Why Iran's Turmoil Makes Me Want to Take to the Rooftops and Shout 'Allah-o-Akbar'!

By Layli Shirani, AlterNet. Posted July 9, 2009.

Today, Iran is anything but peaceful. During the Revolution, the call to chant Allah-o-Akbar awakened religious sentiment, putting modest religious morals on a collision course with western material excess and monarchic oppression. How bitterly ironic, then, that the ruling clerics -- the so-called guardians of the Revolution -- are ripping page after page out of the Shah's playbook by beating the chanting protestors, and reportedly calling on Iranians to inform on those subversive neighbors who dare to shout "Allah-o-Akbar."

The news from Iran has been devastating. A man kneels beside the dying girl and implores: Neda, bemoon. Stay, Neda. Live. The pendulum swings from this soul-crushing scene, to symbol, and back again. Neda means "call." Thus another layer of meaning is added to "Allah-o-Akbar" as a nation calls for more freedom, and mourns its Neda.

With our anxiety stoked by the heady immediacy of those grainy videos, many of us living here participate vicariously through Facebook, Twitter, and the blogs and listserves a-buzz with confirmed and unconfirmed news and images. For me, this only amplifies my sense of distance from Iran and acute discomfort over where I am not. But I feel the nervous, directionless, restless urgency that is present here, where we are all driving a little faster, talking a little faster, sleeping less and arguing a lot more.

As I write, a heavy silence has settled over the streets and rooftops of Iran, and foreboding hangs in the air. Iranians in the United States are planning a mega-rally on July 25, protesting the inauguration of President Ahmadinejad. In the current political climate it is difficult to know if this supportive gesture would be heard as our "response" to their "call" or looked upon as a suspiciously foreign-looking spoke in the tire of a home-grown cause.

It is near-impossible to be here and -- risking nothing -- to comment on events there, without feeling somehow fraudulent. Yet the need keeps growing in me for this constant murmur to mature into a full-throated shout: Allah-o-Akbar! ... Allah-o-Akbar! ... Allah-o-Akbar!

See more stories tagged with: iran

Layli Shirani is a criminal defense attorney living in San Francisco.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Rights and Liberties! Sign up now »