Photos by Faramarz Hashemi
Iran (MNN/ODM) ― Iran is facing growing anger over the election results last week in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. News reports show supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi streaming through the streets of Iran's capital in protest. At the same time, the government is putting heavy restrictions on the coverage.
Yet, Christians are joining the Twitter Revolution and using Facebook to get information out of Iran. Open Doors learned through its contacts that voters are frustrated and have lost trust in Iran's democracy in other cities outside of Tehran.
Iranian Christian Daryush (not his real name) from Shiraz reported: "In my neighborhood there is no evidence of any skirmishes or demonstrations and also no celebration from the elections anymore. The streets have been swept clean. But the evidence that we have trouble in Shiraz is the constant presence of the various security forces and the military helicopter I saw flying overhead. But I have only driven around my own neighborhood, so I can't speak for the entire city."
In other districts of this southwest city of Shiraz, the situation is more grim as Daryush explains: "Friends told me that young people in Shiraz are being arrested and that they've seen young men and women being beaten, or worse. A friend who lives near the university and student dorms told me she heard screaming, shouting and gunfire in the early hours of the morning.
"The predominately young demonstrators are calling Ahmadinejad a dictator, and they yell chants like 'Ma dolate zoor nemikhaim,' meaning 'We don't want a government of force.' They also yell at the security forces and call them traitors and vote-stealers. A friend said that within the security forces are pro-Mousavi followers, saying 'beechareh shodim!' or 'We are without hope.'"
Daryush continues: "The majority of people I spoke with consider the elections a fraud and don't accept the results at all. A friend of our family lives in Shahe Cheragh, which is a predominantly religious and conservative district of Shiraz. He said that even in that district, a huge numbers of votes went to Mousavi."
Carl Moeller with Open Doors notes the parallel to what happened in the Tiananmen Square uprising twenty years ago. "The government did use extreme force and clamp down on the demonstration. However, the momentum that that demonstration ignited brought about the greatest revival in the church in China and also a sense of openness."
Open Doors spokesman John Fox observes that Christians in general voted Mousavi, and they hope for new elections: "We cannot generalize our observations to all Christians, but we asked 29 Christians from Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan and all voted for Mousavi. One of them says, ‘For us, bad is better than worse. Mousavi also promised more religious freedom, so I hope he does not lie.'"
Moeller thinks this could be a pivotal point in the history of Iran and the future of believers who live there. It's important to keep praying for them. "One of the co-workers that we have there is saying, 'We're not sure right now what the effect of the pressure will be on the church. It can be both extremes--more pressure to keep control, or earn trust with the people by giving more liberty.' The reality is, we just have to wait and see."
