A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Iran's Green Revolution: Show Us the Money

From Payvand, a photo essay on how Iran's rebels are fighting the regime by tampering with the paper money. Banknotes overprinted or overwritten (mostly in green ink) have apparently reached (according to the post) sufficient saturation that the government lets them circulate rather than pull so much money out of circulation. [I'm going to note that some Iran watchers are raising questions about some opposition claims: yesterday's videos included some that seemed to be fake, or from earlier demonstrations (demonstrators in T-shirts when the temps in Tehran were 40 degrees Fahrenheit/9 degrees Celsius), and some may be circulated by the exiled Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). I note this as a warning that not everything appearing is necessarily unexaggerated.] This banknote, with the overwritten "Long Live Freedom" and the "X" over Khomeini's mouth, is one example [UPDATE: oh, and the devil's horns, which I missed at first] (for others, see the link):



2 comments:

IbnIbnBattuta said...

I'm not familiar with what "normal" Iranian bills look like, but are those devil horns on the Ayatollah usually there? Or maybe they're another clever add-on from the new revolutionaries :)

Michael Collins Dunn said...

Now that you mention it, yes. I actually missed them when I posted it.