beginning of the end

Revolutionary guard police dressed in black on motorcycles armed with guns and buttons riding towards the crowd of people running away in all directions. It’s like the dementors raining down on Hogwarts planning to suck the life out of the living. The revolutionary guard police killed and arrested around 3000 people during the protests in June and July of 2009.

The 2009 protests may have been one of the largest political uprisings in the history of Iran, but it was not the first one. The protests before that went unnoticed because of the absence of social media. As much as the Iranian regime tried to keep the world from the horrors happening inside the country the appearance of social media made it impossible to do so. With Facebook's popularity rising the stories of the protesters found their way to the global platforms. In the later years, Iranian journalists were given opportunities to be a medium for people inside Iran. Masih Alinejad is one of the journalists who has been working tirelessly for years to help the political prisoners and the families of those who were killed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. She receives hundreds of videos every day from people who raised their phones instead of their voices and documented the injustice whether it was a girl being arrested over not wearing her hijab or inappropriate behaviors from members of the clergy, these videos are making a big difference.

Ever since 2009 platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have been the protester’s holly grail. Internet is their only way to communicate with the outside world, unfortunately, however, organizations like United Nations Human Rights Council have failed to take any actions against the human rights violations in Iran.

The social media platforms continue to promote a safe space for the Iranian people who do not have freedom of speech or press, many celebrities and journalists benefit from the freedom that their platforms provide, even though Twitter and Facebook are blocked and are accessed by proxy through VPN, Iranians has always found a way around the system.

‘’our phones are our weapons’’ Masih Alinejad always ends her Instagram posts with this quote that basically summarizes all her hard work throughout the years and shows a strong connection that freedom and technology.