Local Iranians use Facebook to join protest

Sitting on a couch in her living room, in an apartment near the University of South Florida, Nazgol Moshtaghi traded Facebook messages with friends in Tehran.

While thousands march in protest of the recent re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad, Moshtaghi, a 26-year-old USF marketing major originally from the Iranian capital, did what she could to support her friends, who are rallying on behalf of Ahmadinejad opponent Mir Hossein Musavi.

"We're hoping we can have some kind of re-election or recounting the votes," she said. "The day of election it was like 4 p.m. in Tampa and it was 12:30 [a.m.] in Tehran, when they started saying the results of the election they said they counted 5 million votes which is absolutely impossible," said Moshtaghi.

Moshtaghi said she has friends among the thousands of people, who continue to fill the streets of Tehran demanding a recount. "When they said the percentage of the votes, that Ahmadinejad is 78 and Musavi is 12 or something like that, we were shocked," she said.

Moshtaghi said the least she could do now is help spread opposition to the election via social networking sites and continue communicating with Iranians all over the world via Facebook.

As she spoke, a messages popped into her inbox from her a friend in Iran, telling her about today's plans to hold demonstrations in the area where official state media stages.

If she were in Iran, she said she'd be protesting too, but for now, she continues the online battle for her country.

"All Iranians outside the country are using Facebook, Twitter, all the social networks and emails and anything they can, they're sending anti-filters, "she said.

Moshtaghi said even though she's living in Tampa, she was still able to vote in the election and cast her absentee ballot for Musavi.

She hasn't slept well in days, and said she will continue doing what it takes including posting messages and watching history unfold. "This is the most important thing after the revolution," she said.

One sign on Facebook that the mood of the online protest has changed, said Moshtaghi, is a design tweak of the online rally logo.

Originally a green box with "Where Is My Vote?" emblazoned in white letters, the logo now has a red splash.

The change, she said, symbolizes bloodshed.

Monday night, seven protestors were killed in Tehran.