Today is International Women's Day -- Here are some protesters in Tehran. Check out the full coverage here. Hat Tip to K-Lo.
We tend to take an essentialist view of the Middle East, but it is a fascinatingly complex part of the world. Iran has a large, well-educated urban middle class, that is strongly pro-West. Protests like these have always been bubbling just below the surface of the Islamic Republic. For decades now we have been waiting for the great Iranian revolution that the experts keep telling us will come any day now to topple the Mullahs and institute true western-style democracy. But it never comes, and there is a good reason. The much larger rural population and the urban working classes strongly support the Islamic revolution that installed the Mullahs in the first place and which brought Ahmadinejad to power last year. So, these protests take place, but they never lead to much of anything.
K-Lo, down on the Corner includes links to video of the demonstration and its suppression [here].
Publius has lots more, including more pictures here.
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