The Strike Has Been Called

June 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Iran 

This just breaking on Twitter, amidst dwindling crowds and a crackdown on communications throughout Iran, Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard have called for a general strike:

The Facebook pages of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard called for an Islamic National Strike late Tuesday night.

Mousavi’s page updated first, about 7 p.m. local time, stating, “Strike: The manner of a man is better than his goverance. Help to bring this message back to IRAN.” Three hours later the status updated to “Dont underestimate the power of National islamic Strike.”

And early Wednesday, around 2 a.m. local time, both he and his wife’s pages updated to “Islamic Strike, help to spread the Voice out to fight the Bullets.” The message was posted twice in a row on both accounts.

There is no way to be sure Mousavi or his campaign staff are behind the accounts at this time. His page was utilized heavily leading up to Election Night and he now has more than 107,000 supporters. It has been used in the past since the election to let people know about upcoming events and demonstrations.

Text in Persian next to the updates ask people to spread the word via any means possible. A document written in Persian is attached, but it is an image file, so BT was unable to immediately translate it. Many are saying on Twitter that the file provides details on the strike. Some say the strike is to be held next Monday through Thursday and others say July 15-17.

It’s unclear how the word will spread as the Iranian government has utilized technology from the French Nokia-Siemens to monitor calls and censor the web, but many continue to use satellite communication to tune into Voice of America (VOA) and BBC Persia.

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