No doubt many of you have been following the hub bub in Iran following the most recent presidential election. Amid the excitment of finally finding out the what Twitter I also got the wonderful opportunity to have a couple of Iranian firends explain the current situation and social unrest in detail that I otherwise would not have known.
Shortly after the election, with cries of fraud pouring in, US media mostly reported Ahmadinejad had won – oh what a shame they said. But what can one do. They seemed so ready to accept the results. Odd for a industry that has spent so much time and energy vilinaizing the man. One would have thought they would jump on the chance to say he stole the election. Very suspicious indeed.
It turns out that Ahmadinejad and the oppositions candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi have the same position on Irans nuclear program. But where Ahmadinejad is a bigotted, power hungry and machavelinian person Mousavi comes as much more a reformer, moderate and even a tad progressive. He wants to revist lawas governing gender roles for example. If had won the U.S. would have had much the harder time vinilizing his government. Where as with Ahmadinejad it is a whole heck of a lot easier to angtagonize and vilinaize. So what incentive would the US have to really come out fighting agains the election results? They need someone in office the can make the world hate.
Well on one sunny day after work I went to City Hall plaza with my Iranian friends for a protest/vigil put on by a group of locoal Iranian immigrants and Iranian-American’s. It was a good 100-150 people with a pretty wide range of ages. There were others like me – none Iranians who came out to be with friends or just show support for the protestors on the streets across Iran.
Mahsa brought us sighs which was good. Paul, Golsa and I chanted along with everyone else…though when the crowd chanted “Where’s our vote!” We chanted “Where’s Mashas vote!”
Here are some pictures!
