"death to the dictator"

After an 11-day lull, thousands of Iranians took to the streets again (despite numerous threats of retribution springing from the reigning regime) to commemorate the tenth anniversary student uprising of 1999. At the time, the riots, in response to hundreds of basiji storming the University of Tehran after a reformist demonstration, posed the greatest challenge to the government since the Islamic Revolution. Naturally, those tremors pale in comparison to today's persisting turmoil in the wake of the contested election.

Sadly, the Iranian government appeared to be as good as its word. In the midst of regime's continuing rhetoric about the foreign media agitators (whose journalists have conveniently been banned from the country), it has continued to crack down ever more brutally on those who dare to continue to protest. The demonstrators were greeted with hoards of riot police and basiji militiamen who beat them back with batons, tear gas and gun butts. The government seems determined not to back down -- but every night millions of Iranians continue to climb to their roof tops to shout "Allah'u Akbar" (a la 1979 Islamic Revolution).