I am in no mood to write. I will give you an account of what went on in the area we were today, and go rest out the exhaustion from this past week.
We parked and started walking down Tohid Avenue towards Enghelab. Like last time there was a hoard of people going in that direction, and a hoard of cars stuck in traffic. Unlike last time, the mood was tense and quiet, on the account of the carte blanche issued to government thugs the day before. No honking, no shouting of slogans. And they were there, at every intersection, in every street and back alley: Neanderthals in helmets, Neanderthals on bikes. As we walked down they kept taunting us and saying we should all turn around and go back. We passed by a street in which about twelve of them were gathered around beating a young man, and a woman was clinging to one of them begging him to let her son go. Her screams stopped when they started beating her as well. All the while people were shouting and cussing, remaining as bystanders, afraid to make a move. We were dispersed once the lady and her son were put out with taser guns and the apes found time to rush the people. We continued to walk down. We were told that the young man was wearing a green wristband.
People walking on the overloaded sidewalk started to ooze into the street, among the cars. We walked for another hundred meters, and that’s when mayhem occurred. Bikers started rushing people from the south, clubbing indiscriminately, firing tear gas and shooting. I don’t know where they were shooting and with what, maybe they were rubber bullets, but people were falling left and right. Everyone was screaming and running back, over cars, over each other, some straight, some towards the side streets to take cover. I saw a woman, clad in black Chador, screaming “what are you doing in the name of Islam?” We got to the main intersection where the footmen were now clubbing people. All I could think of was to hold my back to the window of a shop and stay put. Many people did the same. Bad move. The bikers saw us and swarmed in our direction. One of them got to about two meters and people started scattering once again. Somehow we managed to run away and found ourselves in the back alleys of the neighborhood. Many of the residents were taking in beaten and gassed people. We could walk, so we continued to the main intersection where we had parked. A large crowd had gathered there where the front-line was shouting slogans and the back rows were breaking the concrete dividers on the sidewalks to arm themselves. At times the apes would rush in our direction and we’d start to run, then suddenly people would get emboldened and rush them back and they would scatter instead. A war was about to break out. Some in the crowd were yelling that people should get their women out of the scene for what was about come. We did just that.
When we arrived at a friend’s house, I sat down and wept; for the violence perpetrated against all the women, men, the old and the young that I saw today; for my cowardice in not staying behind; for the feeling of helplessness I felt. We’ve lost touch with a number of friends and family who are in the pit. Cell phone coverage is cut off in the entire city and who knows what is happening to those trapped between the government lines.