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Justice Through Music has been on the forefront of the democracy movement in
Iran and here in North America. We have worked with many members of the Iranian
Diaspora from all over North America. Working in close contact with individuals,
and groups such as Iranian American Youth Campaign, Committee to Protect the
Iranian People’s Will, and Voices4Iran, we have documented and posted on the
Internet numerous marches, vigils, events, musical performances. These videos are
in turn viewed by people in Iran and all over the world and inspire Iranian citizens
to embrace democracy, and bring about peaceful change in their country. We hope to
ensure that the rights of Iranian citizens are recognized and respected by their
government or that a new government arises from the hearts of Iranians.
The Internet, cell phone cameras, and “tweets” from cell phones played a
large part in the movement in Iran last year, and will continue to do so.
JTM has been using technology and the Internet and to promote human rights and
justice for years, and we know how to effectively and smartly use these resources
to help foster freedom and democracy using music and media. Our YouTube channel has
gotten hundreds of thousands of views over the past year.
Below is just a small handful of what JTM has done in 2009, and it is our full
intention on continuing this work in 2010 and beyond.
The Green Scroll Project is the world’s largest cloth petition, with hundreds
of thousands of names asking the world to not recognize Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as
Iran’s legitimate president. It was first unveiled in Paris, and then it was
displayed in New York. The Green Scroll was then marched from the Washington
Monument to the US Capital in Washington, DC. JTM was there to direct, document
the event, and you can see a video of the event on our YouTube Channel.
There were many candlelight vigils across the world for all the Iranian citizens
who died in the protests in 2009, and JTM was there to document two important ones,
one vigil in Freedom Plaza, and one at DuPont Circle in Washington, DC. We even
filmed a Persian musician playing a “Tar”, an ancient Persian instrument from
where we derive the word “guitar”.
JTM was there when a human chain was formed from the United Nations Information
Center on K Street to the Iranian Interest Center on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington,
DC. We filmed the “chain” and posted the event on our YouTube channel.
We were there when petitions were delivered to various government embassies to plead
for help fostering democracy, human rights and justice in Iran.
An underground Iranian group Kiosk performed in front of the Reflecting Pool near
the US Capital and we were there to interview them and film their performance. These
videos have been viewed from all around the world, with many Persians and Iranians
viewing and leaving comments on them.
JTM was also at the United Nations building in New York at a protest rally against
a visit by Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, recording the various events and managing to capture
the unveiling of a beautiful sculpture of Neda Agha-Solton, the young women who
tragically lost her life in a pro-democracy rally in Iran, which was witnessed by
all the world on a cell phone captured video.
JTM partnered with musical group Op-Critical and Persian musician and poet Shamim
Azade in the video/song “Flowers For Your Guns”, a song that reaches out
to the Iranian police and soldiers to stop the violence against their own people.
We also have a current campaign called the “Free Iran Campaign” where we
post music videos from many Iranians and/or Persian musicians who have wrote songs in
support of freedom in Iran. We hope to continues this and many other campaigns, using
our website, Twitter, and our videos on our YouTube Channel, to continue this work to
help bring about peaceful change in Iran.
Finally, we have been working directly with student activists in Iran, former
political prisoners and others to support human rights there.
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