Iran

On the eve of the Iranian elections, an Iranian friend of mine, Majid walked up to me and asked me whether I was following the Iranian elections. I replied in the affirmative. We talked for a little while on what the election portends for the people of Iran.

When you meet an Iranian for the first time, you will be forgiven for having the misconception that you are meeting a potential terrorist.
As far as I know, democracy as it should be is still alien to the people of Iran. How and why did a cleric become the Supreme Leader? Isn’t that title supposed to be God’s?

For a while now, world news is not complete without a mention of the alleged role of Iranian-backed activities in Iraq, their grandstanding against the United States on Nuclear Programs and their defiance of United Nations sanctions.
The elections gave the people of Iran two choices. The first choice is to stay with Ahmadinejad and rubber-stamp his continued opposition to the United States and make continuous headline news for all the wrong reasons on major news channels all over the world.

The second choice is for them to break away from the past and embrace the world. I have met a lot of Iranians and they are not just Iranians. They are human beings, intelligent, active people always shying away from trouble.

The people of Iran are tired of being of Ahmadinejad that has put them at war with the world. They want to meet the world on their own terms and not what the establishment says. The women are tired of being oppressed in the name of Religion. They want to dress as normal people and interact with their fellow countrymen on their own terms. They are simply tired of being remotely controlled and being zombies.

Of course, Ahmadinejad is not the cause of the Present perception of the Iranian people. That can be traced back to the US embassy holdup from 1979-1981. I have read about the experience of a French-American-Iranian whose father worked for the Iranian Oil Company in the 70’s.

The grouse of the Iranian people is that Ahmadinejad with the backing of the establishment that he represents is worsening their situation.
The Presidential election as we understand was a farce and is causing a lot of unrest and reverberations around the world. Since the Islamic uprising of 1979, Iran has never seen anything like this. The people have taken a stand.

I cannot begin to imagine the backroom deals going on right now to calm the situation but any deal made with Mousavi is going to hold up for just four years. Any attempt to rig future elections would be met with better organized and well-orchestrated opposition.

The situation in Iran should be noted by people from Africa and the rest of the developing world where sham elections are conducted and justified. The people can rise up to say defend their votes and not allow any Supreme Leader or Court to decide their fate.