Michael Theodoulou writes at The National:
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its supporters are gleefully portraying the momentous protests convulsing parts of the Arab world as a defining, revolutionary struggle against “despotic”, secular western “puppets”. It also claims the demonstrators are inspired by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah.
These assertions, made repeatedly in the state-run media, overlook inconvenient truths.
One is that most of those protesting in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen were not born when Iran’s revolution sent shock waves across the region and beyond. Another is that many are demanding the same rights and liberties that the Iranian regime denies its own people.
Iran’s state-run television has manoeuvred uncomfortably to cover the tumultuous events sweeping parts of the Arab world. It has shown Egyptian protesters chanting “Allahu Akbar” – God is greatest – but edited out scenes of baton-wielding riot police cracking heads. Such footage would have resonated widely with the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who took to the streets with great hope in 2009.
An analyst in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Obviously, the regime doesn’t want people to be inspired by the protests in the way that Egyptians were inspired by Tunisians. Batons hitting heads evoke certain memories,” he added dryly.
This cartoon appears on the Iranian opposition website peykeiran.com:
(Via EAWorldView)
