I'm a cartoonist so even when writing a story or working as radio correspondent, I'm checking out the empty half of the glass. As blogger it's no different; my inner cartoonist lurks in the dark. I've followed the Iranian "Bloggistan" since day one, and started my Persian blog after learning how to type. Funny? Not at all! Many Iranian journalists didn't start typing until 2002, when they found out that they could publish their censored stuff under different pseudonyms.
In late 2001, Hossein Derakhshan (known as the “Blogfather”
in Iran)
started writing instructions on how to blog in Persian. Living in Canada at the
time, he could avoid the dangers that threatened journalists such as Sina
Motalebi who promoted blogging in different papers. Sina was summoned by police
numerous times in 2002, until he was finally arrested and harshly interrogated
in May 2003.
Since those days, many bloggers have been arrested, been
harassed, died, or committed suicide. Omidreza Mirsayafi was one of them. He
died in 2009, in the notorious Evin Prison. He wasn't lucky enough
to survive it. When tens of thousands of bloggers saw his dead
body online, they possibly felt that being a blogger was not a hobby.
If in 2003 people enjoyed blogging to share ideas and
thoughts, today it's a war. It's a struggle. In the past five years, bloggers
have empowered themselves by joining social networks. In 2004, it was
Orkut.com, but today, the Iranian government has to face something much bigger:
Facebook.
I have almost 9,000 friends on two different profiles. It's
hard to estimate how many people eventually follow a link that's posted on my
pages, but when hundreds of my friends share those links, I get the idea that
the information is multiplying like the H1N1 virus.
Another network that's working powerfully is Balatarin.com. Thousands
of bloggers are sharing links through Balatarin.com. Today, it has become such
an important source that journalists and politicians are addicted to this Web site.
Last week, I was speaking to a close adviser to Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was
checking out the hottest links on Balatarin while answering my questions. This
advisor was complaining that many younger Internet users in Iran are not able to check out Balatarin and
other important news sources because of the firewalls that block information from
entering the virtual borders of Iran.
This was kind of shock to me. Rafsanjani promoted censorship
in his own way during his years as a president. He did his best to control media
and never helped the journalists who were imprisoned since 2000. Today,
his team and advisers feel marginalized by Ahmadinejad and are seeking help
from the very bloggers who never liked the "Shark." (Rafsanjani is called
the Shark in Iran.)
They want to read more controversial posts against Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah
Khamanei, and are willing to leak some information.
It's weird to know that an old school Ayatollah who possibly
didn't care for intellectuals, especially the ones who were killed during his
presidency, is trying to create a powerful network through a few sympathizers
in the media and the Iranian "Bloggistan." Today, the leaders of the
"Green Movement", such as Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rely
heavily on bloggers and active members of Facebook to spread the word.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the former Tehran
mayor and close ally to Karroubi, was tweeting on an hourly basis during this
year’s election, and many Iranians all around the globe were following events
through his tweets. His tweets were published through numerous blogs and Web sites
as well as Facebook and Balatarin. I spoke to Karbaschi, who was once my
publisher in the ‘90s, on how effective he thought tweeting was. He believed
that people liked it, as long as everything looked crystal clear to them.
Mousavi had an online TV channel, although that didn't last long. While Iranian
politicians do no seem comfortable with YouTube, Mohsen Sazegara, a former
politician now residing in Washington,
has produced tens of videos to promote resistance and defiance against the
regime through YouTube.
It tells me that many Iranians above 50 are trying to catch the attention of
the younger generations through social networks and blogs. It might be hard for
them to change their literature and rhetoric due to the age gap, but this will eventually
happen. Many bloggers and Internet users are followers of Ahmadinejad and true
believers of Ayatollah Khamanei—but, today, being connected somehow shows that
you are defying the rules.
If George Orwell were alive, he would have added a chapter about the cyber-clash
in Iran
to his novel, 1984. Why not? In an “Animal
Farm” like Iran,
you have to cross the “Big Brother” to live.
Nikahang Kowsar is an Iranian cartoonist, blogger, and reporter currently living in Canada.
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No, it doesn't. We've been hearing how blogging and/or the students in iran "challenge the regime" for over a decade now. This may be interesting and flattering to the internet literati but the fact remains that life for the vast majority of Iranians has significantly IMPROVED under this regime, including things like literacy, access to healthcare and clean water and elecricity, and they're not really interested in regime change. So give it a rest already.
I'm sorry Hass! Life under the Shah wasn't that bad at all for many people. Challenging is not exactly overthrowing and changing the regime.