More political, soccer-related unrest in Iran follows Bahrain victory

Sunday, June 12, 2005

More unrest occurred overnight across Iran following the national soccer team's June 9 victory over the team from neighboring Bahrain in a World Cup qualification match.

Soccer Jubilation Pushes Boundaries

The match marked the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that women could attend a soccer match. A group of one hundred pre-selected women were admitted to the game under official escort; a protest group of a further twenty-six women attempted to gain admission, but were dispersed by police.

A young Tehran resident reported via instant messenger that she heard what appeared to be raucous celebrating outside the night of the 1-0 victory over Bahrain. She had been babysitting that night, and returned quickly home, having decided it was probably not safe to investigate the crowds after hearing a large boom, which she attributed to pranksters possibly detonating outsized illegal fireworks. However, she also noticed that a public telephone had been damaged.

If utilities were being damaged, it is very possible that the boom was produced not by a high explosive, but by the bursting of sodium vapor lamp bulb that had been knocked over by vandals -- this reporter has seen it happen before, and can attest that it sounds very much like an explosion.

Some Crowds Get Political

In the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan, demonstrators reportedly tore down a large poster of the late Ayatollah Khomeini (founder of the present Islamic Republic of Iran) and burned it while chanting "Freedom!" and anti-regime slogans. The crowds of young people caused traffic congestion, apparently halting movement through the center city for several hours. Numerous arrests have been reported. The city is home to a substantial Turkic Azeri minority, but the unrest seems to be political in nature, not ethnic.

Meanwhile, in the theological center of Qom, reformist politician Behzad Navabi was attacked by a group of about thirty unidentified men who apparently disagreed with his political platform. The group employed lethal and non-lethal weapons, including tear gas, to disrupt Navabi's political rally. Navabi reports that he suffered a skull fracture and numerous cuts and bruises in the attack. Police clashed with the attackers, and eventually arrested some of them. Navabi is a member of the Mujahadeen of Islamic Revolution party and a backer of reform presidential candidate Mustafa Moin.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Related news

"Continuing civil unrest in Iran fueled by election tensions, soccer victory" — Wikinews, June 4, 2005
"Iranian opposition group declares all acts of current government void" — Wikinews, April 8, 2005

Sources

Wikinews

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

Wikinews

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

"Dozens injured or arrested in Iran-Bahrain soccer riots" — SMCCDI (Information Service), June 9, 2005
Paul Hughes. "Candidates promise more social freedoms in Iran" — swissinfo, June 9, 2005
"Iran city spends turbulent night after football match" — Iran Focus, June 9, 2005 (Includes photos of Tabriz demonstrations)
"Iranian reformist injured in campaign attack by mob" — IranFocus, June 10, 2005
"Reformist presidential candidate attacked in Iran" — Yahoo!News, June 10, 2005

External links

Tehran Victory Celebration photos by Nader Davoodi, via iranian.com

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.