We made it to 7tir around 9:30am. At that time there were about 400-500 greens and about 50 basijis in the square. the greens were all crumbled near the side walk by the mosque, most looked average, all kinds of people, but non looked very energized. a few streets above the mosque there was a big anti-riot police gathering. about 15 motorcycles were parked with two helmets on them. the police were resting in the street, looking kind of nervous.
We walked down the street and counted the greens (~500) and positioned ourselves at the furthest south part of the sidewalk. The government supporters (~50) were all positioned behind a small truck which had massive audio equipment on it. at around 10 am the truck started moving into the boulevard and the supporters followed it by repeating the trucks slogans. The official start of the green protest was 11 and so most greens were hesitant to walk into the boulevard seeking shelter in numbers. However as soon as the truck moved the police started dispersing the greens and people including us were forced to choose between running into a side street or crossing the street to walk into the boulevard. At this point suddenly about 20-50 greens suddenly crossed the street towards the boulevard, they rose their hands in V signs and showed their green slogans. This was the bravest moment of the day, my heart was throbbing, the guard that I was passing waved his baton and said:" halaa kotak khoraash biyaan" we held hands and walked across with them but being the coward that I am I took my friends and ran onto the bridge, I found a bridge overlooking the protest and sat there for a while not daring to walk down. meanwhile the greens stood ground and started shouting alloho akbar at the government supporters, their number grew exponentially and their shouts started overtaking the audio equipment.
At around 11am, another friend of mine found us held on the bridge and ridiculed us, we were forced down into the boulevard and joined the greens!. this was the most exhilarating step that I took in a while. I looked around the boulevard and everywhere was green. every one was shouting marg bar diktator, margh bar russie, ahmadi ahmadi 63% koo? the government supporters on the Karimkhaan bridge were hiding behind their van, their numbers didn't grow from the 50 they started but now were surrounded with the sea of green. we walked and shouted, rested and watched and there was a sea of people passing by. I think they were more than a couple of hundred thousand people. There were people distributing green balloons, green bands. People were shouting all kinds of slogans. It was a very spiritual experience.
There were a couple of sandoghe sadaghaat (charity box) in the way each one was protected by a member of basij. people would pass them and would not even touch the guys. people were supper gentle with the basij and government supporters. The poor basiji however that was manning the sandogh had a difficult job. since each person who would pass him, would turn around and shout slogans right into his face. their faces were amazing:)
we reached Valiasr square with this wave. at that ,moment I decided to rest and moved all my friends into a stair case overlooking the square. the green wave with their banner passed by and was elegant. in the square there was commotion since the government had installed huge audio equipment and the basij were trying to infiltrate the greens with groups of 50 of their supporters walking behind a audio truck. they finally managed to block the greens and cut the wave in two. right in front of Valiasr square entry the police lined up and blocked the entry into the square. this was around 12:30. people started o shout please sit down in front of them, but I took my friends and we walked back from the other side of the street. It was a bit cowardly but I couldn't afford more. I watched the faces of the government supporters at their disbelief, most shaking their heads. at this time the green wave had slowed down and cars were allowed to move into the boulevard. they all honked their horns. we walked back to our car and left. taking a moment of history in or hearts. Later I heard that there was also a large wave going from Keshavarz Blvd. and at the end of the day people had to be dispersed by the use of tear gas.
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1:26021 tehran walk - tajrish to pahlavi st 4by squadmember187 views
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