Don’t get upset with TIME’s strange methods and final choice for Person of The Year, 2009. After all, it’s their award and they can give it to whomever they deem appropriate, no matter how inappropriate we think the choice is. But, hey, Iranian.com is our medium and we can do our own selection!
I know that the world does not revolve around Iranians, but this was a particularly important year for Iran and Iranians and of all years, this would have been a good year for Iranian people to be recognized. From Omid Reza Mirsayafi, a young blogger who died under torture in prison in March after he wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader, to millions of vibrant young people who came to streets to protest the rigged elections in Iran, risking life and limb for the chance to speak their minds, to scores of journalists who have been imprisoned in Iran for the past six months, we have hundreds of deserving individuals who can be named persons of the year, no thanks to Islamic Republic’s treatment of its best and brightest people with suppression, abuse, torture, and execution. Many of these people, you would agree, have received not only national recognition and pride from Iranians worldwide, they have been noticed internationally, too. We have fabulous artists who have made music and film and authors who have written good novels and non-fiction. We have scientists and politicians and businessmen whose accomplishments have made news. Hey, this year we even have criminals in suits and murderers! We’ve got a huge pool of people from which we can choose Iranian.com’s Person of the Year, 2009.
Whom would you nominate as Person of The Year, 2009 and why? If you need help deciding, you can consult the Iranian of the Year section on the site where more than 450 people have appeared this year. The Person of the Year doesn’t have to be an accomplished or “good” person. It can also be a very bad person. We have some of those, too!
You can submit your recommendations here, or if you feel particularly passionate about any one person, you can write a blog about his or her nomination. Make sure your blog title starts with: “Person of The Year, 2009:…” for the name to be thrown in the hat.
Hopefully once we have a good list, Jahanshah and Foaad can post a poll and people can cast their votes in a quantitative way. Let’s not be bitter about the omission, but create new opportunities for inclusion!
