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Rock Talk, Vol. IX
People around the world are protesting in reaction to last Friday's Iranian election results. In short, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected. Citing corrupted election results protesters assert that opposing candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was the actual winner.
Houston residents are demonstrating at the corner of Westheimer and Post Oak right now. "We do not accept the election results as factual and believe that it is a military coup to retain control of the country," said a protest organizer who did not wish to be identified. "We support the rights of the people to a fair, unbiased election."
Such an election is only possible if overseen by the United Nations according to protestor Parviz Ashtari. "They need to do the counting."
Ashtari believes the entire system needs to be overhauled. "We need a referendum put forth on the type of government to be implemented no matter the outcome if it is the majority decision."
Some organizers and participants wished to remain anonymous to guard against reprisal from Iranian government officials. They contend that those in power may view media coverage, identify them and then take action such as hindering travel to the Iran. It may seem a bit of a stretch at first but not so much once you consider that communications between Iran and the outside world have been disabled.
"Cell phones are down. The Internet is down. Media is down. The only way of communicating with Iran right now is Twitter," per event co-organizer Ima M. In fact Twitter adjusted its normally scheduled maintenance window in order to maintain service throughout the day in the Middle East.
Score another hit for the power of social media channels. Hundreds of protesters had gathered as of press time. Most of those in attendance said they learned of the event through social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.
Ima M. says that Where Is My Vote? protests will be held regularly until Iran holds a new election. "We'll post details on Facebook when we know [when and where it will be.]"
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Photos by Jason Bargas/Houstonist.
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