Iran: People Have The Power

Jun 192009

As the people of Iran have taken to the streets to reclaim their country from tyranny, the story of Iran has also been about the right of people everywhere to free and uncensored news. Using all manner of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Iranians and their supporters have been getting the story out of Iran even when the Iranian government cut off traditional means of communication.

The extraordinary nature of this story is that within days, the U.S. government was begging Twitter to postpone previously scheduled maintenance and stay in operation and top mainstream media stories were beginning with, ‘we got nothing but here’s what we found on Twitter.’ As Patti Smith put it in the lyrics to People Have The Power, “People have the power to redeem the work of fools.” And it would appear this week that is exactly what just happened.

Throughout the week, Feminist Peace Network has been posting both the wise voices of women speaking out about the crisis as well as looking at the impact the current situation has on the lives of Iranian women. In a commentary on the Huffington Post, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi points out that this crisis is about far more than just the election (also noted by WFAFI earlier this week) and offers the following suggestions for what is necessary to resolve the current situation:

1. The unconditional release of every individual arrested and imprisoned for having objected to the results of the elections.

2. Ordering the cessation of Basij and police violence toward protestors.

3. Declaring the election void.

4. Ordering new elections under the auspices of international organizations.

5. Paying compensation to the injured and to the families of those who have been killed.

The FPN blog will continue to post on this topic as events unfold because as feminist technologist Deanna Zandt, who has been commenting on this story throughout the week noted yesterday on Twitter, “I’d rather try to address the problems that come with “mob rule” than continue with a milennia’s worth of patriarchal gatekeeping.” One truly has to wonder what the world would be like if the American people had taken to the streets and insisted on the truth in these kinds of numbers after the 2000 election.

As a final note, this morning my local newspaper had banished the Iran story to the inner bowels of the first section, as I suspect a number of other newspapers have done as well. Not a huge loss since their coverage was woefully lacking in the first place. Here are several excellent sources of up-to-date coverage of Iran (as well as a few awesome graphics), in addition, I highly recommend #iranelection on Twitter. Look at these, go back and look at your local newspaper and the evening news, draw your own conclusions.

Via The Cagle Post: