A Video Curation of the 3 Hikers Imprisoned in Iran

Text - Permalink

A Video Curation of the 3 Hikers Imprisoned in Iran

On July 31, 2009, three young Americans were arrested and charged with espionage after crossing an unmarked Iranian border while hiking to a waterfall in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.

It took over a week for the White House to obtain an official confirmation, but families of the three hikers were quick to meet with the press to reiterate the benign intentions of the backpackers and emphasize the cultural sensitivity of the three travelers.

The families also wasted no time in getting intimate photo montages of the young hikers on YouTube, humanizing them and putting them in a context with which even those unsympathetic to the situation could relate.

Hoping to further bolster the perception that the incarcerated hikers were nothing but fun-loving, adventurous kids on holiday, two videos clips were released depicting the hikers dancing around and goofing off. A fourth friend, who stayed home sick on the day of the hike, apparently filmed the videos.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, this fourth friend, Shon Meckfessel, vouches for their characters and relates the nature the hikers’ trip to the waterfall. He explains that the four of them were studying Arabic and teaching English in Damascus when the group decided it would be a good idea to get out of town for a few days and see some sights.

During President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first interview with American TV since his disputed election in June 2009, it became clear that the Iranian government planned on using the three US citizens as bargaining chips in its hostile relations with the United States.

[Video cannot be embedded - Link]

The mothers of the trio tried to reach out to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with a recorded video message requesting the release of their children on humanitarian grounds. The Iranian authorities failed to respond.

Unlike the case of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists who were released from a North Korean prison last year in a high-profile rescue mission by former President Bill Clinton, the case of these three hikers has gained relatively little media attention.

In an attempt to raise awareness for their cause and put pressure on the Iranian government to free the hikers, an online video petition was launched encouraging people to upload video responses and form a digital narrative.

Leveraging YouTube as a political tool, the campaign received an outpouring of online support and released a mashup video aggregating of all the video petitions they received, including clips from Laura Ling and Euna Lee.