Allah-o-Akbar
July 10, 2009 11:36 AM   Subscribe

Iran: The Rooftop Project. "This is meant to be the most complete possible collection of recordings of nighttime protest in Iran since the beginning of the uprising. Its goal is to locate and profile at least one video for each night primarily focusing on the nightly chanting of Allah-o-Akbar from the rooftops, whenever that footage is available. Some of these videos have not been widely seen until now." [Via]
posted by homunculus (24 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite

This is kinda cool...and kinda makes me go "wait...". Isn't stuff like this which is locating the buildings that people are protesting from making it easier for the Gov't goon squads to actually locate them?
posted by hal_c_on at 11:43 AM on July 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Nationwide Protests Met with Main Force;
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posted by homunculus at 11:50 AM on July 10, 2009


Allah O' Akbar? I didn't realize god was Irish.
posted by ooga_booga at 12:10 PM on July 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


Watching these gave me actual chills.

hal_c_on, I think the point is if that you get a bunch of people doing it all over the city in the dark, no-one can really tell where it's coming from.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:14 PM on July 10, 2009


I'm protesting right now into my soup.

My chinese soup.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:20 PM on July 10, 2009


hal_c_on, I think the point is if that you get a bunch of people doing it all over the city in the dark, no-one can really tell where it's coming from.

I thought so too...before I saw actual buildings and neighborhoods in the videos.

And speaking from experience as well as from common sense...those in power who want to cease these protests won't give a damn about who the actual people were. They will persecute/prosecute anyone they can reasonably associate with those buildings/neighborhoods.

I really don't think the "I can't identify the actual protester, so I won't beat anyone in this building" arguments work for the goon squads.
posted by hal_c_on at 12:39 PM on July 10, 2009


They're mad as hell... etc.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 12:45 PM on July 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


I agree with hal_c_on that posting these seems dangerous. Nevertheless, I listed to several. I found this one heartbreaking. It's shown with subtitles. It was filmed after Neda was killed. Over the rooftop shouts, a young girl is praying and pleading with God to listen to and answer her people's prayers.
posted by marsha56 at 1:08 PM on July 10, 2009


Taking seriously what ooga_booga said, it immediately bugged me that the phrase was so badly mistranscribed. The Arabic I'm familiar with can most closely be written in English as Allah-hu-Akbar, and the only significant difference I can hear in the Farsi in the videos is the last word, which sounds more like "Ashbar." These are all approximations, of course, since there are consonant and guttural sounds involved that don't exist in English (written or spoken) but I would have liked someone who's obviously so passionate about this cause to get something like this right.

Of course, this is coming from an Israeli-born Jew, so take it for what it's worth.
posted by yiftach at 1:19 PM on July 10, 2009


ooga_booga clearly isn't Irish.
posted by blixco at 1:50 PM on July 10, 2009


I really don't think the "I can't identify the actual protester, so I won't beat anyone in this building" arguments work for the goon squads.

They don't need video to tell them which buildings people are yelling from. They can just look up.
posted by zennie at 1:52 PM on July 10, 2009


Counter-Targeting The Protesters
posted by homunculus at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2009


it made me cry. heartfelt peoples' protest always does. wonderful post.

also, though, it made me cry because i don't believe in god, and it's tragic to hear people crying for a reaction from an obviously indifferent man in the sky.
posted by RedEmma at 9:09 AM on July 11, 2009


I hope these protests aren't in vain. These people are crying out for help and it doesn't seem like the world is ready to step up to the plate. Hopefully the Iranian clerics(radicals) can step aside and let the real Iranians run there government.
posted by ilrozo23 at 6:17 PM on July 11, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 8:36 AM on July 12, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 8:53 AM on July 13, 2009


Iran's Terrifying Facebook Police

Wow. Iranian members of Facebook would be well-advised to change their search privacy settings to "friends only" and "no networks" and to change their Twitter accounts so that their real names are not connected.
posted by zennie at 10:34 AM on July 13, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 6:50 PM on July 14, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 3:17 PM on July 16, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 2:51 PM on July 17, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 11:37 AM on July 24, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 9:16 AM on July 28, 2009


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posted by homunculus at 8:41 PM on July 29, 2009


Iran security forces retreat as huge numbers of mourners gather at cemetery: As many as tens of thousands of protesters meet at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting death was videotaped. Meanwhile, the first group of protesters arrested in the unrest heads to trial.

Updates on Post-Election Protests in Iran
posted by homunculus at 9:24 AM on July 30, 2009


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