Letter of Support by International Scientific Community

WHERE IS MY VOTE

June 20, 2009

A week ago, Friday June 12, Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the Iranian presidential election. Immediately after, all other candidates, Moussavi, Karroubi, and even the conservative Rezaei, disputed the official results. So did some people who started several demonstrations to express their anger. More news fueled the suspicion of fraud at an unprecendented scale. On Monday June 15, and to the amazement of the world, millions of people – of all ages, classes, and backgrounds – were in the streets of Tehran demanding another election in what was the biggest demonstration since the revolution in 1979. A week later, despite the threats and beatings issued and ordered by the government, millions of people are still demonstrating, and the movement is growing and spreading to other cities.

Observers might find the situation confusing, since Iran has long been an isolated country and the everyday Iranian is unknown to the outside world. One cannot even prove that there was a fraud. There remains the fact that millions of people are protesting in the streets of Iran. These are traditional, religious, modern, young, old, rich and poor, academics – some of them our colleagues – going out in the streets and risking their lives with a form of innocence in their aims and tactics. Some of them may stand on their roofs at night shouting “God is great” to keep the movement alive. They are braving the power because they insist that the Islamic republic is a republic.

The government is imposing a ban on the foreign press, shutting down all means of communication within their reach, arresting hundreds of prominent activists, politicians and religious figures opposing the results, and terrorising demonstrators. Every day fewer videos and reports escape from Iran. The state media is depicting the protests as incited by the West, accusing the movement of being a party of hooligans and traitors. After a week of uncertainty, the head of the state, Khamenei, just issued yesterday strong and explicit threats against participants in the protests and rallies.

This text is an urgent request to academics to fight the misrepresentation of this movement. This is not only about showing support to the courage and determination of people on the streets of Iran. It also means reaching for the many people in Iran who would like to participate but are frightened or know of the movement only through the state media. It means informing these people of the scale and nature of the movement, and thus widen its support within Iran. To all academics, please sign this appeal to support this movement in its call for a new election and oppose any violent intervention on protesters.

Persian Translation:

31 خرداد 1388

یک هفته پیش در تاریخ جمعه 12 ژوئن احمدی نژاد به عنوان برنده انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران اعلام شد. بلافاصله همه نامزدهای دیگر, موسوی و کروبی، و حتا محافظه کاری چون رضایی نتایج رسمی انتخابات را به پرسش کشیدند. انبوهی از مردمی که برای بیان خشم خویش تظاهرات بسیاری به راه انداختند نیز همین نظر را داشتند. اخبار بعدی سوء ظن نسبت به تقلب در مقیاسی بی سابقه را تایید کرد. در روز دوشنبه 15 ژوئن، و در برابر حیرت جهانیان، میلیون ها نفر- از سنین، طبقات و حرفه های گوناگون- به خیابان های تهران ریختند و با برپایی بزرگترین تظاهرات از زمان انقلاب 1979 خواستار انتخاباتی دوباره شدند. یک هفته بعد از این رخداد به رغم همه تهدیدها و حملات عمال حکومت، میلیون ها نفر از مردم هنوز هم در حال تظاهرات اند و جنبش آنان رو به رشد و در حال گسترش به شهرهای دیگر است.

از آن جا که ایران از مدت ها پیش کشوری منزوی بوده است و ایرانیان معمولی برای جهان خارج پدیده ای ناشناحته اند، وضعیت ایران برای ناظران خارجی احتمالا گیج کننده است. حتا نمی توان وجود تقلب را اثبات کرد. اما این حقیقت باقی است که میلیون ها نفر در حال اعتراض اند. اینان افرادی سنتی، دینی، مدرن، جوان، پیر، غنی و فقیر، و برخی از آنان دانشگاهیانی همکار مایند، که به خیابان می روند و با روش ها و اهدافی معصومانه جان خود را به خطر می اندازند. برخی از آنان حتا شاید شب ها به پشت بام خانه هاشان می روند و برای زنده نگه داشتن جنبش فریاد می زنند " الله اکبر" . آنان قدرت حاکم را به چالش می کشند زیرا مصرانه بر این باورند که جمهوری اسلامی یک جمهوری است.

حکومت فعالیت رسانه های خارجی را ممنوع کرده، همه ابزار ارتباطی در دسترس آنان را مسدود کرده، و صدها نفر از فعالان و سیاست مداران و چهره های دینی معترض به نتیجه انتخابات را توقیف و تظاهرکنندگان را مرعوب کرده است. هر روز اخبار و ویدئوهای کمتری از ایران به بیرون درز می کند. رسانه های رسمی این اعتراضات را نتیجه تحریک غرب معرفی کرده و شرکت کنندگان در جنبش را مشتی اراذل و خائن می نامند. پس از یک هفته تردید و دودلی، رهبر حکومتی ایران، خامنه ای، درست دیروز مشارکت کنندگان در اعتراضات و راهپیمایی ها را به شکلی حاد و صریح تهدید کرد.

این متن درخواستی است اضطراری از همه دانشگاهیان برای مبارزه با محدوش کردن این جنبش. مساله فقط حمایت از عزم و شجاعت مردم حاضر در خیابان های ایران نیست. هدف ما در عین حال رساندن صدایمان به گوش بسیاری از ایرانیانی است که مایل به مشارکت در جنبش اند اما می ترسند یا فقط از طریق رسانه رسمی دولت از اخبار جنبش مطلع می شوند. مساله بر سر آگاه ساختن این مردم نسبت به ماهیت و مقیاس این جنبش است تا از این طریق حمایت داخلی از جنبش گسترش یابد. خطاب به همه دانشگاهیان لطفاً این فراخوان را، که هدف اش حمایت از جنبش و خواست آن برای برگزاری مجدد انتخابات و مخالفت با هرگونه سرکوب خشن معترضان است

Dr. S. Aaronson (MIT) – Prof. S. Abramsky (University of Oxford) – Prof. L. Aceto (Reykjavik University) – Prof. J. Afary (University of California Santa Barbara) – Dr. E. Ahrèn (Uppsala University) – Dr. S. Akhavan (University of Skövde) – Dr. M. Alai (Universita di Urbino Carlo Bo) – Dr. G. Alfano (Brunel University) – Dr. R. Alléaume (Télécom Paris Tech) – Dr. S. A. Alyahya (Yale University) – Prof. A. A. Amini (University of Louisville) – Dr. J. Anders (University College London) – Dr. E. Andersson (Heriot-Watt University) – Dr. G. De Angelis (Universidade Nova) – Prof. W. Arendt (University of Ulm) – Dr. P. Arrighi (Université de Grenoble) – Prof. L. Badalucco (Universit di Palermo) – Dr. S. van Bakel (Imperial College London) – Dr. A. Baltag (University of Oxford) – Dr. K. Banaszek (Nicolaus Copernicus University) – Dr. E. Barker (University of Oxford) – Prof. A. Bar-Hen (Université Paris Descartes) – Prof. S. M. Barnett (University of Strathclyde) – Dr. G. Batt (INRIA) – Prof. Roberto Battiston (Università di Perugia) – Dr. A. Bayat (University College London) – Dr. N. de Beaudrap (Universität Potsdam) – Prof. S. Behdad (Denison University) – Prof. P. Bellot (Télécom Paris Tech) – Prof. C. H. Bennett (IBM Research Division) – Dr. C. Berline (CNRS) – Dr. G. Bignami (Italian National Institute of Health) – Dr. S. Bliudze (CEA) – Dr. S. Bouzarovski (University of Birmingham) – Prof. T. Brandes (Technische Universitt Berlin) – Dr. M. Bremner (University of Bristol) – Prof. H. J. Briegel (University of Innsbruck) – Dr. I. Brigandt (University of Alberta) – Dr. D. Browne (University College London) – Dr. M. di Bucchianico (London School of Economics) – Dr. J.-M. Buée (Université Grenoble 1) – Dr. S. Buhmann (Imperial College London) – Prof. A. Bundy (University of Edinburgh) – Prof. P. Buneman (University of Edinburgh) – Dr. F. Buscemi (Cambridge University) – Prof. V. Buzek (Slovak Academy of Sciences) – Prof. L. 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Ekert (University of Oxford) – Prof. H. Emamirad (Poitiers University) – Dr. M. Ericsson (Uppsala University) – Dr. K. Etessami (University of Edinburgh) – Dr. B. Farzad (Brock University) – Prof. R. Fazio (Scuola Normale Superiore) – Dr. A. Farjudian (Aston University) – Dr. F. Farahani (Stockholm University) – Dr. C. Faria (University College London) – Dr. P. Farzam (ICFO) – Dr. J. Feret (INRIA) – Prof. S. Fields (California State University) – Dr. A. Feito (Imperial College London) – Prof. F. Ferreira (University of Edinburgh) – Dr. J. Fitzsimons (University of Oxford) – Dr. S. T. Flammia (Perimeter Institute) – Prof. W. Fontana (Harvard University) – Prof. B. Foroughi (St. Francis Xavier University) – Prof. G. Forti (Universit degli Studi di Milano) – Dr. I. Fuentes-Schuller (University of Hertfordshire) – Prof. E. Fox Keller (MIT) – Dr. E. F. Galvão (University of Federal Fluminense) – Prof. J. Gauntlett (Imperial College London) – Dr. S. Gay (University of Glasgow) – Dr. G. Genoni (University of Milan) – Dr. J. George (University of Toronto) – Dr. J.-F. Gerard (INRA) – Dr. G. Gherardi (University of Bologna) – Prof. F. Giannoni (University of Camerino) – Dr. G. Giuli (Università di Camerino) – Prof. J. C. Gore (Vanderbilt University) – Dr. E. Grace (Imperial College London) – Dr. D. Green (The City University of New York) – Prof. K. Grinnan (Claremont Graduate University) – Dr. D Gross (University of Hannover) – Dr. G. Gualdi (Università di Camerino) – Dr. A. R. Hadaegh (California State University San Marcos) – Prof. S. Hanneton (Paris Descartes University) – Dr. R. Harmer (CNRS) – Dr. A. Harrow (University of Bristol) – Prof. M. Hartmann (Technische Universität München) – Prof. P. Hayden (McGill University) – Prof. R. Heckel (University of Leicester) – Prof. S. Hekimi (McGill University) – Dr. J. Hérisson (INRIA) – Prof. J. M. Henderson (University of Edinburgh) – Prof. L. Hendren (McGill University) – Dr. W. K. 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Jouannaud (INRIA) – Prof. R. Jozsa (University of Bristol) – Prof. A. Joyal (UQAM) – Dr. E. Kashefi (University of Edinburgh) – Dr. S. Kedad-Sidhoum (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) – Dr. V. Kendon (University of Leeds) – Dr. A. Kent (Cambridge University) – Dr. I. Kerenidis (CNRS) – Prof. D. Kesner (Université Paris Diderot) – Prof. F. Képes (CNRS) – Dr. F. A. Khavarpour(University of Sydney) – Dr. H. Koeppl (EPFL) – Dr. P. Kok (University of Sheffield) – Dr. R. Krahe (McGill University) – Dr. J. Krivine (IHES) – Prof. M. Kwiatkowska (University of Oxford) – Prof. C. Kurtsiefer (National University of Singapore) – Prof. R. Laflamme (University of Waterloo) – Dr. M. Laforest (Delft University of Technology) – Dr. F. Laviolette (Université Laval) – Prof. M. J. Lechowicz (McGill University) – Dr. M. Leifer (University of Waterloo) – Prof. B. Leimkuhler (University of Edinburgh) – Prof. M. Lein (University of Hannover) – Prof. N. A. Lemos (Universidade Federal Fluminense) – Dr. G. 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Miniatura (CNRS) – Prof. M. Mislove (Tulane University) – Prof. E. Mjolsness (University of California) – Prof. M. Moaddel (University of Michigan) – Prof. K. Mohammadian (University of Illinois at Chicago) – Dr. M. Mahdian (Yahoo Research) Prof. A. Menezes (University of Waterloo) – Prof. D. Miller (INRIA) – Prof. M. Moaddel (University of Michigan) – Dr. A. Montanaro (University of Bristol) – Prof. C. Moore (University of New Mexico) – Dr. M.-E. Morin (University of Alberta) – Prof. A. Morton (University of Alberta) – Prof. M. Mosca (University of Waterloo) – Prof. M. Murao (University of Tokyo) – Dr. A. Murawski (University of Oxford) – Dr. M. Nabissi (University of Camerino) – Dr. R. Nagarajan (University of Warwick) – Dr. M. Navascues (Imperial College London) – Dr. A. Nayak (University of Waterloo) – Dr. A. G. M. Neves (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) – Dr. P. Nicodeme (Ecole polytechnique Palaiseau) – Prof. R. Netz (Stanford University) – Dr. U. 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