After the rally ended, a large crowd mingled outside, reluctant to call it a day. A sea of green, many were carrying posters and flyers, and trucks were handing out free bottles of water. Was this the mowj, the wave? It certainly appeared to be, or at least the beginnings of a wave. The arena had been filled, no, overfilled, beyond capacity, there was excitement in the air, and the youth, who make up the majority of Iran’s population, were energized, passionate, and involved. Iranian or Islamic democracy is visibly different from American democracy, but Khatami and Rahnavard were treated like rock stars that afternoon, and I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between this Mousavi rally and the Obama rallies in the United States a year before, something even the American news crew admitted had surprised them.
—Hooman Majd, The Ayatollah’s Democracy: An Iranian Challenge, 2011
