Not long after the attacks were launched on Iraq in 2003 and the entirety of America held their breath wondering what would happen next, I stood in front of my International Marketing class with a few papers in hand and reported to my class from the field via the eyes of a Baghdad citizen. I’d never been to Iraq, or served in the military or even knew any Iraqis here in the States. But I was a blogger, early to adopt and fervent to search for my own news. What I stumbled across online in the aftermath of the “shock and awe” campaign was a blogger in Iraq named Salam Pax. On the other side of the world from me, I was his anonymous audience to which he reported his vivid personal accounts from the ground in Baghdad.
“One mighty explosion at 12 midnight exactly. The raid lasted for 10 minutes, then nothing. We had, and are still having, horrible weather. Very strong winds, hope we don’t get a sandstorm.” (Salam Pax, 3/25/03)
I felt compelled to share his stories with my class and I had an understanding professor who consented to my appeal. A global citizen concerned with world events, I quickly became consumed in the devouring of knowledge and updates on this war. As I saw one report on the television, which felt distant, cold and political…I experienced quite another report through Salam’s eyes—real and personal, as if I myself could have been writing it.
“I got five papers for 1,750 dinars, around $1.50, it felt like I was buying the famous bread of bab-al-agha: hot, crispy and cheap.” (Salam Pax, 6/4/03)
Fast forward six years and unpredictable-advancements-in-communications later. We are once again faced with a crisis in the Middle East in the neighboring country of Iran. We are turning on our televisions to CNN, MSNBC and our local news stations to the barrage of live footage of protests to the Presidential election—democracy in action a world away. Beyond the visuals, the stories are no longer only about the numbers of casualties or cold, hard statistics – but the people and the lives being affected. Many people in Iran have taken the ultimate risk and much like Salam Pax years ago, they are reporting through their own eyes via blogging and other social media, allowing the world to experience the Iranian elections like no other reporting can offer a distant observer. But the stakes have become higher.
A 29-year old Iranian blogger was jailed for insulting Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in his blog in February of this year; a month later he died in jail and the government claimed it was suicide. Shortly thereafter a campaign was launched on Facebook to “Hold Iran Responsible for Death of Blogger Mirsayafi in Prison” and an online petition was started to demand a probe into his case. Not long before he was jailed Huffington Post blogger Jillian York discovered his blog and wrote to him about his plight to which he responded, “When I see your post on the website, I became so happy that a journalist in other corner of world writes about the situations of Iranians journalist & bloggers and is concerned about us.”
Salam Pax, who has since become known as the “Baghdad Blogger,” helped to pave the way for a level of communication across cultures and country boundaries. Today, in a world obsessed with the ability to reach across the world in one click, many people in situations of political duress around the world are choosing to speak up in their own voice through the power of social media in the hopes that someone, somewhere will hear their story.
(BloggersUnite.org has launched an initiative that asks bloggers and network participants to use their blogs and accounts to draw awareness about the Iranian election and related atrocities in Iran, making it a dominant issue on the Internet on June 29, 2009 – See Bloggers Unite for a Free Iran campaign release)