Travel Photo Report

 Down with Israel! Down with USA!

Today after breakfast we heard noise coming from the main street. Our hotel is very close to the main square on Imam Khomeini st. It sounded like protesting crowds. We got a bit used to protests organized in the Eastern Turkey by Kurdish people. But here must be something different.

Of course, Anti-American protests. We went out and straight away saw crowds of people on the main square. A man was shouting something in a microphone and the crowd was chanting in response waving their fists.

We moved to the square and I started noticing Anti-American & Anti-Israel posters in English here and there. People were waving posters and shouting something in Farsi. Probably: Down with USA! Down with Israel. The posters were neatly printed in a printed house, not written or drawn by hand.

Although at first it looked like a proper protest I noticed many teenagers and even kids in the crowd. By the way they were holding their posters it was easy to understand that they either don’t understand what this is all about, or just don’t care.

The majority of the crowd consisted of women, school age teenagers and kids.

Walking between protesting people I could’t stop thinking about 1 of May demonstrations from the Soviet times when all the people were ordered to participate, and one did not dare not to. I guess being a teenager you want to have fun in life and not being charged with anti-Iranian activities (meaning not going to Anti-American rally).

The school kids were most probably ordered to come to the square. Their faces don’t show any hatred or rage. Most of them are probably just happy to skip classes.

The central TV channel will report about Anti-American protests in city of Rasht. Later we watched similar prostests broadcasted on TV.

Today is probably a specially dedicated-to-Anti-American-protests day when local municipalities organize these protests all over the country, and their participants are happy to skip classes or work, and TV channels happily broadcast mass outrage towards Americans and Israelis.

No burning flags or Obama mascots. The protests grew boring and we left the scene. Several hours later the square was empty and loudspeakers were being peacefully dismantled.


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About the Author: Alex