EACLucifer wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 5:03 am
We've reached the burning down Shia seminaries stage - apparently the seminary in question was of particular symbolic significance to the regime.
It seems to be a bit of a pattern that hierocracy/clerical fascism sooner or later leads to anticlericalism.
Did I see something the other day about the ancestral home of Ayatollah Khomeini being set alight? Apparently now a museum.
Yes. While I'm well aware the Iranians I've interacted with aren't exactly average or typical, it's important to understand that there are some Iranians that absolutely hate Khomeini, there really aren't words for how much they hate him.
Like a colleague of mine; I had breakfast with him every Friday for about 18 years until Covid.
Some images he's sent me on WhatsApp
IMG-20221028-WA0002.jpg (520.34 KiB) Viewed 2312 times
IMG-20221114-WA0000.jpg (29.88 KiB) Viewed 2312 times
IMG-20221119-WA0002.jpg (66.2 KiB) Viewed 2312 times
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
And Iranian police are targeting women's faces, breasts and genitals according to medics treating their wounds.
Men more often shot in the back, legs or buttocks.
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
Gfamily wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:29 pm
And Iranian police are targeting women's faces, breasts and genitals according to medics treating their wounds.
Men more often shot in the back, legs or buttocks.
The Basij exist to terrorise people, so it is hardly surprising they use such vile tactics. In addition, the idea of free, unrepressed female ownership of their own bodies and sexuality is threatening to their particular reactionary strain of Islam, so these tactics fit with their attitudes there.
I note they talk about not aiming at the ground in riot control situations, but even if they were to, birdshot is never acceptable as a riot control weapon. And no weapon that is only safe if aimed low (ie baton rounds) is ever consistently aimed low when handed to any police force, as far as I can tell. A shotgun slug, of course, is even worse, and represents a very clear intent to kill.
Is it clear how much of this is regular police and how much is IRGC/Basij forces?
Their proxies, the Houthis, have attacked multiple vessels apparently including a US warship. It isn't surprising to see Iran escalating, though, when the US response to fire on US positions in the last couple of months has been so limited.
Unfortunately, this and similar timidity re: supply for Ukraine will only embolden warmongering dictatorships from Caracas to Beijing and all points in between.
