Nightly Rooftop Chants

Under the cover of darkness, screams of protest erupt from Iranians and bounce from roof to roof. These rooftop chants have become a staple of the protests taking place in Iran, a response to the crackdown on dissent by Iranian security officials.

At the beginning of the summer, just after the election in Iran, our country could not take our eyes off the protests. Demonstrations broke out all across the U.S. as Americans hit the streets to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran. Many of us believed the vote counting in Iran's election had been rigged. Profile pictures on twitter turned green, and tweetdecks across the country filled with #IranElection posts. We filmed a demonstration in DC, back on June 20th, 2009:


Since then, things have barely changed, other then the increase of force used by Iranian security officials. Protests continue, and the Iranian government continues to try to squash dissent. While we celebrated with family and loved ones over the winter break, Iranian civilians were being shot, beaten, arrested, and run over by cars, as part of efforts to practice free speech and the right to assemble.

The videos below are shocking to say the least. The first is video that apparently shows Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of the former Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, just after he was shot.


Mousavi's supporters are accusing Iranian security officials of murdering Seyyed Ali, and Iranian officials claim the man was murdered by protesters as some kind of PR stunt. This happened during protests that took place during the Shiite holy day of Ashura, a holiday connected to martyrdom.

This next video shows an Iranian official driving a security vehicle over a person:


In this video, we see peaceful demonstrators coming under heavy attack by Iranian security:


In response to the unrest, UPI.com is reporting that Iranian government has issued a call for the general public to provide information on opposition organizers, showing pictures of 32 people involved in the demonstrations.

This is why they chant from the rooftops at night.