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

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.

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.

We Need to Talk!

On the Suspension of Persian Blogs by the Hosting Company Bluehost

Seinfeld’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.

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:

• Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger Dies in Prison
• Action Alert: Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers

Thank you President Obama. You made my day.

(direct link to the video)

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.

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.

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.

To: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

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