My mobile phone kept on ringing all day long and I missed most of them because of bad connection. When I arrived home I had more than 20 messages on my answering machine. Friends from all over the world are trying to reach us to get the news and be sure of our safety. The connection is cut or that bad that we have to guess our conversations. But among the entire phone calls one was very clear and that was my mother who was asking for some computer assistance; she has recently joined the facebook and cannot stand the fact that her favorite site is filtered.
She seems to be that excited that has stopped complaining my father for following the news day and night. They both are either outside in the middle of the city or have glued to the television to follow their missing news.
Until a few days ago most of the people believed that this is just the voice of suppressed students and youngsters but now we don't believe our eyes. "No fear, no fear...we are together." This is what we all heard today from millions of people from different generation in Tehran.
When our coordinator from State television studio called me this afternoon to confirm the appointments for the next week, he asked me about the background noise. We hardly could hear each other. He has the image of a typical secret agent to me. He never takes part in any discussion at work. "I got stuck in traffic and a big crowd." This is how I replied. "I got stuck in the same thing last night and went back to the state TV and stayed over the night in my office!" I heard something different in his tone of voice. I guess he wanted to share something but hesitated. "God bless you wherever you are." He said this before hanging up.
The number of people participated in the demonstration surprised everyone but what has fascinated me is the variety of people in their outfit and social status.
At the beginning I thought this is going to be the fight between lower class and middle class but what I saw today changed my biased opinion. I saw many old and young women wearing black chador and covered from head to toe shouting and chanting among the demonstrators and joining the young girls in the front line whom were sitting on the ground in the middle of the street to stop Bassij militia walking inside the crowd. I'm happy to say that that image will never wipe away from my mind. Those women with loose colorful scarves had opened their arms ready to be killed in the front line while the others were beaten up at the other side of the street. I didn't need a tear gas; my tears were rolling down already.
People want to be heard and supported by the rest of the world. They were sending messages to the west in front of the western cameras. Appointing to Obama and Sarkozy they were demanding the free west to not to recognize this government. I saw a few women shouting: "Now it's your turn to support the democracy and human rights."
"The fear is gone; nothing seems to be an obstacle anymore, they can filter all the websites and shutdown the internet, sms service or mobile but they cannot shut our mouth." This is what I hear all the time.
Late at night everyone wants to share his/her experience with others. Telephones are none stop ringing. Sara my girl friend called me half an hour ago; she had heard the gun fire near her house and had seen many people in blood. Although she was panicked and need to talk to someone, she hanged up the phone to go to the roof to shout, and within a few minutes I heard my neighbors shouting Allaho Akbar (God is great) from their balconies.
I remember how sometimes irritated I was by hearing the loud prayer call which starts by the same phrase: Allaho Akbar and now this phrase is turned to be the most beautiful one.
After a while I called back my mother to help her out with her computer problem. She didn't answer the phone, perhaps she is on the roof too.
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