Enough Police for a War

Tehran witnessed another day of heightened security on International Women’s Day. Armed security forces along with plain-clothes and Basij militia took position on main streets to prevent public gatherings. According to Rooz reporters in Tehran, women police were deployed on the streets for the first time. Women police have till now been used to enforce the Islamic dress code established by the government. But this was the first time that they were called in to crush pulbic protests.  Mohseni Square, the Amirabad intersection, and the site where Neda Aqasoltan was shot dead during the 2009 presidential election were among the main locations announced by a group that calls itself the Grieving Mothers and other social networks for yesterday’s public protests. But all the three locations were blocked to the public by security forces and armed personnel.

According to a Rooz reporter from Tehran, since a hours before the time announced for the demonstrations, the Amirabad intersection and Kargar Avenue were blocked by armed forces. Also, the entrances to Laleh Park were shut and no one was permitted to pass through.

A witness told Rooz that there were so many security and military personnel on the streets that it appeared as if a whole army were deployed in Laleh Park with enough personnel to wage a war. Those who came to demonstrate did not get a chance to even stop for a moment. Anyone who stopped walking was detained immediately.  So people had to keep walking without chanting any slogans. A young woman with a green scarf who was trying to enter Kargar Avenue from Fatemi Avenue got arrested short of Tehran’s Museum for Contemporary Art. They took her away in a van. Anyone could be a suspect and would thus be arrested. The situation in Amirabad was similar. A witness told Rooz that people kept walking and were not allowed to stop even to catch a ride. The site of Neda’s slaying was completely cordoned off and no one could walk in that direction. The Grieving Mothers had announced their intent to hold a gathering there but the police did not let them, and treated anyone heading in that direction with violent force. Nevertheless, the mothers were able to walk in small groups and showed their presence with silence.

Another reporter for Rooz at Mohseni Square reported that a strange atmosphere hovered in the area and huge number of armed forces had shut down all the shops and shopping plazas since several hours earlier so that no one would come to the streets; They had the square totally under their control. They were in such large numbers that it was even impossible to walk through them. They had blocked the entrance of the square to traffic and very few vehicles could pass through. But by doing this in fact they managed to create a traffic jam down to Mirdamad and Vali Asr Avenues while keeping the square under their control and off to the public.