Innocent fun or serious political threat?
After heeding a call on Facebook, a group of nearly 800 young men and women were among those who showed up at the park....
They chased strangers around a giant water fountain, screaming and laughing as they splashed each other with water from toy guns, bottles and plastic bags.
"We had a blast. It was a rare chance for boys and girls to hang out in a public place and have fun," said Shaghayegh...
Facebook... flash mobs... is it just fun and games? Look at London. In Iran, perhaps the regime is threatened by something that is
only fun and games. But now that the authorities have cracked down, it's become political... and politicizing to the young people — the under-30s — who make up 35% of the population.
Farzan, a 22-year-old university student who was one of the organizers of the Tehran water war, says police tracked him down through Facebook and raided his house in the middle of the night. He was arrested, held for three days and beaten up, he says.
Young Iranians say although the event started out as innocent fun, it has now turned political. They are vowing to challenge them with more events.
A nationwide water war is scheduled for Friday, after the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Didn't the American revolution begin with
a snowball fight?
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10 comments:
Facebook and Twitter are doing more than the CIA has ever done.
Use of the internet is a double edged sword with the sharpest edge under the control of The Man. You are not anonymous on the web, but that's the general idea the young have.
Not anonymous
Not invisible
No erasers or shredders
The only reason I feel free to comment as I do here is because I'm old enough to know it won't matter soon, but if I was 20, I'd shut up. I would be devastated if my foolish youth was all recorded on line as kids have today. I did some stupid, crazy shit, and I would not want it out here 30 years later.
Be careful little dudes!
Imagine, If you went on vacation to China, the crazy authoritarian, freedom hating authorities, if they wanted, would know everything about your life from credit history to interests to friends and opinions.
My understanding is that they care about such stuff.
Squirt guns today, TOW missile launchers tomorrow.
The ayatollahs must be getting scared.
I can't fathom living in a world without freedom.
It's all fun and games until someone gets decapitated.
E.M. Davis said:
"I can't fathom living in a world without freedom."
Goethe said:
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
"I can't fathom living in a world without freedom."
What are you doing with that freedom?
The other side here is that, in Eastern Catholic and Orthodox countries, playing surprise water-splashing games in the summer is traditional on great summer religious feasts (like days commemmorating St. John the Baptist or the Transfiguration). The religious purpose is to "remind you of your Baptism", but it's also fun and cooling, of course. The mullahs may see this as an un-Muslim activity because it's Christian.
But then, traditional pan-religious Iranian culture is fun, and Khomeini-brand mullahs are unfun. It's their great weakness.
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