Youth springs eternal, even in Iran

Camelia Entekhabifard (try saying that fast three times) has an opinion column in The New York Times:

In the days leading up to the Iranian presidential election today, the world has watched as voters in the streets of Tehran rallied for the reformist candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, demanding “a government of hope”. Yes, Iranians have demonstrated this kind of passion before. But young Iranians now seem more likely to fight for their rights and die trying, rather than abandon their country and seek asylum abroad as so many of us have done over the last thirty years.
I remember the giddiness that my brother and I felt during Mohammad Khatami’s 1997 presidential campaign. Tehran was abuzz with excitement. Almost everyone seemed to despise his opponent, Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri. “Don’t tear yourselves to pieces— the election will be fixed, and all of a sudden Nategh will be president," passers-by would warn us as we gathered in the streets. But we didn’t listen. I remember high school boys handing out campaign fliers and shouting, “For the sake of democracy, for the sake of freedom, vote for Khatami!"
We thought that Mr. Khatami’s victory was a victory for us as well. The election of a more democratic government seemed to be a bright new beginning. I believed the new president could change my life. I wanted freedom of speech, democracy, equality and justice. At 25, I was among the first group of reform-minded journalists to work for the new newspapers that quickly sprung up.
But within less than a year of the election, the journalists, reformists, and intellectuals began to be persecuted by hard-liners in the judiciary and Intelligence Ministry. With our colleagues and friends being arrested, fired, or expelled from college, we began to fear for our lives. I continued questioning the regime until the newspaper I worked for, Zan, was closed by the judiciary in the spring of 1999. I was arrested and held in solitary confinement for three months. After my release, I eventually escaped the country I believed I could no longer reform.
When the second generation of the post-revolution era— my brother’s generation— became eligible to vote, many of them no longer felt any desire to put their weight behind a candidate they believed would ultimately disappoint. When Mr. Khatami ran for re-election in 2001, I was already in my own exile in the United States, and my brother and mother in Iran were no longer interested in marching through the streets of Tehran. “People are excited for nothing,” my brother says to me even now when I urge him to vote. But many younger Iranians clearly disagree with him.
So what makes today’s activists different? First of all, a large swath of this “third wave” of voters includes young people who do not remember the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and its related traumas. The ordeals that we suffered immediately after the 1979 revolution are just history to them. Today’s voters probably never had to lie to schoolteachers trying to ferret out damaging information about their families. Iranians may be far from free, but they do not endure the fear we experienced daily.
I used to consider myself among the most outspoken critics in Iran. But I would have never dared to stage a loud protest against a sitting president, as Iranian students did in 2007. We were brave, but we were relatively on our own, and thus easier for the government to single out. Now, Iranians form a twelve-mile human chain in support of Mr. Moussavi, and women are seeking one million signatures for a petition for gender quality. Thanks to YouTube, Facebook, and blogs, it’s easier for young people to organize, express their grievances, and learn personal information about top officials.
Some Iranians, fully aware of the potential consequences of confronting the regime, are still more than willing to do so. This gives me hope that today’s activists— the true children of the revolution— will continue to fight no matter who wins this election.

Rico says he hopes someone other than the little weasel (meaning the incumbent) wins...