The protests may have slowed down, but Iran and it’s government hierarchy are still in turmoil. This Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired two members of his cabinet. Many are seeing this act as another indicator that conservatives within Iran are at odds over how best to handle the protests following the controversial and contested election.
According to Iranian law, any president who fires 11 members of his cabinet must face a vote of confidence before the Iranian parliament. The two firings, according to CNN.com, would put Ahmadinejad past this threshold.
However, it is unclear whether both men will remain dismissed, or if one will return to avoid the vote of
confidence. The Iranian state media is claiming that only one person was really let go.
Back in the U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held firmly to the White House’s position on Iran’s protests saying that the country’s future “is really for the people to decide.”
Read CNN.com’s: Ahmadinejad may face vote of confidence in parliament
Nassim Nazemi
The news from Iran has died down, but some Americans, like Chicago’s Nassim Nazemi, have not stopped their fight. Click the play button to hear what she has to say.
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Highlights:
- “We expected that no matter who won the election, it would be business as usual”
- “Suddenly we’re using social media, things like Twitter and Facebook to actively resist oppression and to help people actively resist government oppression.”
- “It got harder and harder to get the world’s attention as the protests waned, as time went by, as Michael Jackson died and took over the news cycle.”
- “I know one thing with certainty and that is, Iran will never be the same.”
Don’t want to listen? Here’s the transcript:
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to speak with Nassim Nazemi, an Iranian-American, to talk about what she has been doing to help foster democracy in Iran and help her friends and family that are still there.
First Question Nassim… have you always followed Iranian politics so closely?
I would say myself and most of my friends and family who’ve become involved in one way or another never really viewed themselves as politically active in any way. Most of us, at least speaking for myself, didn’t expect much to come out of the election. We viewed it with the same skepticism that we’ve developed over the last 30 years in regards to this Islamic republic. We expected that no matter who won the election, it would be business as usual.
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