People of Iran, You Have Moon Chase’s Support.

We here at Moon Chase have a no-politics rule, however we’re going to break it for this post only. We’ll break down the current crisis for you in a few short sentences. There was an election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has led Iran since 2005, was declared the winner by 62% of the votes. However, the vast majority of posts we’re reading allege that these aren’t true, that corrupt personnel in the government falsified the results to keep Ahmadinejad in power, that many, millions of votes were simply not counted, and that it is impossible to have counted 39 million hand ballots in a matter of one day. Many Iranians are of the sentiment that Mir-Hossein Mousavi is a more progressive choice towards moving Iran in a much different direction, and that their votes for him were withheld. We can only hope that voters in Iran will one day get a fair and accurate count of their votes. Foreign media outlets have been choked of covering any protests that are not in favor of Ahmadinejad, and as you are reading this, members of Iran’s armies are going after protesters who simply want a re-election or a recount. Iranians are being brave and playing tricks with proxies on Twitter to get news, and their voices heard, to the world. The best thing you can do right now, is read this article from boing-boing about how to protect Iranians and learn which tweets to read from the cyberwar which has erupted in light of all of this. If you find a proxy or a hashtag that hasn’t been monitored, don’t share it online in a public place. Send an email, call a friend, etc. This is the safest way to keep them protected. Pass on anything breaking to your local news outlet. While many are saying to change your Twitter account settings to Iranian ones, we don’t recommend this. While it hides and protects Iranian tweeters, there is also a risk involved that all Iran twitter accounts may be shut down under a threat from the Iranian government to the offices of Twitter. Our Twitter icon and background will be turning green until this is resolved. If you have a Twitter account, please go green in support of Iran.

We’ll also tell you about an interesting animated film some of us on staff have seen. At Moon Chase, we believe our readers should try to expand their animated horizons beyond Japan. There’s a large world out there in foreign animation. Persepolis, a film by Marjane Satrapi, tells the story of similar events from the 70s and 80s in Iran through the eyes of a young girl. This film is autobiographical and is based on Marjane’s own experiences (which were told through a comic of the same name). The film was not positively received by the Iranian government over the fact that it did not "glamorize" the effects of the revolutions and political changes which took place. The film has won several awards and honors worldwide. Marjane has also come out in support and with more figures declaring Mousavi the winner. For those of our readers who want to know more about Iran’s turmoils have shaped the country today, we suggest watching it. In your own small way, by supporting this movie, you’re showing Iran that you can’t just look at the picture they paint of their own country.