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Iranian Rebellion Grows on the Web
Bill Flanigen from the November 2009 issue
In the August/September 2004 issue of reason, Marc C. Johnson described online expatriate opposition to the Iranian regime. Spread across the globe and connected by the Internet, Iranian students used chat rooms, anonymous email accounts, proxy servers, and websites to agitate for reform and to communicate with dissenters inside the Islamic Republic. Following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent re-election on June 13, 2009, Iranians at home showed the world they were just as capable of using the Net to fight for freedom, tweeting and blogging their discontent by the thousands.
The microblogging site Twitter, founded in 2006 and therefore young even by Internet standards, has become a forum for protesters who have few other means of safe communication with the outside world and each other. CNN and other news organizations relied heavily on Twitter for information about what was going on inside the closed country as protests against the regime turned into violent clashes between police and protesters.
In 2004 Johnson depicted Iran’s expat dissenters as a “fractious electronic vanguard” with organizational troubles. “The only times in recent memory that the expatriate opposition has even gathered around the same table,” he wrote, “have been during periods of major crisis for those still in Iran—when the regime has cracked down on dissent.” June’s election was just such a crisis. Overseas sites like those run by the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (daneshjoo.org) and the secularist Marze Por Gohar Party (marzeporgohar.org) have become clearinghouses for information, pictures, and videos about the protests and the regime’s bloody suppression of political opposition and public assembly.
Some overseas dissidents were actively engaged in the uprising: Marze Por Gohar’s Roozbeh Farahanipour, who was interviewed by Johnson, snuck into Iran in early July to participate in the protests. “I am proud of our people,” he told the conservative webzine FrontPage. “They have reached their boiling point and will not be kept down any longer.” Rather than fomenting revolution from without, expatriates like Farahanipour have found themselves supporting and chronicling an indigenous wave of political discontent—an uprising aided by 21st-century tools, against a regime with a medieval disdain for self-government and liberty.
:)
Hello,
if you like democracy, I would like to let you know that Mr Moussavi participated as prime minister to the creation of the islamic republic of Iran, and contributed to the establishment of non democratic laws and way of government in this country.
Saying he is fighting for democracy is really strange...
As member of the supreme council that decided who was going to be candidate for the presidencial election, I am not sur it is a good example to compare Al Gore to Moussavi ;-)
it seems you didn't notice it has never been a democracy in Iran since Khomeiny arrived !! how about the vote to established islamic republic !! it was 99% !! is it really democracy ?
do you know candidates have always been choosen by a council, and not elected by party members ? do you know a political party can't exist if his political views are different than the islamic republic's views ?
if a country is a democracy because there are elections... it is not enough to proove it
have a happy new year :-)
P.O.
Letter to the Editor
This letter is in response to the articles covering the election crisis in Iran.
As a citizen of and believer in democracy, I applaud the efforts of Mir Hossein Mousavi. His efforts are similar to what former vice-president Al Gore should have done during the controversy surrounding the United States presidential election of 2000. Gore should have continued to protest regardless of the political risks until all the votes were counted in Florida. Instead, former president George W. Bush was appointed by the United States Supreme Court to effectively overturn the will of the people and look at what has happened to the United States in the last eight years.
Believe it or not, one thing that trumps capitalism and political correctness in the United States is the right to have one's vote counted. This is the foundation of which our democracy is built on. Mousavi should continue to defy Iran's powerful security forces so that Iranian democracy can be preserved. It is not the reformist movement that is attempting to seize power but rather it is those currently in power who have engaged in fraud to prevent the will of the people from being heard. Why else would they stoop to such underhanded tactics to block various means of communication among the citizens of Iran? Why is the government in power utilizing such political strong-arm tactics as the use of violence and false arrest? Why are international journalists being arrested? Why is the Iranian government forcing other foreign journalists to leave the country? Why is Iran becoming a state guided not by clerics of the revolution but by a powerful military and security apparatus? Why are security agents {by their actions} resembling more and more the "brownshirts" of Nazi Germany? Who empowered the Pro-government Basiji militiamen who are nothing more than a bunch of political thugs and street punks?
The United Nations must be allowed into Iran to monitor the election up to and including a new election. During the new election, let the call go forth among all citizens of Iran that your brothers and sisters of democracy from all over the world are with you during every trial and tribulation you may encounter during this crisis. To the people of Iran, the trumpet of freedom beckons you to rise in protest and ensure your vote to preserve your sacred heritage, promote your children's future and obtain the blessings of liberty we all cherish. If your government wishes to adhere to the principles set forth in the Iranian Constitution then let the cry go forth: Mr. Ahmadinejad tear down this cyberwall!
JOE BIALEK
Cleveland, OH USA
216-739-1147