“States like these ... constitute an axis of evil,”  U.S. President George Bush, January 2002. "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, October 2005. “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.”  Senator John McCain, April 2007. “I hate all Iranians."  Pentagon official Debra Cagan, September 2007.

Shocked by the vitriol of these messages and the media's skewed coverage of them, Schauleh Vivian Sahba, a second generation Iranian-American, wanted to get involved and make a difference. She thought of creating a public service announcement that would engage viewers, specifically people with little or no knowledge about Iran, and promote peace. Even if the project would lead just one person to reconsider Iran outside of stereotypes - she reasoned it would be worth it.   She started by writing a script, sending it to Iranian-American family, friends, and luminaries, asking whether they would like to participate. The vast majority said, "Yes."   Originally, the idea was for participants to tape themselves and send in the footage for editing. When this proved impractical for various reasons, Ms. Sahba's dear friend bought a camcorder and lent it to her. Thus she began filming participants herself. Without a budget to hire a professional editor, Ms. Sahba enrolled in a two-week FinalCut Pro class offered by Access San Francisco, Cable Channel 29. She continued filming volunteer participants who recommended friends, who in turn recommended their friends until there were enough participants to produce a first cut, which she released on Iranian.com. Thanks to the response from the exposure (over 27,000 views in one month), more volunteers offered to help until there were enough participants to release the final cut. Currently Ms. Sahba is exploring the possibility of distributing the PSA through non-profit media outlets.