Kordan Gate – The Persian Blogosphere and Ali Kordan’s Ph.D.
Posted by KamangirNov 7
This is the English translation of a piece I wrote in August 2008 for Radio Zamaneh on how the Persian blogosphere responded to the controversy surrounding the Ph.D. Ali Kordan (the former Interior Minister) had claimed to have been granted by Oxford University (for more details refer to “Ali Kordan – Degree controversy” on Wikipedia).
This is an example of the work I have been doing recently, as a part of project Didish. I will be posting more information about my work in the coming months.
Kordan Gate – The Persian Blogosphere and Ali Kordan’s Fake Ph.D.
Arash Kamangir – arash@kamangir.net
Masoud Behnoud writes, the fact that Ali Kordan did not know that in today’s world you can not get away with telling big lies in the public is enough reason to make sure that that “piece of paper” could have not been issued by Oxford University (Ahmadinejad responded to inquiries regarding Kordan’s degree by saying that it is “only a piece of paper”). Many people have written about Ahmadinejad’s and Kordan’s reactions to the controversy and how it should be resolved. This short report looks at how the Persian blogosphere responded to the controversy.
This analysis contains items aggregated through 933 link-sharing feeds which are used by Persian bloggers. Some of these feeds are published in friendfeed.com and some others are included in the feeds of Persian blogs. Some others are presented to the visitors of the blogs maintained by the owners of the feeds. Therefore, it will not be an overestimation if we consider link-sharing feeds as one of the tools for communication and distribution of content in the Persian blogosphere.
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows the daily percentage of items shared from July 29th till August 20th of this year which contained one of the keywords “Degree”, “Oxford”, or “Kordan” in their title. In order to draw this figure, first, for each day in the period, the total number of items which had one of the keywords in their title has been calculated. These numbers are subsequently divided by the total number of items shared in the corresponding day. Figure 2 shows a similar curve for the percentage of items which had any of the keywords in their title.
Figure 2
All four curves, the ones shown in Figures 1 and 2, exhibit peaks on the 11th and the 16th of August.
The peak on the 11th coincides with the day after alef.com first published reports regarding mistakes in what was claimed to be a degree issued by Oxford University. On the same day, Alef also published a statement by Oxford University in which the degree was officially discredited. The Persian blogger Jomhour commented on the news by writing a post titled “Will the genius minister discredit the Oxford minister?” The next peak, namely on the 16th, corresponds to the date in which the Persian blogger “Big Sleep” wrote a post titled “I will file a complaint against Kordan“. Both these posts will be discussed shortly.
Figure 1 shows that compared to the peak on the 11th, the keyword “Kordan” has gained more importance on the 16th. On the same day there is less emphasis on “Degree”, maybe exhibiting more concentration on the consequences of the actions undertaken by the minister, and thus mentioning his name rather than the actual events. After the first peak, there is significant drop in the use of the keyword “Oxford”.
Figure 2 shows that the second wave is weaker in magnitude than the first one. This might indicate decreased interest on the topic in the Persian blogosphere.
Among all the items which have any of the keywords in their title, the post by Soroush Rouhbakhsh (whom blogs at “Big Sleep”) has been shared 44 times and is the most shared item in this analysis. Choosing the title “I will file a complaint against Kordan“, He writes,
I will file a complaint against Kordan for forgery of an academic degree, as indicated in article 527 of the Islamic Prosecution Law. What will you do?
The next most popular item is titled “How animals reacted to Kordan’s fake degree“. Having been shared 22 times, the blogger uses humorous pictures of animal figures to mock the issue in that post (one of the pictures is shown to the right).
Jomhour’s post, “Will the genius minister discredit the Oxford minister?“, is shared 18 times and is on the third place. The blogger examines the credibility of the Minister of Higher Education who was given the task of investigating the authenticity of Kordan’s degree. The minister already has a suspicious “Scientist of the Year” title in his resume.
Shared 16 times, the official statement by Oxford University if the fourth on the list and a post titled “Dr. Kordan’s Ph.D.” by Persian blogger “The Wise Boy” is the fifth. In that post, the blogger looks at the research done by Prof. Edmund Rolls, whose signature is seen at the bottom of the claimed-to-be Ph.D. degree. The post, which is archived in the category “deep thoughts” by the blogger, sarcastically argues that “Dr. Kordan” had indeed deserved the diploma.
Figure 3
This analysis includes 166 unique items, shared for a total of 459 times. Figure 3 shows the share of blogs and other sources in the number of items and the number of times an item is shared. As seen here, 45% of the unique items regarding Ali Kordan’s degree controversy have been produced in the Persian blogosphere. In terms of the number of times any item is shared, items from the Persian blogosphere have had a 49% share.
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Great post. I heard recently that when Kordan said that he too was fooled by a fake Oxford rep, some of his former students reported that he was fond of telling stories of his days at Oxford.
Perhaps he also defeated the British in battle and modeled his life after Napoleon’s.
I have heard that couple of other Iranian parliamentarians supposedly have a fake degrees.
I really don’t know, is there an epidemic of false degrees or what?
When I was in Iran, I was shocked by the emphasis put on degrees and diplomas. Not only do employers ask for proof that you graduated from college, they want to see your actual diploma. The emphasis on diplomas and the lack of follow-up on their authenticity (until this recent case) makes me think that there are a ton of forgeries out there. I’m sure this won’t be the last case.
Tori
I have read yesterday that all candidates for IRI presidency will have to have Master Degree. Reading what you wrote here I am afraid that we may have couple of entertaining months (or years).
Well, at least it will be interesting and peaceful………ups, no, I am taking it back. I have seen photos of parliamentarians in majlis before Kordan impeachment. It was not peacefull. ;-)
khomeini who established such a fool regime had not even a simple diploma and he couldn’t even speak persian fluently, all other mullas and their deputies who had (and have) high positions in goverment are called Drs and MSs whitout elementary educations. if such scandals are being apeared to public is because of the hidden war for power between mullas. everybody in iran knows (but has not the proof)ahmadinejad is not a Dr and so on . . .