Diane Tucker: Iranians Worldwide Roll Out Green Scroll Against Ahmadinejad (SLIDESHOW, UPDATES): Via Huffington Post.

AUSTIN, TX -- When a reporter asked Vaclav Havel to comment on Iran's post-election crisis, the former Czech president said, "Expressions of solidarity with students and others who are defending human rights are important." Havel spoke from experience: he led the Velvet Revolution that peacefully overthrew a totalitarian regime.

But for Iranians living abroad who wish to express their solidarity with the anti-Ahmadinejad protesters, there's a fine line between support and outside agitation, and they must be careful not to cross it.

"Once in a while someone who is doing the same thing you're doing will get in trouble for it, and it creates an atmosphere of fear. In Iran, we never know who will be handpicked to be an example," explained expat Banafsheh Madaninejad, who lives in Austin, Texas, these days. Nevertheless, this past weekend she joined thousands of Iranians around the world who bravely signed a Green Scroll petition proclaiming Ahmadinejad is not Iran's president.

All of the international signatures will be sewn together to create what organizers hope will be the world's longest petition. It will be displayed later this month, ideally on or before the inauguration of Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Plan A" is to hang the scroll from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. "Plan B" is to unfurl the petition from atop Toronto's CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in North America.

I met Madaninejad, a doctoral student at the University of Texas, last Friday when we both happened to be standing on the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, home to America's largest urban bat colony. When a million bats flew out from under the bridge at dusk, the scene resembled an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The bats claimed to be Austin's #1 tourist attraction, but that night almost everyone on the bat bridge was there to support their friends in Iran by signing a bolt of fabric nicknamed the Green Scroll.

The primary goal of the Green Scroll campaign is one from Vaclav Havel's playbook: to reassure the protesters that they are not alone in their struggle. The organizers have taken pains to support rather than agitate. "Not for political reasons, but for the safety of students who will be returning to Iran, we've diluted our protests. We've been careful to stay one step behind the protesters inside Iran. For example, if they introduce a particular slogan today, we will wait until tomorrow to use it. We let them set the agenda," explained Madaninejad.

Read Original Article:(Via Huffington Post.)