Facebook,Democracy in Iran and Me

About a year ago last June, I created a Facebook page in support of Democracy in Iran and I called it “100 Million Facebook Members for Democracy in Iran”.  When I did it, I never thought that this personal appeal of support would become the biggest and most popular electronic link to Iran's democracy.  Today I am glad to report that we have reached about 275,000 members plus. The page has been attacked numerous times and I have received a number of threats over the last year. 

On the positive sides, friends like Bernard Henri Levy in the first days of existence made personal appeal of support through my page. New York Times writer, Roger Cohen encouraged me to continue my work in support of  the cause. Many important and concerned citizens around the world addressed me their support.  Many times, major newspapers appealed to me for interviews about the page, but I always refused since I did not want to distort the essence of this endeavor by my personal story. On the negative side, CNN once reported from Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto about the Facebook involvement in Iran and failed purposely to mention my page while it had more members than all the rest combined. Of course, I realized that it would be causing grievance to some people in the media to report that a French-Israeli person has created the largest and most dynamic  page of support for Iran on the Internet,  just imagine the repercussion of such news.

What is really important here is a message of empowerment to all, when you believe in a cause and you have the persistence and courage to sustain the pressures, wonderful things can happen as well. I was never under the impression that this appeal will be reaching the incredible presence it has, so today, I am really proud of this effort and to the contribution it has made to a very important human right issue for which I will not cease to work for . Over the last year , I met some amazing people who become my friends.

Just one more story, through my contacts in Iran , one day I received a call from an Israeli television network that asked me to connect them to some Iranian democracy advocate in Iran, this  led to a direct  Skype interview  between Iran and Israel, for this kind of action of friendship and support , I am very proud.

I hope that one day soon Iran will be able to join the community of Nations with peacefull and friendly overtures. A great nation with great people has a predominent place in a world that strive for Peace and Fraternity.

“100 Million Facebook Members for Democracy in Iran”.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105160039272&ref=mf