Basij Week
The Islamic Republic of Iran is reporting mobilization plans for 7 million Basijis to rally on Friday, November 27, 2009, on the occasion of Basij Week. Official routes have yet to be announced for the day's marches. This follows unofficial reports that over 30,000 Basij militiamen were mobilized to counter anti-regime protesters on November 4, under orders from the new commander of the Basij, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Nagdi.Student Basij in Elementary Schools
A senior Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) official has announced that the Basij will soon be established in Iranian elementary schools for the first time since the Islamic revolution.
The extensive plan calls for the introduction of the Basij into 6,000 elementary schools across the country, according to IRGC General Mohammad Saleh Jokar, head of the Schoolchildren and Teachers' Basij Organization. 'We want to expand the Basij's activities at the primary-school level because students are more impressionable at a young age than at other times in their lives,' Jokar told Mehr News in an interview published on Monday. 'We intend to promote and instill a revolutionary and Basiji thought process among elementary school students.'The militia has been present in middle schools and high schools since its inception 30 years ago, but the founding law of the schoolchildren's Basij, passed by the Majlis on April 29, 1996, mandated its presence in elementary schools too. 'We had not formed Basij units in elementary schools until now because of budget restrictions, but more funds were allocated this year,' Jokar explained to Mehr news.
The Basij elementary school organization website can be accessed here.
4 comments:
This is interesting. Thanks for this update!
Has anyone heard more about state-sponsored blogs for the Basij?
I saw it mentioned here:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/2009/01/08/irans-revolutionary-guards-take-on-the-internet/
the basijes the most honest and pure in the islamic republic of iran i saw them fight/ purely great fighter no matter what the world think about them they died for them principal of understading at this mumment thousant times stronger than 1980 to 1988.
November 29, 2009
Basij Divided Into Military and Political Divisions
The commander of the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) emphasized in his latest remarks the necessity of increasing Basij’s “political and cultural activities.” Meanwhile, Gholamhossein Elham, a figure close to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, emphasized the necessity of “capturing economic summit by the Basij.”
In his latest remarks, the IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said, after praising the new Basij chief Mohammad Reza Naghdi, “Today, the name of the Basij organization has changed from the ‘Basij Resistance Force’ to the ‘Downtrodden Basij Organization.’ Since ‘force’ is a word used for military activities, therefore, with the supreme leader’s wisdom, military Basij and non-military Basij were separated from one another.”
Jafari spoke about the separation of “military Basij and non-military Basij” while, according to his remarks three weeks ago, what was known until now as the Basij Resistance Force was incorporated into the IRGC’s ground division. In his speech yesterday, however, Jafari introduced the “Downtrodden Basij” as the “non-military” wing of the Basij. According to political experts, this claim of the IRGC chief contradicts his prior claim during Naghdi’s introduction ceremony that the “Downtrodden Basij will carry out half of IRGC’s missions under the new IRGC structure and organization.” In any case, Basij is still regarded as a military force.
Experts believe that by “half of IRGC’s missions,” Jafari was referring to “resistance against soft war,” which he alluded to again on Saturday, noting, “Today, after the threat of hard war, we face soft war.” In his speech three weeks ago Jafari also spoke about the role of the Basij in confronting soft war. Noting that ayatollah Khamenei regards the IRGS as a “cultural, security and military organization,” the IRGC chief had said, “the IRGC faces different missions, and the massive popular Basij force must be utilized at the appropriate time in a manner in tune with the revolution’s needs.”
He had announced that “military units” of the Basij were incorporated into the IRGC’s “ground forces” in provinces, adding, “Provincial IRGC units are charged with confronting hard war, and whenever necessary these units will aid the Basij, but the essential mission of the Basij is to confront soft threats.”
Simultaneous with the IRGC chief’s remarks, Gholamhossein Elham, a member of the Guardian Council and a figure close to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said yesterday at a meeting with Basiji mothers in the province of Mazandaran, “The Basijis must capture economic summits in the period of privatization.”
According to the Fars news agency, this figure close to Ahmadinejad, explained, “Basij must capture factories in the period of privatization and take over the country’s true economic power, not letting it to fall into the hands of certain monopolistic and capitalistic groups in the era of privatization.”
http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem/article/2009/november/29//basij-divided-into-military-and-political-divisions.html
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