Amid the controversy surrounding the presidential election results in Iran, U.S. college students are joining their Iranian counterparts and launching protests on campuses across the nation.  Official election results show that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected, but many are suspicious of the results.
 
Students held protests last week at the University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan, Stanford University and other campuses.  Protesters wore green shirts – the color of reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign – and held green signs stating “Where’s my vote?” or pictures of President Ahmadinejad with a line through his photo. Others wore tape over their mouths to symbolize the government silencing the people’s voices.   
At a similar protest at the University of Iowa students also petitioned Iowa's congressional delegation asking them to disregard the election results for the safety of the Iranian protestors. Iranian students at Minnesota said they hope the protests encourage world leaders to investigate the election results.

Student action is heating up online as well.  Students are spreading facebook profile pictures asking “where’s their vote” and stating they are “in solidarity with the students of Iran.”  Several facebook groups supporting protestors in Iran have memberships in the thousands with at least one above 50,000.  Since the government in Iran has blocked television, cell phone and text messaging services, Iranians are asking their friends and family in America, many of whom are students, to keep them updated.  Iranian students at Southern Illinois University have been using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to provide news updates to their loved ones back in Iran.
 
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