This is the title of an article I wrote for DW-World about the Persian Blogosphere. Read the article in English here and in Persian here.

Here are my slides. The title of the presentation was “Blog.Persian, The Empty Half”. Any comment or suggestion is absolutely welcome. Take the PDF file from here (200KB).

For the record, I will be in CPH:DOX next week.

That’s all for now.

Review of the detailed report on the poll (PDF) shows that there a number of severe concerns concerning the quality of the results. Among these issues are,

• A total of 1,003 interviews were completed; the interview refusal rate was 52 percent.
• …one in four respondents refused to answer the question about who they voted for in the presidential election…
• …Asked how they would vote if the election were held again, half say they would vote for Ahmadinejad….

* The Wikipedia page for “World Public Opinion” states,

This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic

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