hbmj2
Proud Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2011
- Messages
- 7
- Points
- 3
It's strange! Many from different corners of the world, with various languages, cultures and colors say same thing and look at the world in a same way. They say that you cannot understand the lovers unless you experience love and it is a reality that I and you have been whispering in each other's ears for years. Each one of us have a different story but in actual with a single soul. Maybe my story will be interesting for you too. I come from Iran, the land with a very old background and culture. But it's a while that it is in the hands of the dictators, ones who believe they have the right to decide for everyone and sacrifice 70 million Iranian for their own benefit. I come from Iran, whose people like people from all over the world desire freedom, but have been fighting for it for years.
I am Hamid Bagherli, 19, living in Tehran. I started to know Michael during the period I was about to know myself, the good and the bad. Like many others I was impressed with his art. His music captured me. It took some time for me to find out the depth of his words and his aim in using them. But in Iran after revolution, music and dance are forbidden arts. Though the more I was getting to know about Michael, the hardest it was becoming for me to let go of my love to him.
All this bitterness turned into sweet when I found out that there are people like me in this part of the world too, and interestingly enough their life story was so similar to mine. With all the restrictions here, our gatherings were not safe and our parents were always worried about us. This was unpleasant for us, but the beauty of sharing our common feeling would overcome all these problems. We encouraged each other to do charity works and had regular visits to sick children in hospitals and cancer victims. It all made big joy in our hearts. Our community was growing and little by little we felt that we had to speak out and break the silence to help reaching Michael's voice and messages to others, may their live will change for better. The atmosphere in Iran has made it impossible to publish magazines, books or any newsletter, so we decided to use the power of the internet, a media that was growing rapidly to talk about the truth without the fear from the regime. With the support from all of out friends and the direct help of Payam, Saman Sinaei, Reza Diba and Elnaz we started working on eMJey.com. We started translating documents to Persian and in addition to providing news and information about Michael, we discussed his goals,. All the energy came from our love to his Michael. Moreover the huge response we received from our visitors (namely 1700 hits in the first day the website was established (29 August 2003). The news of our site starting its work was announced in a birthday party for Michael in my house. All the worries for being attacked by local police, which could led into being jailed, seemed so cheap and nonsense when I saw the happiness in the faces of our friendship. This feeling was improved by the response from site visitors. Internet was a good shield for us to hide our identity. Some came up with nicknames, I chose to be HBMJ2! Working until late at night and getting the energy next day by reading some support emails was our routine for some time. Now the Iranians were joining the joy of Michael Jackson fans around the world and were considering themselves as a part of this global community.
But in our height of activities and expanding our group, a very bad news hit us and hurt our souls badly. It was in the news: Michael Jackson was accused of child molestations. The papers that were not even entering the music category, were seeking for more sale with publishing wrong news and attacking Michael. All around the world fans went into streets and rallied in support of him, but it seemed that we could not do it under the ruling pressure, because each of us could face the number of years in jail that Tom Sneddon wanted to convict Michael for. What could we do in this situation? What would you do if you were in our shoes?
We used the common force of ours. Our unity helped us overcome our anger and look for a solution, in any way. It's truly so hard to sit and watch innocence being trashed. We stood up to fight, fight and fight.
We tried to gain Persian media attention. We had interviews with TV and radio stations broadcasting from outside of Iran, and told them about our love to Michael and the things we have learned from him. Iranian fans of Michael Jackson sank the Persian news agencies in their emails. Each newspaper would face outnumber calls from fans, and it made some of them to change their behavior. We were getting stronger the more it was passing. We held two big support gatherings. The participating fans had colorful signs from different parts of country. Some came from very far cities just to show their support. We tried hard to perform these gatherings with no problem and to help everyone get their homes safe, so we kept them short.
But our efforts didn't end with that. Our bigger goal was to help building a site with an international team, to symbolize the unity among Michael Jackson fans. Our new friend Bita in California helped us to start running English and German versions. It didn't take long until we were publishing news in Arabic, Bulgarian and Russian, for some of which we were the first website to write in those languages. We decided to join our forces to focus only on latest news in different languages for some time. We also registered michaeljackson.ir, a step that was with a big risk, because the government could easily track us.
Meeting and getting in touch with Karen, with the help of our good friends Roya and Bita brought us an indescribable happiness. The news of it was everywhere in Iran very soon. Finally after years of darkness and silence, the Iranian fans were closer than ever to Michael team. Karen welcomed us with so much kindness and told Michael about us. We were achieving bigger goals. We were offered the seal of recognition by MJJSource and through the Michael's official website we were introduced to Farah, another kind friend. We encouraged Bita to take part in Red Roses project in behalf of us and gave her all of our support. When Bita had the chance to meet Michael in person and hug him, all of Iranian fans felt like being hugged by Michael. Her picture with Michael was the computer background picture of hundreds of Iranian fans.
During all this time one thing has remained the same and that's our confidence in Michael's innocent. His music has changed our life and made us do more good. He is the inspiration for many people around the world. He is being attacked because he didn't want to be mean, jealous, cruel or selfish, and that's what they call bizarre and weird. The world needs a lot more changes to become a better place for living, and the sad part is that many don't know where the problem is. Michael knows and he has been trying to send out this message. We are among the lucky ones, because we know the right path to go, thanks to Michael. Let us all never forget what the goal is. Let's all be united, forever.
God bless you all,
Hamid Bagherli, Iran
2003
I am Hamid Bagherli, 19, living in Tehran. I started to know Michael during the period I was about to know myself, the good and the bad. Like many others I was impressed with his art. His music captured me. It took some time for me to find out the depth of his words and his aim in using them. But in Iran after revolution, music and dance are forbidden arts. Though the more I was getting to know about Michael, the hardest it was becoming for me to let go of my love to him.
All this bitterness turned into sweet when I found out that there are people like me in this part of the world too, and interestingly enough their life story was so similar to mine. With all the restrictions here, our gatherings were not safe and our parents were always worried about us. This was unpleasant for us, but the beauty of sharing our common feeling would overcome all these problems. We encouraged each other to do charity works and had regular visits to sick children in hospitals and cancer victims. It all made big joy in our hearts. Our community was growing and little by little we felt that we had to speak out and break the silence to help reaching Michael's voice and messages to others, may their live will change for better. The atmosphere in Iran has made it impossible to publish magazines, books or any newsletter, so we decided to use the power of the internet, a media that was growing rapidly to talk about the truth without the fear from the regime. With the support from all of out friends and the direct help of Payam, Saman Sinaei, Reza Diba and Elnaz we started working on eMJey.com. We started translating documents to Persian and in addition to providing news and information about Michael, we discussed his goals,. All the energy came from our love to his Michael. Moreover the huge response we received from our visitors (namely 1700 hits in the first day the website was established (29 August 2003). The news of our site starting its work was announced in a birthday party for Michael in my house. All the worries for being attacked by local police, which could led into being jailed, seemed so cheap and nonsense when I saw the happiness in the faces of our friendship. This feeling was improved by the response from site visitors. Internet was a good shield for us to hide our identity. Some came up with nicknames, I chose to be HBMJ2! Working until late at night and getting the energy next day by reading some support emails was our routine for some time. Now the Iranians were joining the joy of Michael Jackson fans around the world and were considering themselves as a part of this global community.
But in our height of activities and expanding our group, a very bad news hit us and hurt our souls badly. It was in the news: Michael Jackson was accused of child molestations. The papers that were not even entering the music category, were seeking for more sale with publishing wrong news and attacking Michael. All around the world fans went into streets and rallied in support of him, but it seemed that we could not do it under the ruling pressure, because each of us could face the number of years in jail that Tom Sneddon wanted to convict Michael for. What could we do in this situation? What would you do if you were in our shoes?
We used the common force of ours. Our unity helped us overcome our anger and look for a solution, in any way. It's truly so hard to sit and watch innocence being trashed. We stood up to fight, fight and fight.
We tried to gain Persian media attention. We had interviews with TV and radio stations broadcasting from outside of Iran, and told them about our love to Michael and the things we have learned from him. Iranian fans of Michael Jackson sank the Persian news agencies in their emails. Each newspaper would face outnumber calls from fans, and it made some of them to change their behavior. We were getting stronger the more it was passing. We held two big support gatherings. The participating fans had colorful signs from different parts of country. Some came from very far cities just to show their support. We tried hard to perform these gatherings with no problem and to help everyone get their homes safe, so we kept them short.
But our efforts didn't end with that. Our bigger goal was to help building a site with an international team, to symbolize the unity among Michael Jackson fans. Our new friend Bita in California helped us to start running English and German versions. It didn't take long until we were publishing news in Arabic, Bulgarian and Russian, for some of which we were the first website to write in those languages. We decided to join our forces to focus only on latest news in different languages for some time. We also registered michaeljackson.ir, a step that was with a big risk, because the government could easily track us.
Meeting and getting in touch with Karen, with the help of our good friends Roya and Bita brought us an indescribable happiness. The news of it was everywhere in Iran very soon. Finally after years of darkness and silence, the Iranian fans were closer than ever to Michael team. Karen welcomed us with so much kindness and told Michael about us. We were achieving bigger goals. We were offered the seal of recognition by MJJSource and through the Michael's official website we were introduced to Farah, another kind friend. We encouraged Bita to take part in Red Roses project in behalf of us and gave her all of our support. When Bita had the chance to meet Michael in person and hug him, all of Iranian fans felt like being hugged by Michael. Her picture with Michael was the computer background picture of hundreds of Iranian fans.
During all this time one thing has remained the same and that's our confidence in Michael's innocent. His music has changed our life and made us do more good. He is the inspiration for many people around the world. He is being attacked because he didn't want to be mean, jealous, cruel or selfish, and that's what they call bizarre and weird. The world needs a lot more changes to become a better place for living, and the sad part is that many don't know where the problem is. Michael knows and he has been trying to send out this message. We are among the lucky ones, because we know the right path to go, thanks to Michael. Let us all never forget what the goal is. Let's all be united, forever.
God bless you all,
Hamid Bagherli, Iran
2003
but i didn't!