Prayers Make History: Via Tehran Bureau.

The following account is narrated in Farsi and translated by Saya Ovaisy. The narrator is a male student of political philosophy and in his early 30s. This is the first of two parts.

Friday Prayers, another occasion to come out into the streets

As with other such days, I felt a dual sense of fear and fervor, heightened by the uncertainty of whether people would turn out or not. I arranged to go with friends, because the past month’s experiences have taught me that going alone is unsafe. I remembered to put my name and number on a piece of paper in my pocket so if anything happens to me, my family can be notified.

[...]

We parked and coalesced with the procession in the baking midday heat. They came in all types: hipster with a rainbow-cannabis medallion resting on his open neck, a family with a ten-year-old child, women in that Islamic Iran archetype black chador, scruffy-looking men, laborers, girls in sunglasses, senior citizens. Despite their differences, they all shared an aura of excitement. Some were holding small radios to tune in to Hashemi Rafsanjani’s sermon.

We passed policemen (the ordinary kind) along the way, and behind them, buses ready for the day’s batch of prisoners. Although defiant “V” signs were in full view, the officers stayed immobile.

Strangers chatted about what Rafsanjani might say and expressed happiness at the turnout. The non-religious asked the religious about how to execute namaz (prayers). For many, it was their first time at this decades-long public ritual.

* * *
[...]

Most of those seated near and around us were religious types: chador-clad women, pious-looking men, and among them even a cleric. During the first part of the sermon, Rafsanjani recounted a historic narrative where Prophet Mohammad advises Imam Ali [the first Shia leader], “If people are not satisfied with your governance, you must withdraw and let people decide their governor.” At this, an approving cry of Allah-o-Akbar arose. Some in the crowd, obviously novices unfamiliar with the conventions of Friday Prayer, began applauding and whistling. Pro-Mousavi unity aside, I feared that the religious men and women sitting nearby would take offense at this inappropriate behavior. But they merely tittered — and astonishingly, the cleric was clapping along! Once I saw this, I had no qualms about joining in the applause.

I overheard a chador-clad middle-aged woman sitting next to me tell her teenage daughter, who also wore a chador, “Imam Ali would submit to the desire of the people, but this Agha [the title for Khamenei] believes himself to be above even Imam Ali!” The daughter replied, “But I’m still not satisfied. Hashemi should speak more openly!”

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