Iran - What not happened and what it means

Beaten, still not submitted.

After a tumultuous and historic weekend in Iran it is interesting not only to get stuck at trying to figure out what happened, but equally telling what not happened.
The protesters did not back down in the face of the more or less blatant threat of violence from Ali Khamenei during Friday Prayer.
They also did not get discouraged by the deaths on Saturday when Basiji sporadically fired on demonstrators, only more determined.
Also telling is the deathtoll, named as 10 officially. Thousands of police were posted throughout Teheran Saturday, trying to disperse tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. Still, only ten people died and only a few hundred were arrested. This is not the crackdown that will silence opposition and show them that it is too dangerous to speak freely. There were no tanks, no military trying to kill entire masses of people, and no deathsquads murdering known protesters in their beds later at night.
Despite being dispersed by numerous checkpoints and not being able to meet up in force at a single location, people protested in the streets anyway as they were redirected in a labyrinthic manner by security forces, making large parts of the center of the city one chaotic, peaceful, low intensive festival. People who were there tell of people helping eachother, giving eachother a ride, driving around in circles looking for protests, laughing, and an absence of fear. The ones fearing the most seemingly the outnumbered Basiji, some seen to panic or cry openly in the street.
This is not just about the election anymore. Khamenei has put his own authority on the line. The whole system of islamic republicanism as we know it in Iran could be on the line if there were a secular figurehead popular enough, but there doesn't seem to be. And Mousavi has not acted like the person who will ruin the entire hierarchical system he helped put in place.
And now, more than a week since the election, the protests are are still not loosing steam. New gatherings are announced already today, calls for strike are made, three days of national mourning will take place later this week.
It will be hard for the hardliners to get out of this one on top.