For those of you who haven’t heard about the Iran elections (not surprising given the relatively light coverage in mainstream media), Iran held presidential elections this past Friday on June 12th. The current hardline president, Ahmadinejad, was announced the winner, but the elections results released are extremely fishy, and not in line with what opinion polls were predicting. The main statistical improbability is that Ahmadinejad had roughly the same percentage of votes (around 65%)  across different rural and urban areas and across different provinces, including the home provinces of his opponents and ones like Kurdistan, which historically goes for the opposition candidate like California goes for the Democratic one.

So what, right? Just another sadly rigged third-world election?

Well, as the pictures here show: No.

The young people of Iran – and the 30-and-under’s are 70% of Iran’s population – are in the streets protesting en mass. Earlier today there was a group of one or two million in Tehran at a rally. While the government is doing their best to shut down media, the youth is organizing by sending out twitters and pictures on their cell phones – which also allows for unprecented access for us outside of Iran to watch events unfold. The best compliation of sources I’ve found is at the blog of Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic.

So why should you care? Besides the fact that there are 70 million people living in Iran without many of the freedoms that those of us in functioning democracies take for granted, Iran and Iran’s youth may be one of the West’s best chances to start a fruitful dialogue between us and Muslim nations in the Middle East. As Andrew Sullivan writes:

I’ve long believed that Iran was much more likely to become a democracy than its neighboring Arab states – and that this might be the key to unwinding the clash of civilizations that was hurtling us toward apocalyptic scenarios. Part of it is that being immersed in online media, I’m perhaps more aware of the vibrant debate, evolving culture and amazing passion of Iran’s Millennials. So this day is a moment of great hope and joy for those of us who have been waiting for it and knowing that one day, it would come.