Iranian opposition launches facebook page

Street Journalist,

A group of Iran’s Green Movement supporters has launched the “25Bahman” Facebook page in support of a rally planned for February 14. Bahman 25 is the date in Iranian calendar that coincides with February 14.

Kaleme website reports that ever since opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi officially requested government permission to stage a peaceful demonstration on that date, to show support for recent Arab uprisings, “Green sites have begun exploiting the internet social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to launch the message of the February 14 rally.”

Kaleme reports that these pages will carry the latest posters, announcements and minute-by-minute developments regarding the proposed rally.

At the time of this report, 9,000 had joined the Facebook page.

The government has not yet made any official response to the request for a demonstration permit.

Iranians have a constitutional right to stage peaceful demonstrations; however, earlier requests by Mousavi and Karroubi to stage government approved rallies were turned down or ignored.

Peaceful mass demonstrations stretching from June to December of 2009 were systematically crushed by the violent reaction of security forces, backed by the Iranian establishment. The Islamic Republic has continued to arrest and sentence protesters over the past year, accusing them of conspiring with the country’s enemies to topple the regime.

The opposition, however, maintains that protesters aren’t seeking regime change but rather are fighting for popular reforms.