TulipGirl

Now that we’re living in the States again, I often find myself losing track of what’s going on in other parts of the world. The only reason I was even aware of the Iranian election was due to a good friend who is from Iran, and his updates on the hopes for a fair election and the potential to have a level-headed, reformist president.

However, when there were outcries about a fraudulent election, I became immediately and emotionally involved. The first reports sounded too familiar, eerily like the Orange Revolution after Ukraine’s 2004 election. We were there. We saw how people peacefully poured into the streets, protesting, uniting, banding together.

It’s different for me with Iran. . . I’m not there. I don’t know what news sources to trust. I’m not intimately familiar with the people on the streets. But, I know my Iranian friends (in the US, in Ukraine) and I know they are connected with people involved in the protests and understand the nuances of the situation that I do not.

The tent city in Ukraine, the peaceful protests lasted weeks, months. There were threats of violence, but thank God that nothing happened beyond threats. No violence from the protesters. No violence from the militzia. No troops from Russia.

Sadly, the same is not the case in Iran. Already there has been a violent crackdown on the protesters. Global Voices, a trusted citizen-based news source for worldwide reporting, has gathered links and videos.

In Iran, green is the color of hope, of a spring time of change, of reform. Already this Green Revolution has been stained by the violence against the reformers. Praying for peace, for freedom, for hope. . . for the people in Iran.

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A grandmother in Iran, 2009
(photo courtesy the Atlantic)

A grandmother in Ukraine, 2004