A message for we, the people.

~By Dianne Reum

Have you gotten your label? 

Arab.  Jew.  American. Friend. Enemy.

In spite of having no control over your skin color, who your parents are nor where you were born, these are criteria for some of the harshest judgements leveled against you.

Because I’m American, I have been accused by Ayatolla Khamenei of being an evil Zionist.  If you’re Iranian, you’re part of an axis of evil, according to George W. Bush.

Frankly, I’m tired of labels. 

 Mostly I’m tired of decisions by governments that get attributed to we, the people. 

I had never known an Iranian.  (Thanks to labeling, however, I’d had an “impression” of one).

This month heavy metal doors separating me from the nation of Iran opened, allowing me to get a look at citizens inside the axis of evil.  

It’s never been clearer that the label that comes closest to capturing me is also the label that comes closest to capturing them.   (See image to the left).  Like me, Iranians laugh, love, dream, cry and bleed red.

I’ve seen a lot of Iranian blood since Iran’s election, June 12. 

If you hadn’t been paying much attention, there had been, by Iranian standards, a progressively-thinking man running against the extreme right wing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for President.  His name is Mir-Hossein Mousavi. 

Mousavi as President of Iran wouldn’t have just been better for Iran; Mousavi would have been better for the world. 

Unlike Ahmadinejad, Mousavi had wanted dialogue with Western countries, rights for women and to rid Iran of  ”Moral Police“, the Basij.  (The Basij roam the streets, enforcing strict islamic dress code as well as social behavior).  He advocated letting private citizens own Iranian media.  Futhermore, whereas Mousavi hadn’t wanted to get rid of Iran’s nuclear energy program, he had been willing to guarantee it would not be weaponized and talked about an international consortium to oversee Iran’s uranium enrichment.

The younger generation of Iran, longing for democracy, had gleaned great hope from Mousavi.  (More than 70% of Iranians are under the age of thirty).  Where Mousavi went, the people who gathered to support him became a sea of ”green”, green being the color of Mousavi’s reform party – and democracy.

In anticipation of the change coming to their nation, tired of being shackled by strict islamic code, Mousavi’s supporters had danced in the streets.  They’d said the joy was almost tangible.

“…there was suddenly this feeling that it was possible, that Mousavi could get enough votes”.  ~Emad, 24

“While Ahmadinejad is in office, Iran’s freedom, economic situation and our relation with other countries are getting worse.”   ~Masoud,  from Tehran

Iran’s June 12 election had produced record turnout, with 85% of eligible voters voting.

Then, just two hours after the polls had closed, the government announced the “hand-counted” votes had been tallied and it had been declared – on government-controlled television, (the Islamic Republic News Agency) – that Ahmadinejad had won.  In fact, Ahmadinejad had won by a wide margin, with 63 percent of the vote.

Voters had been stunned, though perhaps they’d been overly optimistic in the first place. 

After Ahmadinejad had become President of Iran in 2005, candidates who’d ran against him had also claimed irregularities at the polls.  Though a formal protest had been made to the Guardian Council about the 2005 election, the Guardian Council had neither investigated nor even commented on the allegations.  (The Guardian Council is a group of 12 nonelected men who have great influence and power.  (They serve as Iran’s Supreme Court).  The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah ali Khamenei, has picked 6 of the 12 members of The Guardian Council and 6 have been chosen by the Majlis, (290 members of the Iranian Parliment) -  from a list nominated by the Head of the Judicial Power.  (The Head of the Judicial Power, by the way, has been appointed by The Supreme Leader). 

In Iran, The Supreme Leader is the most powerful position; more powerful than the president’s.  The president cannot make foreign policy or command Iran’s military, but The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah ali Khamenei, can.  Khamenei is an extreme right wing muslim who likes to rule with an iron fist.

Yet, despite living in a police state, Iranians took to the streets in the hundreds of thousands to protest the election results.  

Carrying signs in Farsi as well as English, they’d implored… 

“WHERE IS MY VOTE?

One Iranian who’d communicated with me through twitter told me their Iranian signs had been in English as well as Farsi because Iranians had believed that Americans, seeing Iranians wanted democracy, would help them.

In the beginning, the only way we average Joe and Joanne Americans who’d been hearing about the stolen election had been able to help had been by spreading the news via twitter then changing our avatars green, to show solidarity.

But spread the word, we did.  Soon twitter and other internet social media networks became conduits for passing important information.

“I think this is Twitter’s finest hour.” ~Ezra Gottheil, analyst at Technology Business Research

The News Kept Getting Worse.

hi i am from iran please help us please help 8 students kill please help  ~Twitter Message 

Verified with raw footage and photos from demonstrators, we learned peaceful Iranians had been coming under attack from the Basji, who opened fire on unarmed protesters, beat protesters with steel batons and trashed universities.  (An Iranian woman revealed to me the regime despises ”freedom of thought” and this is why the Basji had attacked universities).

 “Ahmadinejad supporters are hoodlums and thugs and the police is also on their side”.  ~Hanieh, Tehran

 Surprisingly, even knowing the Basij would continue terrorizing, clubbing and shooting them, the protesters kept marching, now carrying photos of those killed by their government.  With the help of pirates and hackers from inside and outside Iran, protesters had been able to organize despite the Iranian government’s clampdowns on the internet and cell phones. 

People in Iran and around the globe set up proxy accounts so Iranians couldn’t be tracked.  For a while pirates shut down Khamenei’s web site and one hacker posted images on Iran’s state-controlled news website, asking why Khamenei had been killing Iranians.  Even as secret police in Iran arrested anyone caught photographing events, Iranians managed to send images that told their story better than any words I could hope to write.  

“They can block SMS and emails, but how can they block hearts?” ~Morteza, 25

The attacks became more brutal.  Helicopters, tear gas, Basij with blades, batons and guns now aided by Ansar-e Hezbollah militiamen.  Journalists were arrested, expelled or forbidden to go on the streets to report, students and supporters of Mousavi were arrested and homes were broken into by the Basij who followed some protesters.

Like heroic soldiers, bystanders grabbed injured people as they were felled, risking being shot or blungeoned themselves.

According to the Western embassy in Tehran, at least 33 people in the capital and as many as 100 nationwide have been killed by club-wielding Basiji and Ansar-e Hezbollah militiamen over the last week, including students who’d been killed in their sleep. Approximately 500 have been arrested, (that we know of). 

Information has been passed feverishly.  Protesters telling people on Twitter which streets were under seige, so we could let other Iranians know.  Twitterers sending back maps to embassies, instructions on how to treat tear gas burns and messages to news stations pleading with them to cover this story.

“The Twitter universe, I tell you,  is playing a historic and kind of amazing role in what’s been going on in Iran”.  ~Josh Levs, CNN

After a full week of protests, on Friday, June 19, Ayatolla Khamenei issued a severe warning suggesting those who defied him would be responsible for the consequences, leaving little doubt he plans to crush the defiant protesters.

A 29-year-old woman who’d wept hearing Khamenei’s words had still planned to attend the next march.  “This is how countries that have freedom and democracy get it.  They have to fight and die for it.”

“I’ll get the votes of my dead compatriots back from this government, I’ll not step back.” ~Somayeh, 29

June 20th, 8 days after the election, Neda, a pretty 27-year-old, was killed at the scene of a protest when a Basij from the rooftop of a civilian home shot her through her heart.  Someone with a camera captured a video close-up of Neda’s face as she died.  (Something I’ll never forget).  

Those horrifying moments seemed to have awakened people around the world to what’s been going on in Iran.  In Iran, Neda’s name has become a rallying cry.

“This blood is sacrificed for the freedom of this country in future and that’s why it’s sacred.” ~Vahid, 24

But what will happen next is uncertain.  With armed basij in full force at the squares where protesters had been congregating, the mood in Iran has been somber.  The last two days Iranians have resorted mainly to the only form of protest they can:  turning their headlights on during daylight hours and, as they’ve been doing every evening at around ten p.m. since the election results were announced, lifting their voices to God from their rooftops.  Iranians tell us the cries to God have gotten louder every night.

Ironically, in Farsi, Neda means “the voice”.  Even from the safety of my home in America, I hear Neda’s voice with the voices of a nation in pain. These are not voices of Iranians; these are voices of humans.

“…we belong to the world…” ~Mir-Hossein Mousavi, June 23