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A "lost" voice of hope for youth in Iran

"I had to ask a staff member in the state library to help me because I couldn't figure out how to use the printers. While showing me the procedures she asked where I came from. "Iran," I answered. "That's awful. How come Iranians support terrorism?"

"We do not …," I murmured, having reservations about whether to stand up for my nation (and my identity).

I wish we, the Iranian youths, had a Fox News of sorts to broadcast our voice. I wish we had the media to show that we are not President Ahmadinejad; that Mohammad Khatami is not Ahmadinejad.

I was one of those 22 million people who voted for Khatami in 1997 when he was elected president of Iran. Intentions to vote for Khatami aside, what my friends and I shared were being Iranian and being fed up with the fanaticism present in Iran.

Those who voted for Khatami were Muslims, non-believers, Christians, gays and first-time voters. We had mostly grown up in the first decade after the 1977 revolution; the decade in which girls wearing white socks could expect to be expelled from school and where talking to the opposite sex in public could have put you in jail."

Writing under an alias, Mimi Mehraben in a piece in The Age newspaper describes the hope the youth, and others, had in Iran when Mohammad Khatami was elected President back in 1997. Read her piece, in full, here.

Meanwhile, the LA Times reports in "'We want a change,' Iran reformist says" on the upcoming election and Reza Norouzadeh, a top official in the presidential campaign of reformist former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi. He says the government of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has created a mess.

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