Blogging Iran's Uprising

Violent post-election protests surged over the weekend in Iran. Police in riot gear used batons and tear gas against thousands of protestors who complained that president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the presidential election from opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavvi.

The demonstrators are mostly young, educated and wired Iranians who hoped for more freedom, a better economy and an improved image of Iran throughout the world. Moussavi’s campaign emulated some of President Obama’s tactics by using Facebook, text messages, YouTube and Twitter as organizational tools, despite frequent government shutdowns. Now, watchers the world over are following the riots moment-by-moment using Twitter, in spite of jammed phone lines and restricted servers.

To talk about this, we’re joined by Babak Rahimi. He is assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He’s been in Iran since March, keeping an eye on how Facebook and micro-blogging have influenced the election and he joins us from Tehran.

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(Photo by John McNab via Flickr/Creative Commons)