Photo Credit: alisonfi - http://twitter.com/alisonfi

Even though they may seem like small things, turning your profile image green, re-tweeting information from people on the ground in Iran, setting up hundreds of proxy servers within days, coordinating rallies, giving maps on where to take injured people, pointing people to guerrila warfare tactics and first aid handbooks, and many other random acts have shown the Iranian people that the world is watching, that we do in fact stand behind them, and that they are on the right side of this fight.

Personally, I have gone through many different emotions at various times throughout the week, from guilt that I have never had to fight like these people do at this moment in history, to utter sadness and horror at the widely circulated “Neda” video, who has become our generations “Tank Man”. The “Neda” video really moved something in me. I am a child of the information age; I am desensitized to a lot of things just due to the sheer nature of how many things I see on the internet on a day to day basis. It is one thing to see someone get shot or hit by a car. It’s another thing entirely to actually watch someone die. To watch the life fade from her eyes. And all this because the people of Iran wanted their most basic right to be upheld, to have a voice in their own future. This makes it all the more sad, yet, remarkable since this martyr’s name, Neda, happens to mean “voice” or “call” in Farsi. Indeed, this was the call to arms for the opposition movement.

Obama has been careful and received a lot of criticism for not being tough enough. I believe he has been spot-on with his comments thus far, and if any real outside pressure is to be put on the Iranian government, it needs to be done as a world effort, with many countries coming forward together, as opposed to a singular order from the US.

This is the Iranian’s fight for their own freedom. They have to do this for themselves. Freedom must be fought for and many deep sacrifices will be made. Most of us will never have to face what these people are facing right now. A comment from a friend’s blog really struck a chord with me:

memzilla wrote:

We marched on DC in May 1971 — http://tinyurl.com/may71dc . We were teargassed, maced, arrested, and thrown into RFK Stadium. But we never thought for a second that DC Metro Police would be shooting us from the rooftops, even though the kids at Kent State had been gunned down a year earlier.

We polished our anti-war credentials and used them to get laid. Also.

But we see none of that with the Iran protests. No after-march parties. No egos. No student leaders with their own sub-agendas. No inanities. Just the largest, most brutal reality show in the world: “So You Think You Can Vote.”

Funny, the biggest worry about computers back in the ’60s was that the All Powerful State would use them to control us all. Now it’s a 180 reverse.

F**k totalitarianism, f**k despots, f**k theocracy of any brand. All power to the people. The Whole World Is Watching.

Posted 21 Jun 2009

We end up taking so much for granted, living in America. I’ve had words with a couple people who were criticizing the online community’s avid involvement, citing the fact that there were “no people in the streets when the US election was stolen in 2000″. I don’t disagree with the fact that people should have been much more upset over how this was handled. But there are some dramatic differences, one of the primary ones being communication tools: the major communication mechanisms in use with Iran were not in existence at the time (Twitter-2006, Youtube-2005, Facebook-2004, Myspace-2003, countless blogs that have sprouted up since) so information couldn’t be spread in such an efficient, swarm-like manner, with important things naturally floating to the top. Sure, there is mainstream media, but they get to choose what’s important enough to show the public, whether their intent is truly for “good” or whether for corporate interests. With the online mediums, each person chooses what’s important and what you’d like everyone around you to know and appreciate, and the most important tidbits make their way in front of everyone’s nose, sooner or later.

So where does this all stand? Currently, everyday the crackdown gets more and more brutal, as the Iranian government increases the amount of Basij on the ground. The demonstrations are being broken up before they can reach “critical mass” level like what was seen within the first few days after the election. Internet and cell phone service is being filtered more and more rigorously, and the Iranian government has made many arrests and even murdered people over trying to communicate and share information with the outside world.

Does this mean it’s over?

No. Not by a long shot. The on-the-street demonstrations are smaller currently due to the fear of violence brought upon the people by the Basij, IRG, and police forces. But, behind the scenes, much support is being drummed up and fortified by Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who was president of Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini after the revolution. He is the primary opposing force of Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad, and arguably, the only one powerful enough to take Ayatollah Khamenei out of power. I heard an interesting comparison the other day of the similarities between our country’s founding fathers and Iran. All these main players have been around since the ’79 revolution, and were supposedly making it more of a “state of the people”, although, some took a hard-line right turn.

In their religion, the primary days of mourning are the 3rd and 40th, and as was seen in the ’79 revolution, I would expect violence and demonstrations to escalate in about 30 days from now when it hits the 40 day mark from the beginning of the violence. The most critical thing that I am keeping my eye on is whether or not a nationwide strike takes hold. This was what brought the country to a standstill under the Shah and forced him to step down from power. I saw estimates of about 30% of the workforce went on strike on Tuesday, when it was first called for, but communication out of the country has been getting progressively worse since then and I haven’t heard anything new. The main sector to watch would be the oil industry, as it provides Iran with a lion’s share of it’s wealth.

It’s hard to just standby and do nothing, but for anyone who is not an Iranian citizen, that’s probably the best thing to do at this point, other than showing passive support for the “Sea of Green”. So from over here, I will continue to watch as the occasional tweet, violent Youtube video, or horrifying photo trickles out, providing a glimpse at largely hidden fight for freedom that the Iran people have undertaken.