The Iranian Twitter Revolution

This story has been around for a while. However, the main reason why I am writing this is because in my travels and in my discussions, I have found that a lot of young Americans aren’t aware of what went on in Iran and what is still going on and will go on until the machine that is the modern world forces centuries old traditions, based on lies and control, to crumble under the weight of truth.

Technology cannot be stopped. Eventually the entire world will be assimilated by the Internet and all of its components in the same way that wayward space travelers and ships without big enough arsenals were assimilated and absorbed by the Borg. The gargantuan clutches of the World Wide Beast has now reached the youth of the Middle East. Iranian teens and twenty-somethings have discovered the blue bird of freedom: Twitter. Not a fan of Twitter, I just use it to promote TheSwash, I am pleased to see that those stuck in a nation full of tyranny and control have found a way to use it to spark a revolution against their iron-fisted regime.

Now this bit of news isn’t new. In actuality, this all came to light during the Iranian “elections” in 2009 when several young Iranians were tweeting, texting, e-mailing, posting pics and posting video of what was going on in their country amidst media blackout. The use of modern technology allowed the young Iranians to get out to the rest of the world what was truly going on in Iran. It also gave like-minded freedom-seeking Iranian youngsters the ability to network and form allegiances with one another; something the Iranian government feared more than truth itself. Archaic and seemingly barbaric traditions were being exposed and shattered by the fast turning wheels of the modern world.

The violence in the streets of Tehran was brought to the forefront via Twitter, Facebook and other digital means thanks to the tech savvy Iranians during and after the elections. Known as the Green Movement, due to the green ribbons they wore, the young Iranians supported their leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi in his attempt to get Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out of power via election. Although the campaign initially failed and Ahmadinejad is still president of Iran, the movement still lives on in the hearts, souls and tweets of its revolutionary leaders and followers. One can only hope that the Green Movement is the start of reforming government in Iran. Hopefully they don’t lose steam and just like the Ron Paul movement in the United States, more and more people will start to open their eyes and move towards freedom from their oppressors and tyrants.

Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer recently stated:

“Twitter cannot stop a bullet. There was a lot of romantic outpouring here thinking that Facebook is going to stop the Revolutionary Guards. It doesn’t. Thuggery, a determined regime that is oppressive, that will shoot, almost always wins.”

Although Krauthammer is probably right, if the people are willing to fight the oppression and passionate enough about it to put their lives on the line, then Iran may just be faced with civil war. Unfortunately, it seems that lately the Green Movement has been muzzled by the Iranian government and that their passion surrounding the election of 2009 has fizzled. So who knows what the future holds but at least some people are fighting for freedom and that desire will rub off and spread even with a monster of an administration breathing down the necks of its people.

At the height of the election, Ahmadinejad’s regime tried to stop the web chatter between Iranians and the rest of the world. The tech savvy Green Movement however fought against their president’s attempt at censorship and found ways to hack the system and to get passed the digital blockade. The Green Movement also hacked and took down Ahmadinejad’s campaign website as an ultimate and severe act of disobedience. If history is any indicator, people that passionate, that resourceful and that angry will eventually find a way to persevere against those trying to control them. It is only a matter of time.

The Washington Times stated it best when they said:

“What we are seeing is the flickering flame of freedom. People are willing to risk their lives to protest a system that oppresses them and denies them fundamental human dignity. Those who say none of this matters – that it is a feud between factions of the ruling class, that it has no chance of bringing about real change – are missing the point. The people of Iran are exercising their sovereign right as a people to stand before their rulers and say “No more.” They are commanding the attention of a world that seeks to make deals with their oppressors. Iranians are telling us that they yearn to be free.”

Now Mousavi and the Green Movement have created a coalition known as the Green Path of Hope. The coalition’s purpose is to lawfully force political reform in Iran and to challenge the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s presidency.

In describing the Movement’s new coalition, Mousavi said:

“The Green Path of Hope is formed for the sake of people’s rightful demands and for claiming their rights… the color green is the symbol of this movement; its slogan is demanding the impeccable implementation of the constitution, and innumerable self-motivated independent societies form the body of this movement.”

With Iran now having nuclear capabilities and attack drones, they are an enemy that the United States does not need. Hopefully freedom fighters like Mir-Hossein Mousavi and the Green Movement can change Iran into a free nation and an ally of the United States. The tides are turning in the Middle East; it is only a matter of time before those who demand freedom, find a way to claim it.

For those that don’t know, that picture below is of Mir-Hossein Mousavi getting beat down in the streets of Tehran for his beliefs and his views. Even after that, he still fights for what he believes in. I wish there were more people like Mousavi in America.