Protests coordinated by United4Iran were held in over 150 cities yesterday around the world in solidarity with the movement against the Khameini and Ahmadinejad government.

Update: Thanks again to Pouya (Flickr) for sharing his photos of the event. I’ve packaged some of Pouya’s pictures together with my audio report in the video above .

MP3. Feel free to share and re-broadcast. Transcript with links and more information below the jump.

This is a Mediahacker.org podcast recorded on July 26, 2009.

Thousands of people around the world hit the streets yesterday to say, “We have not forgotten Iran.” In June allegations of widespread fraud in the presidential election triggered a grassroots Iranian uprising in Tehran and other cities. The Iranian government unleashed a torrent of violent repression on the movement. While cell phone-images of dying and injured Iranians have faded from television screens, Iranian-Americans here in Austin, Texas, say the crisis is not over.

[Audio]

Most of Faye Amanifar’s family lives in Iran. She’s lived in Austin for the past twenty years. She said the Iranian protests are not about the election itself or the leading opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

[Audio]

About 200 [maybe 300?] people joined Faye in marching from City Hall over the bridge to Auditorium Shores at dusk. [Audio] Snehal Shingavi, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, said democracy in Iran could only come from a grassroots movement.

[Audio]

When the now-disputed president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was last in the United States, he famously said this:

[Audio]

W. H. and his partner drove three hours from Houston to attend the rally.

[Audio] [More information at http://www.irqr.net.]

Darkness fell shortly after the green-colored mass of marchers crossed the bridge. With just one light illuminating a makeshift stage, two young men played traditional Persian music for the crowd. [Music]

This has been a Mediahacker.org podcast, I’m Ansel Herz in Austin.

Extended video on Youtube and more photos at Pouya’s photostream.

2000: A tight presidential election is decided by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision, cutting short a ballot recount process in Florida. The winner of the popular vote and probable winner in Florida, Al Gore, promptly concedes.

2004: In Ohio the Secretary of State chairs the state campaign of the incumbent President Bush. Lower-income communities and people of color complain of long lines in polling stations. Kerry quickly concedes. Karl Rove denied having anything to do with the death by plane crash of Michael Connell, a Republican “tech guru,” before his scheduled testimony about alleged manipulation of electronic voting machines in Ohio. His family wants the truth..

But hey, no election is perfect. The United States is the greatest democracy in the world, after all. No big deal.

Unlike, say, that country over there we didn’t invade. That fundamentalist theocracy run by that crazy guy who wants to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ (actually a mistranslation) with nukes, Iran (say ‘eee-ron’ not ‘I-ran’). When an American journalist was recently jailed by the Iranian regime on bogus charges for weeks, big media were all over the story.

Now the incumbent Ahmadinejad has claimed victory in Iran’s presidential election, but supporters of the opposition candidate have alleged electoral fraud.

See, in a mature democracy like ours, we’d agree to put an end to the bitter election season. The opposition concedes, and America moves on.

But Iran is so backward and authoritarian. The opposition candidate is still contesting the results! Even the U.S. government is concerned with the integrity of the election.

Oh, and Iranians – women, men, young and old – are taking to the streets in huge numbers in mostly non-violent protest. As you can see in this video, Iran is severely lacking in modern democracy.

Thankfully, the corporate media isn’t showing much of this trivial news. There’s nothing for us to learn from or about Iran. Even as a close follower of the press, I didn’t grasp the scope of these protests until today. Darn those blogs and alternative news outlets.

Previously on Mediahacker: Media oblivious to police attack on Iraq vets. Because veterans come home to be honored with rhetoric, not to protest and be heard.

Update: Cartoonist Matt Bors nails it below.