A friend of mine used to be a journalist in Iran. He fled in the 1980s and came to Canada. He's a board member of the Canadian Journalists For Free Expression. His blogspot, called Iran Watch Canada, has videos of the protests.
He wrote a long essay on Jan 1 explaining the protests. It begins like this:
- About The Protest In Iran ....In its 5th days now ....
I want to be as much as rational as i can be at this very emotional time. This uprising is the result of a very stubborn , undemocratic, corrupt, cruel - clerical regime that won't pay any attention what so over to its people. To have an ear to listen to them and hear what they want. This regime has no respect at all to Iranian women and men's rights, particularly the women's rights.
This protest is the protest of impoverished Iranian people including workers, teachers, graduate students who have no jobs, human rights activists, minorities in Iran and ......
These people have nothing more to lose but bringing change to their lives and to their societies.
One Iranian leader of the Union of Free workers Azim Jafarzadeh said: "This protest is our protest."
Here's a video of kids chanting "Death to Khomeni." They seem very young.