A year ago the atrocity of the Iranian government's brutal suppression of the election protest was a lively topic of discussion in this forum. The main thread on it recorded 298 posts.


Supporters of political leader Mirhossein Mousavi are dogged by oppression, but time may be running out for the hardline regime, writes MARTIN FLETCHER.

'Government brutality and intimidation can withstand the march of histor y for years, but not indefinitely.' KARIM SADJADPOUR, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Ayear ago today Bahareh Maghami, 28, a primary school teacher, was arrested at Ghoba mosque, Tehran, during the huge demonstrations that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory. She was beaten and raped. She fled to Germany and recently posted an open letter on the Internet because, she said, "there is nothing left of me and no reason to hide my name any more."

Tens of millions of Iranians turned out to vote a year ago today, believing they could put an end to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repressive regime. One year later, the Green Movement opposition has lost momentum and some supporters bemoan its lack of strategy and leadership.

She recalled: "There were three of them. All were dirty and wore beards. They had a terrible accent and foul mouths. Even though they saw that I was a virgin they accused me of being a whore and forced me to admit I was a prostitute." She still wakes in terror at night, still smells their sweat. She told how her father " shattered into pieces" when he learned her fate, and her mother "aged a hundred years overnight." Because of her shame " relatives, friends, neighbours and everyone cut off relations."

The family was driven from Tehran, and then from Iran. As for herself, it is "as if my whole humanity is taken away from me. My womanhood was destroyed. I will never be able to love a man. I'm like the walking dead."

Tens of millions of Iranians turned out to vote for Mir Hossein Mousavi last June 12, encouraged to believe by the huge and exuberant opposition rallies of the previous week that they really could oust Ahmadinejad's repressive regime.

It was an illusion and their excitement turned to terror. State television pre-emptively declared Ahmadinejad the winner. The Internet and phone systems went down. Security forces beat anyone in sight. Within two days, most foreign journalists had to leave Iran and the regime unleashed a campaign of brutality.

It took eight months but the street demonstrations were eventually snuffed out. More than 100 protesters were killed, including Neda Soltan, the student who became a global symbol of the regime's inhumanity. Others died mysteriously, among them Mousavi's nephew, and a young doctor who witnessed the deaths of inmates in an infamous detention centre.

More than 5,000 demonstrators have been arrested, and that is the off icial f igure. Many more — lawyers, rights activists, academics, students, artists — have been held in an attempt to decapitate the "Green Movement."

Mousavi and his co-leaders, Mehdi Karoubi and Mohammed Khatami, the former president, have escaped arrest only because the regime fears the eruption that would follow. Their aides and advisers were less fortunate. Many detainees have been tortured. Amnesty International reported this week that they have suffered "severe beatings, using hands, feet or cables; electric shocks; hanging upside down by the feet for long periods; rape of both men and women, including with implements; death threats, including mock executions."

More than 100 journalists have been forced to flee the country and 23 newspapers have been shut down. About 170 journalists and bloggers have been arrested; 22 have been sentenced to terms totalling 135 years, while 85 await trial or sentencing.

"An entire profession of journalists, political observers and social activists ... has been eradicated," said Reporters Without Borders. The Committee to Protect Journalists said Iran was the "world's worst jailer of journalists." Thousands more Iranians have fled abroad but the regime's efforts to silence its critics do not stop at Iran's borders. Tehran-based relatives of exiles such as Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace laureate, and Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda Soltan's life, have been harassed or arrested.

The regime suppresses any challenge to its own narrative — that the Green Movement is a creature of western powers determined to destroy the Islamic Republic. As a result, the regime blocks websites, monitors e-mails and telephone calls and jams foreign satellite channels.

The families of those killed are denied mourning ceremonies and are offered blood money to drop their complaints. Soccer matches have been broadcast without sound to thwart anti-regime chanting. Ministries and universities have been purged.

In a sense the strategy has worked. The regime has survived, for now, the worst crisis in the Islamic Republic's 31-year history. Some people still shout defiance from Tehran's rooftops at night, daub slogans on walls and deface banknotes, but the capital is so saturated with security forces that opposition leaders called off a rally today in order to " protect people's lives and property."

There is, however, a widespread conviction that the regime has sown the seeds of its own collapse.

A government that claims to champion Islamic values has lost all legitimacy and moral authority, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the oncerevered Supreme Leader, now widely reviled. The economy is deteriorating, and the political establishment is divided.

Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said: "Government brutality and intimidation can withstand the march of history for years, but not indefinitely."

Maghami urges other victims to speak out. "They must write so that those who come after us and live in a free Iran know what price was paid for their freedom." Of Ayatollah Khamenei she asks: "You consider yourself the father of this nation? I was a daughter of Iran. Your sons raped me. Who will pay for my lost dignity?"