?
—————–
Josef, Sometimes I just let my mean streak go…
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
4:55 pm
Sorry Mike, BUSH may have joined the Alabama National Guard (and just how does someone from Texas get to join the Alabama Guard), but he didn’t serve…
Matilda
November 2nd, 2009
4:55 pm
Mike, you wish.
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
4:58 pm
Paul
Your earlier post would be considered blasphemy in my household.
I like your sensibility, though, so I won’t hold it against you. If it ends up Texas and Bama for the title, all bets are off. I’m hoping we don’t suck wind this weekend.
RW-(the original)
November 2nd, 2009
5:03 pm
I guess this is one of those people yearning for freedom that Obama will soon be gracing our airwaves to stand with.
/Except that he won’t because he only pays lip service to meaning that.
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
5:03 pm
ABM, If The Bear is reall the patron saint of ‘Bama, they will take it all this year. I just want to see them crush Florida…I’m thinkin’ like 105 to 0, you know?
Common Sense
November 2nd, 2009
5:04 pm
Ah, the wonderful world of Islam.
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
5:04 pm
Jay
Thank you for the link. After all the understanding comments by Khameini, what really mattered was the last line in the article: “According to Mowjeh Sabzeh Azadi, Vahidnia was confronted by intelligence agents after the ceremony.”
ABM,
As much as I’d like to see that game, I’d like to see FL taken down a notch. Then again, if it was Texas and ‘Bama, FL would’ve already been taken down, eh?
BTW: I’m still laughing over that “Love From Above” image. Heck, I’ll donate all the paint those bomb handlers need!
Midori
November 2nd, 2009
5:06 pm
what did he serve Mike?
other than a plastic turkey?
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
5:07 pm
Normal
I believe if someone put The Bear’s name on the ballot for Governor in Alabama, he’d still win in a landslide. If we get by LSU, I’d love nothing more but to serve gator tail here at the Dome.
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
5:11 pm
Paul
I talked to an Airman last week. He smiled when I asked him about that. He said he’d forward it up his chain of command. I told him I’d like to see bright yellow smiley faces on the tip of the Tomahawks with Betty Boop sitting in a heart with the message on the side.
Dusty
November 2nd, 2009
5:15 pm
Oh no…not already!!
JUST LIKE BUSH DID. Thank you, Midori
Liberals kill originality..
OK Who’s next? HATE THAT CHENEY!!! There’s your sign ! sign sign sign sign !!!!!!
Meanwhile……
Bookman gives us a brave man. A very brave man, not willing to let the government take over his choices.
Long live the brave and the free!! We know there’s a brave one in Iran. We know they serve in our military. Be thankful for brave men and women wherever they are. .Godspeed, Mahmoud Vahidnia.
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
5:17 pm
Okay, I’ll have a go. Thought it might have come up by now.
We saw the courage of a young man speaking truth as he saw it. We see the response. What does the world see from the US in this regard?
A few days ago Dana Perino made the following observation on the Administration vs Fox News broohaha (BTW, Luckovich has a great cartoon today on the topic):
“everyone across the world watches and listens to everything that the White House is saying.
Through our State Department, we are trying to help emerging democracies get journalists and government officials to talk to one another, because freedom of the press is essential to any democracy. Believe me, they are watching this, and they have — surely are raising questions.
And the next time we go to them and say, “You want to make sure that you have reporters covering this,” they’ll say, “Why should we do that? You don’t.”
Yes, the world watches even those events we think are for domestic consumption. And I’m not sure the message they get is always the message we’d like them to get.
Nothing Is Free
November 2nd, 2009
5:18 pm
BNud Wiser
**“What would Al do?”**
Now THAT’S funny.
Pogo
November 2nd, 2009
5:18 pm
This gentleman, unlike the 60’s liberal radical-posers on this blog has something real to lose for speaking his mind, and that is his life. He didn’t state this from the comfort of his bedroom in front of a computer like the bad arses on here do. He did it for real. This is a brave man. I hope he isn’t eliminated by the Muslim Mullahs.
Obama shouldn’t invade anyone. He hasn’t the brain or the backbone for it. The only thing that he seems to be really good at invading is working peoples bank accounts.
November 3rd is the beginning of the end for the short lived American Socialistic Experiment (or at least the advancement of the ASE beyond present levels). Blue dog domination until 2010 and then???
Don’t be confused by the terms “Conservative” and “GOP”. They are not one and the same. Of course, all us conservatives are non-book reading/bible thumping/gun toting neanderthals, isn’t that right? Keep on fooling yourselves morons.
Taxpayer
November 2nd, 2009
5:21 pm
Do you see what we have to look forward to now that we have annointed a suprem leader. Why! Why didn’t we heed the cries of Limbaugh and Bachmann when we had the chance. WHY!!!! We’re doomed.
Angry Black Man
November 2nd, 2009
5:22 pm
Iran has more than one Mahmoud Vahidnia. In talking with people who are originally from Iran and have traveled back home since the election, there’s a sense of fustration brewing with the younger generation. It may be that they’re so young that they don’t know the past or they don’t care about the past arrocities their government is responsible for. Whether you call it courage or foolish courage, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it. Unless Iran is developing nukes to use on their own people, there may be an uprising in their near future.
kayaker 71
November 2nd, 2009
5:27 pm
One of the better columns in recent history came from Peggn Noonan, a moderate Republican who writes for the Wall Street Journal. Titled, “We Are Governed by Callous Children, Americans feel increasingly disheartened and our leaders don’t even notice”, She is not very optimistic about the future of our country as we have known it. Says that too many of us have sat idley by and watched the destruction of our basic fabric without uttering a single word. We know that that is true with our Congress and our elected officials, whether you are a Bush or a Bozo fan doesn’t really matter. It seems that both have contributed to a steady slide downhill. We continue to blame each other and those we back in the political spectrum for where we are but you know what?…… it isn’t really their fault…. it is our own for being so complacent. Billions of dollars spent on a war we cannot win….. trillions of dollars borrowed for stimuli which we really don’t need …. and we staunchly defend these actions as legitiment. Our new spin is spend what you can to get ahead, no matter whether or not you can afford it….. give me instant satiation for what I want….. and look to the government for help when the responsibility for my actions catches up with my mistakes. No wonder Peggy Noonan is so pessimistic.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
November 2nd, 2009
5:27 pm
Saw this on the other thread-
The mountain’s ice cover shrank about 1 percent a year from 1912 to 1953, a rate that has accelerated in recent years. From 1989 to 2007, that rate jumped to 2.5 percent a year. Since 2000, the plateau’s three remaining ice fields have shrunk by 26 percent, scientists found.
And then you think, which seems to be a solely Conservative activity, for just a few seconds-
While eruptions are unheard of in recent times, Kibo is classified as being dormant rather than extinct, as anybody who visits the inner Reusch Crater can testify. A strong sulphur smell still rises from the crater, the earth is hot to touch, preventing ice from forming, while occasionally fumaroles escape from the Ash Pit that lies at its heart.
Is there anything a liberal will not lie about?
AmVet
November 2nd, 2009
5:28 pm
It’s a well know fact that the youth in Iran are unhappy. Who the hell wouldn’t be with those religious nutjobs in charge?
But we might a well bomb them to kingdom come too.
It’s the Christian thing to do…
josef nix
November 2nd, 2009
5:31 pm
PAUL–
I am by no means a fan per se of Fox. It is well to the right of my own political and social perspective. But as a left liberal I am highly disturbed by the administration’s attempt to muzzle the network. Had they “gotten by with” this, how long would it be before others would meet the same fate? The very idea that such would be even considered speaks to something unsettling and deserving of a cold, hard second look.
Yo'mama Obama
November 2nd, 2009
5:32 pm
“Iran has another hero, this one still living”……
Yes his name is Grand Sultan Barack Hussein Obama el-Amriki Abdullah Abdullah Imagonnataxyou
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
5:32 pm
In a perverse way, this could be the type of event that hardens Iranian determination to acquire nukes.
Regimes in danger often create an external threat to divert attention from domestic difficulties and unite the people. What provokes the West more than Iranian threat of nuclear capability? Any response – from sanctions to military – could be just the sort of action the mullahs would want to retain their grip on power and give them the excuse for an internal crackdown. And it may very well cause some who would agitate for change to back down while their country faces an external threat.
Nothing’s ever simple.
DoggoneGA
November 2nd, 2009
5:33 pm
“Well, at least Bush served”
but he was better at golf than at tennis
@@
November 2nd, 2009
5:34 pm
Mr. Vahidnia — ‘Do our radio and television networks present a true picture of the world and our country, or a false and caricature-like picture?’ Vahidnia asked. ‘Does state radio-television allow different opinions to defend themselves? Opinions which are criticized and even attacked in this same media outlet? Does state radio-television quote individuals and describe events in an honest and fair manner?’
And the Ayatollah’s response sounded very much like what Obama and his administration said about FOX. Only difference is Obama wouldn’t accept the criticism. That’s scary.
But in response to the student’s question about the accuracy of the state media’s portrayal of the country, Khamenei while agreeing with the criticism, turned it on its head and made the strange observation that, ‘The picture is incomplete. There are many noteworthy and great advances that Iranian radio and television do not show. [...] If radio-television could properly reflect the truth in the country, in the same way that the television in this or that western country can portray lies as truth by employing great experience and through artistic exploitation, the young generation would have much greater devotion to its country, its religion, and the regime of the Islamic Republic.’
YIKES!
I appeal to Mr. Vahidnia’s, Allah, that he not be a dead man walking.
josef nix
November 2nd, 2009
5:35 pm
ABM–
If we recall, one woman simply saying “no” in Montgomery gave millions the courage.
Paul
November 2nd, 2009
5:36 pm
josef nix
Still out of step with your ideological mates, eh?
But there are always larger issues at play. What you cited is one… even though many protest ‘but Fox is different. What you describe could never happen here.”
As Ms Perino noted, how does the US have the moral authority to say to the Iranians or anyone else. “Let the dissidents be heard! Change the leadership of radio and tv to get more opposing views broadcast!”
while the mullahs answer, “you’re kidding, right? Those guys are our version of Fox.”
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
November 2nd, 2009
5:37 pm
Plenty of reasons exist for suspecting absentee fraud may play a significant role in tomorrow’s Garden State contests. Groups associated with Acorn in neighboring Pennsylvania and New York appear to have moved into the state. An independent candidate for mayor in Camden has already leveled charges that voter fraud is occurring in his city. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party in New Jersey is taking advantage of a new loosely written vote-by-mail law to pressure county clerks not to vigorously use signature checks to evaluate the authenticity of absentee ballots, the only verification procedure allowed.
The state has received a flood of 180,000 absentee ballot requests. On some 3,000 forms the signature doesn’t match the one on file with county clerks.-WallStreetJournal
Of course Corzine will “win,” and our country will be so much “better off” because of it.
Oh I’m sorry, I meant to say that we have a disease eating away at our democracy and it needs to be eradicated.
Normal
November 2nd, 2009
5:38 pm
Josef, I thought that perhaps Nada was going to be their Rosa Parks, but maybe this guy will be their Martin King Jr.