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This is what this is about for me! Its definitely not right. Thats what I want to show my solidarity for the unnecessary and unfair use of force! Which to me proves the caliber of the ruling government! Its just too much!

Im neither American nor Iranian. I’m Nigerian and British and I would like to know that if either of these two governments were to behave in a similar fashion towards its people… people outside of the country would be humane enough to feel the pain!

I don’t condone America going in at all either like some do. Its about a people self-actualizing. If its done for you or forced on you it just doesnt have the same meaning or take effect in the same way.

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However, a few comments: First, I read the avaaz website and about their poll. It seemed like a good idea at first. However, after thinking about it and discussing it with a number of Iranian activists and intellectuals, we came to the conclusion that the idea of an exit poll is flawed. Between many problems with random-digit dialing in Iran and paranoia in this climate in particular, any result that would come of such a poll would be too skewed to be helpful. Honestly, I think that this is a waste of people’s money and that their efforts should be otherwise directed.

And, in response to Tom Allen’s comment–the Western media’s reports of this being an upper-middle class, Urban, intellectual movement are actually not entirely accurate. Certainly, this group is generally composed of reformists. However, it was noted even before the elections took place that in many rural areas, for example, Ahmadinejad was not widely supported. And, a more important empirical counterexample to your argument would be to simply watch the video footage of the protests taking place in Iran and listening to the people’s accents–a great many of them are obviously working class. The bottom line is, the divide between reformists and hardliners in Iran is not so clear cut in terms of geography, class, or education level as it is portrayed in our media sources. In any case, so long as we on the outside are not imposing our views on an entire people, I do not see a problem with even-handed collaboration with a movement that began organically within Iran.

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Whilst I appreciate that there are a significant number of conservatives in the rural areas who have benefited from some of Ahmadinejad’s populist measures over the past 4 years, the idea that the election was in anyway fair is totally incorrect.

I lived and worked in Iran for 3 years, learnt the language and married a local. I feel I speak from personal experience. It appears implausible that Ahmadinejad would win more votes in the province of Azerbaijan when Mousavi is a local Azeri, It is implausible that Ahmadinejad would win more votes in North Tehran where the middle classes despise everything about him.

My in laws went to vote only to find out that their local polling station had apparently run out of ballot papers by the mid afternoon. Other polling booths closed prior to the allocated time and results were announced in record time when turnout was exponentially higher than during other elections.

The youth of Iran are not asking for a change to the Islamic Republic of Iran,they simply want to have their voices heard. You do not see them protesting without their hijabs on. They don’t want a change to the system, they only want the system to be fair. It is the Supreme Leader who through his dogmatic stance has elevated the situation to being a dispute about the entire Islamic Republic of Iran.

Let the people have the freedoms that we in the west take for granted. Allow boys and girls to co-mingle, allow people to have access to satellite tv, allow newspapers to question the government and its policies. While Ahmadinejad is allowed to openly talk to students at Columbia Business School and on US tv, foreign leaders and journalists are NEVER allowed anything even remotely close to this type of open forum in Iran.

Desperate people do desperate things, hence the willingness to lay down lives in order to have a better future.

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Iran’s clerical leadership contains some very clever politicians, and I won’t be surprised if, once any recounts fail to change the outcome, they use the media frenzy as ammunition to further alienate the large body of conservative supporters from the outside world, and thus from the chance for participation in the international community in the forseeable future.

If they do it well, they could even infuriate the reformists so much as to turn them against the West, blaming us for the failure of their protests.

I know it’s just conjecture, but it’s why I believe that anything other than neutral observation is going to end up doing more harm than good. We outsiders have to tread incredibly carefully, because principles aren’t the only thing at work here.

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Thanks for that link and information! One of the most interesting implications of the use of Twitter, etc. during this past week regarding the post-election response in Iran is how the rest of the world can mobilize to provide digital coverage for people with limited access–could have some seriously profound sociopolitical implications for other countries, too.

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Thanks for your comment. I definitely feel where you’re coming from. On the other hand, I’m all about developing a kind of advocacy and activism that fits into the slipstream of one’s normal life, taking into consideration all the complexities and relativities of our own societies. In fact, cocktails AND revolution might not be such a bad idea. :0

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