Protests have been held in the streets of Iran since the disputed outcome of the presidential election. Community blogger Roja calls it a "nightmare."
People who have been disenfranchised are protesting in Tehran and other cities. You can see some photos on flickr.Text messaging services were cut off on the day of election and ahmadinejad was declared as the victor only a few hours after the election was over. Election statistics were being announce in a very fishy manner with no detail about which cities and provinces were being counted (completely different from how things were done in all other elections in Iran). Campaign headquarters of other candidates were raided and military was present across Tehran.
...Today Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and most websites of other candidates have been blocked, cellphone connections were shut down in Tehran, political figures have been arrested and people have been beaten and bloodied in the streets. Meanwhile foreign reporters have been asked to leave.
The Guardian has great coverage of what's going on; you should also check out Global Voices Online for blogging coverage.
The post-election protests have also sparked a lot of conversation about the role of new media.
Tom Watson at PDF says of the above video,
I'm a big believer in the growth and power of online social activism...But I think there are limits, especially when men and women are marching in streets patrolled by the troops of an absolutist religious dictatorship, facing soldiers' guns in public and the noose behind the prison wall. Sure, Twitter (and Facebook and text messaging and blog and YouTube) can be effective information outlets for revolutionaries, but it's utterly facile to suggest that information technology is driving the currents of unrest in Iran. I can understand the impulse, though; after all, we (the digerati, the plugged in, the Twitterverse) are watching it unfold online. And, you know, wherever we are, well, that's where the action is.
What do you think?
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Good to see Feministing picking up on this properly - this is really the front line of women's rights in the world right now. Iran's feminist movement is the strongest in the middle east and the discontent with the heavy oppression is huge, it's women's rights as basic civil rights in a way it's not been in the west for many years.
Best protest sign so far
any idea what it says?
I'm very interested now to read as much as possible about this because, truth be told, until today I had read nothing about the Iranian election. I had heard Ahmadinejad had won re-election and though that upset me I didn't investigate further.
I found this one really good article that highlights the five reasons to question the results of the election:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1904645_1904644,00.html
Also, an update on the protests: on CNN.com they're saying that shots were fired. I don't know any more at the moment, but it's upsetting.
I'm amazed by the people. And very very nervous about the outcome of current events. They need all the help they can get at the moment, and I hope with all my heart they can stay safe. It doesn't sound good.
At this historic moment in time, it's fascinating to watch -- and participate in -- how a political conflict can evolve online, how those outside the immediate sphere of its influence have a role in the chain of events, and all that interest and passion can feed back into the cycle of how events play out.
She hit the nail on the head. I've been watching it unfold on Twitter for most of the day, and truly, the spirit is amazing. There are a few people tweeting from Iran - a dangerous venture - and they get all the help people can muster. But in the end, that's not very much. And on Twitter they are... fifteen, twenty? While they're important in spreading information and keeping the fire going internationally, for others who might not have felt very involved in this before, with most of the web being blocked their reach within Iran is predictably extremely limited. Yet they risk their lives in reality, while thousands of people sit in their chairs watching them do it are still able to feel part of the big revolution. Some folks are truly overstating their own importance at the moment. Others seem to regard it in the same way they do reality tv.
All praise for the few out there who continue to report constantly, all the while being tracked, shut down, threatened and forced to move every few hours. Their braveness is amazing, and they did manage to draw a lot of attention from the international community, to the point where CNN finally picked up their covering (which I assume they hadn't because of a lack of info from the ground). That is great, and I'm sure it helps to keep the pressure up and make people understand what exactly is going on. But I'm hesitant to believe it's a driving force for all those protesters, most of whom don't have anything resembling internet connection at the moment.
The Boston Globe's The Big Picture has some incredible and powerful photos of the protests.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html
andrew sullivan has been updating constantly about the election the last few days.
thanks for posting on this and thank you for choosing this very appropriate picture. these women are sitting right in front of the guard. next time you read somewhere Iranian women are sitting in for their rights you know what it looks like. this time it's the right for their votes to be counted, before it was the right to equal treatment by the law.
I haven't slept for more than 28 hours but I am going to cross-post something I wrote about media coverage in the community page.
wish us luck y'all