Statement by a group of Iranian bloggers about the Presidential elections and the subsequent events
1) We, a group of Iranian bloggers, strongly condemn the violent and repressive confrontation of Iranian government against Iranian people’s legitimate and peaceful demonstrations and ask government officials to comply with Article 27 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution which emphasizes “Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.”
2) We consider the violations in the presidential elections, and their sad consequences a big blow to the democratic principles of the Islamic Republic regime, and observing the mounting evidence of fraud presented by the candidates and others, we believe that election fraud is obvious and we ask for a new election.
3) Actions such as deporting foreign reporters, arresting local journalists, censorship of the news and misrepresenting the facts, cutting off the SMS network and filtering of the internet cannot silence the voices of Iranian people as no darkness and suffocation can go on forever. We invite the Iranian government to honest and friendly interaction with its people and we hope to witness the narrowing of the huge gap between people and the government.
A part of the large community of Iranian bloggers
July 26, 2009
June 27, 2009
Statement by a group of Iranian bloggers about the Presidential elections and the subsequent events
June 26, 2009
Did Ahmadinejad kill Michael Jackson?
The news about Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest was especially important in the Persian blogosphere. The King of Pop may not seem like a good companion for the videos of death and destruction which pour out of Iran everyday, but as an Iranian user of Twitter sarcastically put,
Manouchehr Mottaki [the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs] published an official letter of acknowledgment to thank Michael Jackson for his superbly timely death.
Another Persian message on Twitter suggests,
It is really possible that the Iranian regime murdered Michael Jackson to distract the focus from Iran.
With the regime closing in on the population, including breaking into houses and shooting live ammunition in the streets, a lot of us are worried that Ahmadinejad might just find the death of Michael Jakson the blessing he has been looking for since the suspicious results of the Iranian Presidential Election were published.
June 25, 2009
Quick Update
And at last all the technical issues have been resolved.
Kamangir is now hosted on Media Temple. Kamangir being the blog of course in the previous sentence. Kamangir is preparing for his Ph.D. defense. This one being me.
And about Iran, I am petrified. I would have never anticipated them resort to violence to this extent. All I find myself capable of is to ask people to watch their back and to not get engaged in anything dangerous.
We’ll have more to talk about. And by that I hope there will be some good outcome after the bloodshed.
March 31, 2009
“We Need to Talk”, My Article in Gozaar
After Bluehost suspended a number of Persian blogs (see: “Persian blogs on Bluehost will be going down”), I wrote this short article for Gozaar. The article jut got published:
We Need to Talk!
On the Suspension of Persian Blogs by the Hosting Company BluehostSeinfeld’s George Costanza once said “we need to talk” is “the worst four words in the English language.” Some of the people who comment on our Persian blogs—though not particularly fond of the “perverted” Western culture—do share the same viewpoint with Mr. Costanza.
March 22, 2009
No More Martyrs
Omid Reza Mir Sayafi was not the typical blogger whom you would think they would “take care of” in Evin. And yet they did. He was pushed to the verge of depression and according to some reports he committed suicide and passed away, when not given medical care by the authorities. Just one other dead body in “Iran’s path towards freedom”. Or maybe not?
We have had enough dead people and enough lives have been destroyed behind the thick walls of Evin. Now, we have two problems. One, we, Iranians, are martyr-lovers. At the beginning of every city and village they put up a “Welcome to Such” sign and then they add “The City of Martyrs” or “The Martyr-Raising City of Such”. The Islamic Republic indeed loves martyrs, but we do too. We love sacrifices. What these sacrifices are for, and if the act of tunneling the energy of the Iranian youth into becoming activists is going to exactly do what is what I do not understand. The second problem is that the “others” like “Iranian martyrs in the war against tyranny”.
Enough people! We, the Iranian youth, need to read books and watch documentaries and talk. We need to talk. We need to do it for many many years. There are a lot of Ahmadinejads amongst us and no blood would wash that away. We need to think and talk.
No more martyrs!
Related:
March 21, 2009
Thank You President Obama, or They like it Tough
Just a quick note on President Obama’s message regarding Nowruz. And this is from an Iranian point of view, not an American one. If you want to make the Iranian regime party, yell at them, if you want them to suffer, pat them and say nice things to them. The Islamic Republic likes the “Great Satan” to be really satanic.
Thank you President Obama. You made my day.
February 23, 2009
“Persian blogs on Bluehost will be going down”
This is the English translation of a post by the Persian blogger “1 Fathi”. This is an important development which has caused a lot of discussions and worries in the Persian blogosphere.
Persian blogs on Bluehost will be going down
There are certain events which happen at the backstage of the blogosphere, not where the readers of a blog would directly notice, but yet can have a serious impact on the performance of any blogger. The issues regarding hosting services are among these.
Since last week, Blue Host, the hosting service which is used for this very blog [and Kamangir as well], and the number one recommendation for Wordpress hosting by Wordpress itself, has adopted a policy of suspending its Iranian users. In some cases the bloggers have been given a short notice in order to back up their data and leave. This is despite Bluehost’s good reputation in the blogosphere.
The matter of fact is that many of these bloggers, including Arash Kamangir who blogs at kamangir.net, have no connection to the Iranian administration and have had to take use of a foreign hosting service in order to freely express their opinions.
The important factor is that Bluehost is not committing any illegal action. What is being done is exactly what article 13 in Bluehost Terms of Service mandates. The article does explicitly mention Iran among the sanctioned countries,
Sanctioned Countries presently include, among others, Balkans, Belarus, Burma, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, former Liberian Regime of Charles Taylor, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe…Each Sanctioned Country, all governmental, commercial, or other entities located therein, and all individuals located in any Sanctioned Country are hereby prohibited from registering or signing up with, subscribing to, or using any service of BlueHost.Com.
Therefore, we respectfully accept Bluehost’s right for implementing its Terms of Service. We want Bluehost to be safe and secure and will not commit any action which would undermine that. However, according to the current practice in every country*, giving service to individuals and organizations which act in conflict with the official policies of the administration is illegal. This will result in the Iranian opposition bloggers having no way to go and to be forced to shut down. The actions of Bluehost, therefore, will put a burden on these bloggers and will add to the pressure currently maintained by the Iranian administration on the opposition bloggers.
The matter of fact is, with Bluehost leading, other hosting services will follow very soon.
We respectfully acknowledge the rights of Bluehost and do thank their administration for their high level of service. We do hope that Bluehost drops its policy and does not disrupt the current level of discussion on Bluehost-powered blogs.
The Persian Bloggers who use Bluehost are dispersed all over the world and produce content for people from Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and other countries. The action taken by Bluehost, while entirely legal, will harm the Persian blogosphere.
At the end, 1 Fathi hopes he does not have to shut down his blog.
We need help.
* “Some countries” might have been a better choice.
January 20, 2009
Will FriendFeed Recognize Nowruz?
The Iranian community on friendfeed.com, which by the way is a 2000+ strong group, is pushing for a change of logo for the Nowruz, the Persian/Iranian new year. Google already recognizes Nowruz and exhibits a custom logo on the day.
The above logo has been designed by the Iranian user Pedram, the one below by Nimaa. Follow the discussion here.
January 18, 2009
Khavaran Cemetery: The Testimony to Brutality has to be preserved
Radio Zamaneh mentions local reports [Persian] stating that there have been attempts to demolish Khavaran Cemetery. Believed by the family members of the victims of the political cleansing of the 1988 to be where their loved ones are buried, the 30m by 60m cemetery in southern east of Tehran has been the scene of protests in recent years. There are no gravestones or any other signs in the yard, except for a few put in place by people who claim to have received information regarding the burial places of their executed loved ones.
There is now a call to action to demand Navanethem Pillay, the High Commissioner of Human Rights at the UN, to use all his capacity to stop the Iranian regime from destroying this piece of land, one of the few signs of a brutal past which has never been forgotten.
Your Excellency Ms. Navanethem Pillay High Commissioner of Human Rights at the UN
With deep disbelief and disdain we have become aware that the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have undertaken the destruction of Khavaran Cemetery, the only known site of mass and individual graves of the victims of the Great Massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 and other non- Moslem dissidents executed in Iran through out the Seventies.
I beg your honor to urgently take action demanding the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately stop this barbaric operation.
The destruction of Khavaran is tantamount to the eradication of an important material evidence of a historic crime.
Respectfully,
More about Khavaran Cemetery in BBC Persian, Wikipedia
Excerpt: Bombs don’t “help” anymore
I think one of the observations made as a result of the recent round of fights in Gaza is that, aside from all the moral and humanitarian concerns, bombing people does not necessarily yield any solution (Larger PDF at the bottom of the post).
January 17, 2009
Excerpt: More Sex Is Safer Sex – Chapter One
These days I am reading the fascinating book “More Sex Is Safer Sex
This is proof for what Chapter 1 suggests: “Do not make people terrified of AIDS, or you’ll have more!” (click on the images for larger sizes).
This would be the situation for the US (the variable s denotes how much more worried cautious people will become as a result of the ad campaign, compared to the less cautious people),
Excerpt: Are you anti-revolution as well?
The Iranian filtering system has reportedly started custom filtering of the users in friendfeed.com. As a result, the Iranian blogger Vahid Online has been filtered out.
In a “guest piece” he asks what the limits of freedom of speech in Iran are. He asks,
Is development, including economical, political, and alike, possible on the basis of anything but freedom of access to information for the people?
January 16, 2009
Excerpt: Feed Counter, Nine Days and No Change
There is no change in the order of the twenty most-read Persian blogs since nine days ago. This result is collected through project “Feed Counter“.
Excerpts from a Persian Blog
The last post in this blog is dated December 26 (see: “Al Maliki witnesses another shoe tossed for Bush”), so I guess I do not need to tell you that I have not been updating this blog as frequently as I probably should have. And if you have been following this blog for some time, you have definitely noticed that this is an oddity, given the trend here back then.
So, as I seem to be stuck in my Persian blog, which now has six times more readers than this blog, I thought why not do a little gimmick and publish excerpts from my Persian posts here. I will translate the posts in their entirety if there is any request of course.
So, here it comes the “Excerpts” category.
December 26, 2008
“Al Maliki witnesses another shoe tossed for Bush”
The picture in the above is taken in the “kick Bush with a shoe” competition held in Tehran.
From Fars News
December 18, 2008
New Digital Police to Establish in Iran
It was in the news that,
Coinciding with the appropriation of a 5 billion Toman ($5,000,000) budget for a new ministry of ?communications project to filter websites and blogs, Tehran’s deputy public prosecutor, ?Mahmoud Salarkia announced, “A special court to examine electronic and computer-?related crimes will be established.”
Vahid Nikgou, the ?Persian cartoonist, writes that he has read that they are to employ figurines like the Microsoft Office Assistant for stopping the Iranian users from getting involved in “improper” activities. This is his depiction of how the “digital police figurine” will work,
Video of the Day: Modesty is the Cover
They keep a close eye on certain individuals and censor them out despite whatever technical measure they take in order to keep their blogs afloat. At the same time, if you are looking for porn, music, or movies, as long as you don’t make a fuss over it, you can definitely have it. This is my understanding of how things work in the Islamic Republic: modesty is the cover, supremacy is the aim.
From Antony
Letter in Defense of Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder)
We, the undersigned, view the circumstances surrounding the Iranian authorities’ arrest of Hossein Derakhshan (hoder.com), one of the most prominent Iranian bloggers, as extremely worrying. Derakhshan’s disappearance, detention at an unknown location, lack of access to his family and attorneys, and the authorities’ failure to provide clear information about his potential charges is a source of concern for us.
The Iranian blogging community is one of the largest and most vibrant in the world. From ordinary citizens to the President, a diverse and large number of Iranians are engaged in blogging. These bloggers encompass a wide spectrum of views and perspectives, and they play a vital role in open discussions of social, cultural and political affairs.
Unfortunately, in recent years, numerous websites and blogs have been routinely blocked by the authorities, and some bloggers have been harassed or detained. Derakhshan’s detention is but the latest episode in this ongoing saga and is being viewed as an attempt to silence and intimidate the blogging community as a whole.
Derakhshan’s own position regarding a number of prisoners of conscience in Iran has been a source of contention among the blogging community and has caused many to distance themselves from him. This, however, doesn’t change the fact that the freedom of expression is sacred for all not just the ones with whom we agree.
We therefore categorically condemn the circumstances sourrounding Derakhshan’s arrest and detention and demand his immediate release.
Arash Abadpour
http://kamangir.net/
Niki Akhavan
http://benevis-dige.blogspot.com/
Hossein Bagher Zadeh
http://www.iranian.com/bagherzadeh
Sanam Dolatshahi
http://www.khorshidkhanoom.com/
Mehdi Jami
http://sibestaan.malakut.org/
Jahanshah Javid
http://www.iranian.com/
Abdee Kalantari
http://www.nilgoon.org
Sheema Kalbasi
http://www.zaneirani.blogspot.com/
Nazli Kamvari
http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/
Nazy Kaviani
http://nazykaviani.blogspot.com/
Peyvand Khorsandi
http://soulbean.wordpress.com/
Nikahang Kowsar
http://nikahang.blogspot.com/
Omid Memarian
http://omidmemarian.blogspot.com/
Pedram Moallemian
http://www.eyeranian.net/
Ali Moayedian
http://payvand.com/
Ebrahim Nabavi
http://www.doomdam.com/
Masoome Naseri
http://www.mimnoon.com/
Khodadad Rezakhani
http://www.vishistorica.com/
Leva Zand
http://balootak.com/
December 12, 2008
The Shah is Gone, Why Hoder’s arrest doesn’t matter
Hossein Derakhshan, the used-to-be King of the Persian blogosphere, is gone and no one seems to care. I have been searching for his name using Google Blog Search since his arrest and the very few Persian blog posts I have been able to find refer to “impartial solidarity with the detainee” and “everyone has the right to speak” for their support of him. There is quite commonly a reference to his ill reputation of using his blog for attacking people in what I find as well. Has the Persian blogosphere abandoned the Shah? Is this another 1979-type revolution in which the nation kicked its father out?
Since his arrest on early November, there have been a few calls to action, also accompanied by outrage against the silent body of the blogosphere. Closer friends of Hoder, some of whom have denounced him earlier, seem to be surprised why the blogosphere is so “distracted” by its daily life and is not rising in support of the “fellow blogger”.
At the capacity of being the full-time king of the Persian blogosphere, Hoder was indeed a full-time blogger. He did mention studying in a few different universities as his occupation, but fellow journalists who have examined his track record have surprisingly found out that he used to take courses and leave programs, rather than actually being a student. He was the King. In this context, the kings attend conferences and enjoy trips all paid for by different organizations. I was not surprised to know that a person who had attended one of his presentations later found out that his slides were at least two years old. Apparently, like others of his excellence, the King of the Persian blogosphere did not have a lot of appreciation for what his people were in fact up to.
Generals and the heads of the army kissed the Shah’s boots minutes before he left Iran to not ever come back again. Hoder’s departure was sudden. There was no fancy goodbye party for the departing king. Nevertheless, the people are living their lives, indifferent of the emptied palace at hoder.com . The Shah died of cancer, Hoder’s death can come in form of cooperation with the regime for “exposing and dismantling the web of conspirators”.
The time of celebrities in the Persian blogosphere is over. Welcome to the Republic of Blogestan.
Photo from here
December 10, 2008
The Iranian Brand of Islam: Why they consider us Infidels
It is a matter of fact that for a lot of hard-core Sunnis, Shias are weird, to put graciously, and downright infidel, to be frank. That might have something to do with some Shia practices which do resemble primitive theologies in which objects would bear sever religious significance. Aside from that, however, sometimes it seems to me, as an observer, that Iranians really don’t care about the skies all together.
Take the example of Fitna, Geerts Wilders’s video about Islam (see: Islam or Islamic Ideology, which one is the problem Mr. Wilders?). The Islamic world was up in arms while the Iranian fellows seemed to only have heard some vague notions about “another offensive thing”. Iranians are not a bunch of lazy people of course. Call the Persian Gulf any name-which-must-not-be-used and see the uproar.
Last night the same happened when I translated parts of an article from the latest issue of The Manitoban, the University of Manitoba students’ newspaper. The article, which is titled “Deconstructing divinity“, starts with the question “Did God create the brain, or did the brain create God?” Referring to temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) as a medical condition which can result in “visions” and “feelings of presence”, the author argues that some religious figures might in fact only have been patients of TLE who were taken too seriously by their people.
The article does name the prophet of Islam as one of those who seem to fit to this theory, something I obviously dropped from the translation in order to avoid an initial agitation of the readers.
The reaction so far is one of “well, interesting” and “this reminds me of The Tripods“. Of course when you write “we will discuss the issues, yelling is what our monkey grandfathers did” there is always the person who keeps asking “was your grandpa a chimp or a screaming ape?”
December 3, 2008
Better days are coming!
Let’s be frank! Blogging in two languages at the same time does NOT work. It only could be done if you make yourself do it, and recently I haven’t. And that is a pity, given the fact that I started this blog for the sole purpose of being able to communicate to a different audience, than my own compatriots.
Now, as my studies approach the end (I am actually daydreaming about leaving school after 23 years!), I am hoping for a less busy schedule which would allow me to post more regularly. One thing is for sure though, I am planning to publish one post every three days, at least, starting today.
So, keep up the support! And by the way, I am aware of the technical problems of kamangir.net. I will attend to them as soon as I can squeeze some time.
And, as a “souvenir from hell”, this is the maze I am caught in these days. The analysis of the problem and the subsequent coding is done, I am collecting the results. Soon it will be published on yet another piece of paper no one is ever going to read. A piece of “knowledge” which will be archived on a dusty server somewhere in a huge publication company.
Better days are coming!
November 20, 2008
On Hoder’s Arrest
Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) is reportedly under arrest on accusations of espionage for Israel, among other charges.
The Persian blogosphere, however, seems to have not heard the news, for the most part. Hoder had in fact become an outsider in the blogosphere, not because of his ideas, but because of his repeated political swings and his untidy self-centric character. While still some people argue that this is another fake show like many others of his, my understanding is that the chain of events provides more evidence to back the idea that bloggers have to stay away from games of politics.
A blogger is and has to remain a “citizen observer”. Hoder’s long descent from carrying the title “the Godfather of the Persian blogosphere” to being interrogated by the regime while the Persian blogosphere seems to pay the least attention is a clear testimony to that.
November 12, 2008
The Iranian Obama, or Lost in Translation
A great post from my very good friend Hadi cross posted here due to the importance of the issue.
I noticed that Fox News made a big mistake in describing the reason for shut down of a weekly magazine in Iran, “after featuring President-elect Barack Obama on its front cover and asking the question, Why doesn’t Iran have an Obama?”
But the fact is that the weekly magazine, Shahrvand-e Emrooz, was not shut down for its speculations about the “Iranian Obama”, as Fox News suggests.
Indeed, The magazine had already been closed down by the authorities before Obama won the elections. The administration of Shahrvand-e Emrooz, however, enjoyed the Iranian slow bureaucracy which let them publish another issue before the verdict was submitted to their office.
The commentary, which is referred to by Fox News and other sources, was in fact written by the editor-in-chief of the weekly as a reaction to the shut-down of the magazine. The regarding sentence reads “Why don’t we have the Iranian Obama? Why does the Iranian government make the friends to be foes, instead of making the foes to be friends?!”
But, to mention the accurate justification for closing down the weekly, the Press Supervisory Board has announced the verdict to be based on what they mention as “the license mandated the weekly to address social and cultural issues whereas the publication in fact had contained political commentaries”.
In addition, the editor-in-chief of what many consider to be “Iran’s Time Magazine”, Mohammad Ghouchani, has opposed the verdict, which is still to be approved by higher courts. Ghouchani still hopes to negotiate with the officials for the reconsideration on the verdict.
There were lots of criticizes even by conservatives. Even the Parliament Spokesman, Ali Larijani, who is a close political figure to the Iranian Supreme Leader, has criticized the weekly’s shut-down.
Some other Iranian MPs have questioned and summoned the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Iran specifically for the event as well. In the Iranian constitution questioning a minister in the Parliament can potentially result in an impeachment.
Based on the political reactions to the shut-down of Shahrvand-e Emrooz, its staff are still very hopeful to be able to revive their weekly from the ban.
November 9, 2008
Didish: Statistics of the Persian Blogosphere, A Short Review
I was recently asked for a short introduction to my work on the Persian blogosphere (Project Didish). I post the report here as well, in case anyone is interested.