Iranian football players banned for wearing wristbands
Jun/09Comments
Iranian football team (AFP)
Now this is rich – to protest the extremely controversial “victory” of Iranian wild man and ruler Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some players of the nation’s football (soccer, to us) team wore green wristbands. At least one player claims he was forced off the team (banned) because of it. An Iranian newspaper promptly changed the word “ban” to “retired”, but the effect is still the same. If you show opposition to Ahmadinejad, even if by doing nothing other than wearing a wristband, you will suffer the consequences of a corrupt government’s backlash. Keeping the people in line with the government is of utmost importance to a government who cannot afford dissent.
Dissent is absolutely critical if people want to remain free. Arguably, the Iranian people were never truly free to begin with, but a government willing to retaliate against its own people by exerting its power to punish for no other reason than dissention is a government that fears its populace. A government that cannot possibly stand on its own merits is forced to fear the population and protect against a quite natural backlash in response to aggression and hostility.
