fbpx
X

11:00 pm: 18-year old victim identified: His name was Ashkan
Neda Soltan has become the face of those killed during the post-election protests, however other victims include 18 year-old Ashkan Sohrabi. Rooz online interviewed his sister, Elham, who remembered Ashkan’s last words, “Don’t worry, I’ll come back.” According to Elham, he was shot 3 times in the chest.
5:22 pm: Mowj – Association of Journalists meeting cancelled because of intimidation
Association of Journalists had planned a gathering on Friday, June 2nd, to protest the restrictions placed on media.  However, according to Mousavi’s website, this meeting was cancelled upon an order from security forces.  The Association of Journalists believes that having this meeting is their right and asked the judicial system to immediately reconsider their treatment of members of this union (some of whom are still imprisoned) and remove the recent limitations put on freedom of media.
5:08 pm: (State Run) Kayhan Newspaper: Israel behind the twitter messages!
According to (the state-run newspaper) Kayhan, Israel sent 18 thousand twitter messages just two days before the elections in its “internet war against Iran.”
4:11 pm: Iran’s poet laureate speaks out – Iran’s national poet Simin Behbahani went on NPR and recited two poems inspired by the protests in Iran.  Listen to them here or watch on Youtube.

Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind
Simin Behbahani
Translated by Kaveh Safa and Farzaneh Milani
June 2009

If the flames of anger rise any higher in this land Your name on your tombstone will be covered with dirt.
You have become a babbling loudmouth. Your insolent ranting, something to joke about.
The lies you have found, you have woven together. The rope you have crafted, you will find around your neck.
Pride has swollen your head, your faith has grown blind. The elephant that falls will not rise.
Stop this extravagance, this reckless throwing of my country to the wind. The grim-faced rising cloud, will grovel at the swamp’s feet.
Stop this screaming, mayhem, and blood shed. Stop doing what makes God’s creatures mourn with tears.
My curses will not be upon you, as in their fulfillment. My enemies’ afflictions also cause me pain.
You may wish to have me burned , or decide to stone me. But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.

2:03 pm: Silicon Valley needs to get it in gear – Cyrus Farivar calls out Silicon Valley in today’s San Francisco Chronicle for not doing more to help Iranians get around government filters. This is a must-read.

Silicon Valley can and should be doing more to provide tech tools for protesters in Iran….
According to Dr. Siavash Shahshahanione of the Iranian academics who helped bring the Internet to Iran, the country’s national bandwidth is running at two gigabits, or less than half of the capacity that the country normally uses. Online calls to perform minor-league cyberattacks against government Web sites may, in fact, be causing more harm than good by blocking internal communications.
So instead of superficial support, like Twitter users changing their avatars to green to support Iran’s reformist movement, Silicon Valley minds and money should pool resources as a way to help Iranians get around this information blockade by providing easier-to-use proxies, anonymizers and maybe even unfiltered Internet access through hardware….
All of that may sound crazy, but not helping Iranian reformers at their darkest hour would be even crazier.

At a time when there seems to be little we in the West can do to help the situation in Iran, internet technology is one avenue that needs to be explored much, much more.  The people and companies who actually know about this type of technology need to be speaking loudly, with one voice, about what we can and should be doing to help the Iranian people maintain their communication with each other and the outside world.
11:59 am: According to Ahmadinejad’s website, as of today the following 35 countries have recognized him as the winner of the election:
-India  -Tunisia  -Malaysia  -Lebanon  -North Korea  -Kuwait  -Nicaragua   -Comoros  -Cambodia  -Senegal  -Cuba  -Belarus  -Sudan  -Syria  -Libya  -Algeria  -Turkmenistan  -Iraq  -Kazakhstan  -Indonesia  -Bahrain  -Yemen  -Sri Lanka  -Ecuador  -Russia  -Azerbaijan  -Qatar  -Tajikistan  -Armenia  -Oman  -Turkey  -Afghanistan  -Pakistan  -China  -Venezuela
10:57 am: Evin Prison – A Student’s Firsthand Account – “Reza,” a university student who was arrested and detained at Evin Prison, provided a firsthand account of his ordeal via twitter. (Independent confirmation is not available.)

Reza estimated around 200 people were in each room and there were not enough space to even sit on the ground. There was also an awful problem of only one toilet for all people in there and a impossible time limit of around 1 minute for each person. They didn’t open the plastic handcuffs for a day and half, and they randomly beat up people.  Reza said the only exception was they didn’t hit arrested people directly in the face.  He said in the second day some pain cloth people came with papers forcing people to sign them.  The papers were prewritten confessions all in different handwritings saying the signer is a member of a pro-Mousavi organization

Read the full series of tweets here.
10:29 am: A tweet [Persian] from a reliable source in Iran:

“Mohammad Yazdi, member of the Guardian Council announced: Mousavi will not be approved to run for future elections.”

10:25 am: Karroubi’s official website has announced that their website director and reporter Mojtaba Tehrany was arrested Saturday night as he left the office for his residence. No one has heard anything from him since Saturday, the report says. According to his family, Basij officials made an appearance at his residence the day before his disappearance and confiscated his laptop and various files.

“Only 11 countries have congratulated Ahmadinejad,” June 28 (http://mowj.ir/ShowNews.php?7349)

According to Mowj, Mousavi’s news portal, only 11 countries have congratulated Ahmadinejad and the heads of 181 other countries (members of the UN) have so far refrained from congratulating him.

Countries who congratulated Ahmadinejad during the past six days:

1. Tajikistan

2. Armenia

3. Oman

4. Russia

5. China

6. Azerbaijan

7. Qatar

8. Afghanistan

9. Turkey

10. Pakistan

11. Venezuela

According to Ahmadinejad’s website (http://www.president.ir/fa/?ArtID=16911, accessed June 30, 2009), the following countries have congratulated him:

1. India

2. Tunisia

3. Malaysia

4. Lebanon

5. North Korea

6. Kuwait

7. Nicaragua

8. Comoros

9. Cambodia

10. Senegal

11. Cuba

12. Belarus

13. Sudan

14. Syria

15. Libya

16. Algeria

17. Turkmenistan

18. Iraq

19. Kazakhstan

20. Indonesia

21. Bahrain

22. Yemen

23. Sri Lanka

24. Ecuador

25. Russia

26. Azerbaijan

27. Qatar

28. Tajikistan

29. Armenia

30. Oman

31. Turkey

32. Afghanistan

33. Pakistan

34. China

35. Venezuela

Back to top