Bloggers Unite is an attempt to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By asking bloggers to write about a particular subject, a single voice can be joined with thousands to help make a difference.

This post is my contribution to Bloggers Unite to Free Iran.  

Since I began this blog, I have centered a few posts on critical crossroads in my life, where a single decision altered my life—often dramatically.  However, one of the very first crossroads of my life came at the decision of my mother, who wisely saw that Egypt was no place to raise female children, after spending nearly seven years there.  She knew that my sister and I would never achieve more than second-class status if she raised us in the Middle East and that we would not have the same opportunities to reach our potential.

Therefore, my mother gave my father an ultimatum when I was a only two years old:  either return with her to the United States to live there permanently or stay in Egypt alone, while she returned to the United States with her daughters.  It must have taken my mother so much courage—to stand up to my father, who was a brutal dictator in so many ways.  

I am so grateful that my mother made that critical decision to raise us in the United States—where despite our problems as a nation, we enjoy freedoms that people of so many countries can only dream about having.  How lucky Noelle and I were to have the freethinking mother we did, who had the foresight to understand what raising daughters in such a place might have meant to us. 

The events that have taken place most recently in Iran, due to the likelihood of a fixed election, really drive home just how lucky we are to have the basic rights and freedoms that we so often take for granted. 

            Since the election in Iran:

• Hundreds of arrests have taken place, including the arrests of prominent and respected citizens, whose only crime was protesting the results of a bogus election.

• The militias have broken into the houses of innocent citizens and they have been filmed shooting randomly into crowds of students and other protestors. 

• The government has admitted to twenty-seven casualties, which undoubtedly is a conservative number. 

• The media has been censored to the extreme, which is a form of terrorism in and of itself. 

• Access to the Internet has been either extremely limited or cut off completely, giving the Iranian people no connection and voice to the outside world. 

Since the election in Iran:

• Spend time blogging or on social networking sites to raise awareness about the terrible human rights violations that are occurring in Iran. 

• Send letters and emails to the democratic leaders of the world, asking them to unite their people in support of the people of Iran. 

• Let the people of Iran know that we are supporting them in their fight for freedom.

• Talk about the disappearance and inhumane treatment of Iranian citizens.

• Call for an end to violence in Iran.

What affects one people in the world affects all people of the world.  We are all citizens of life and we are all connected through the thread of humanity.   I hope you will take some time today and do what you can—in any small part—to help raise awareness of the great suffering that is occurring in Iran today. 

Peace,

Melinda