From one of my most careful and accurate pen pals:
For all yesterday and in to the night, the people of the city of Mashad, one of the most religious cities, on the north east corner of Iran, has been under the people’s demonstration. The news is that over 8,000 to 10,000 people were on the streets demonstrating against the regime of the mullahs. 1500 Students of the Ferdowsi University there have been demonstrating against the government. The slogans were: Death to the revolution. “Guns, tanks and Basijies are not effective any more.” “The economic Mafia must be exposed. Illegitimate government must resign Must resign.” “We are waves who will move.” The Basijies, paramilitary force, have used chains, axes, electric batons, teargas and they were shooting over the crowd’s heads. There has been report of one person shot, hundreds injured and over 200 were arrested at the university. The number of arrests on the streets is not known.
Here is the video of the demonstrations.
Mashad is a very important place for the mullahs, one of the holy sites of Shi’ism. That they now face such a large demonstration in that city is a bad sign for the regime. It would, of course, be nice if someone at a major “news” outlet got on this, but…