It will be a month next week since the protests began in Egypt that led to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power. The events in Egypt have sparked similar protests throughout the Middle East, in Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, and even Libya.

Thousands Demonstrate in Tehran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the protests that occurred on Monday in Tehran. The BBC reports:

On Monday, thousands gathered at Tehran’s Azadi Square in solidarity with the uprisings in Tunisia in Egypt – their first major show of dissent since December 2009, when eight people were killed. Many chanted “Death to dictators”.

The BBC’s Mohsen Asgari, who was at the rally, says it was not long before riot police fired tear gas, while men on motorbikes charged the crowd with batons.

Members of Iran’s Parliament have issued calls to kill opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

A dispute arose around a university student, Saneh Jaleh, who was killed on Monday on Jamalzedah Street, near where the protests were centered in Tehran.  As the New York Times says, reports about his death from the government differ significantly from those by Jaleh’s friends. One government report said that Jaleh, a theater student, ‘was a member of the Basij, a paramilitary force that is used to suppress demonstrations’; his friends state that he was not a member.

On Tuesday, in defiance of a government ban, Iranians again demonstrated in Tehran. 

A Second Day of Unrest in Bahrain

Will change in the small state (its population is the smallest of any Arab nation’s) produce only limited reforms of more radical change? As noted in the Guardian:

Bahrain’s distinction is that the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a restive Shia majority that has long complained about poverty and discrimination for jobs and housing. The population has grown from 750,000 to more than a million in a few years, with Shias in senior jobs decreasing while large numbers of non-Bahraini Sunnis are naturalised.

This sectarian division puts Bahrain on a regional faultline, with an assertive Shia Iran glowering across the Gulf at a country that is also home to the US 5th fleet and a key ally for Washington. The Saudis, with their Shia majority in the oil-producing eastern provinces, are watching nervously.

Bahrain is the odd one out economically as well, lacking the hydrocarbon riches of Qatar or the UAE and thus the ability easily to buy off dissent in exchange for political quiescence.

It is not the first time riot police have fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters, but anger and ambition have been fuelled by events in Egypt and Tunisia. Twitter and Facebook have been getting out the crowds.

What many Shia protesters want, says the Guardian, is ‘a new constitution and respect for human rights, not revolution or regime change.’   

The authorities have sought to quell the protests in advance by issuing a ‘flurry of pre-emptive announcements to defuse tensions’ and give every family $2,660. 

On Tuesday, security forces opened fire and killed one person, Fadel Matrouq, at a funeral for Ali Mushaima, who was killed in the protests for Monday, says the New York Times.The King of Bahrain has promised an investigation into the tests of two protesters killed, says the Guardian.

And the protests continue. In Manama, Bahrain’s capital, protesters ‘appear to have adopted both the slogans and the tactics of the protesters who occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square until their demands for change were met,’ says New York Times. People have erected tents and are making ‘makeshift banners’ and chanting slogans and wondering what is to happen next.

Protests in Yemen and Libyra

Demonstrators called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down and security forces used tear gas and batons to disperse thousands in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, says the BBC. It was the fifth consecutive day of protests in Yemen, where President Saleh has been in power for almost 32 years. He has said that he does not intend to rule beyond 2013 but protesters are calling for more immediate changes.

A Libyan city, Benghazi, has been ‘rocked by protests,’ says the BBC:

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the unrest had been triggered by the arrest of a lawyer who is an outspoken critic of the government.

The lawyer was later said to have been released, but the demonstrations reportedly continued.

…….

There is no independent confirmation of the protests in Benghazi, but eyewitnesses say that at one stage some 2,000 people were involved.

They say stones were thrown at police who are said to have responded with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.

More and more, it seems not a question of whether other countries might follow Egypt’s example, but when.

To see more about the developments in Egypt, click here.

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