40 Days

Mousavi and Kerroubi are asking the government for permission to hold public memorial services to mark 40 days since the death of protesters after the election. They want to do a memorial to mark the 40 days since June 20 when many were killed which is also the day of the death of the most famous victim of the recent crackdown, Neda.

In Shii Islam and other cultures too, 40 days after an individuals dies is the most important day of mourning and honoring the person who has passed away. The organizers of the 1979 Islamic Revolution famously used this ritual of mourning to create a cycle of protests. Essentially a protest would occur and some people would be killed. 40 days later another protest would occur to remember those killed in the first protest and then more people would be killed. Then you can see how this creates a cycle than can keep going.

Yet what is interesting is the fact that the reformist want to work within the boundaries of the law with this request so that no one else is killed. This request places pressure on the government to allow a religious mourning ceremony and also shows the reformists desire to work with the system making it harder to deny their request.

It will be interesting to see what the regime will do because there seems no reason why they would allow the memorial service given its desire to stop the unrest. Yet at the same time people will likely come out anyways and does the regime risk killing more people to create the same cycle at 1979?