Since the fixed outcome of the Iranian elections in June 2009, which ushered in a new era of state repression and violence against all dissent, the 'Green movement' has largely been fractured and stifled..
A campaign of terror, launched by government in Tehran last year, seems to have succeeded in quelling national aspirations for fair and free elections, greater women's rights and the enforcement of constitutional protections. Although the regime has indeed been able to maintain control of the population through intimidation tactics, illegal imprisonment and outright murder, the citizens that took to the streets last year to stand up to tyranny have not in fact been defeated.
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What began as a protest calling for an electoral recount has blossomed into a broad campaign for modern reforms of which the government will either have to eventually concede to (unlikely) or risk being swept away by rebellion or revolution (more likely).
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One year later, we cannot afford to forget the plight of the courageous people of Iran. Their struggle for dignity and basic human rights is our struggle. We remember the hope and the beauty of millions of Iranians marching side-by-side with one common objective - freedom from fear.
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The people now living in the lands of ancient Persia must not lower their heads. Rather, they ought to hold onto the profoundly true insight once made by Mohandas Gandhi on dictators, 'When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always.'
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While being 'Green' cannot be easy inside a morally bankrupt and repressive regime, the color will eventually be victorious in Iran if its people remain defiant and refuse to surrender their dreams for a brighter future.
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(Photo: A young Iranian women clad in green to protest the tyranny of her government)
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J Roquen