Iranian blogger's meeting

December 26, 2002 7:05 PM

15 months after the first waves, Blogging seems to prove so popular among young Iranian boys and girls that now the number of Persian (or Farsi) weblogs has jumped to more than 9,000. Almost half of them are using Blogger.com's free service and other half are using a similar but more Persian-friendly online application, created by Iranian programmers, called Persianblog.com. Tomorrow, they are gathering in a big conference hall in Tehran to meet other colleagues and bloggers and to share what they've experienced during their lovely days of a rare thing in Iranian history: absolute freedom of expression
posted by hoder (12 comments total)

That's awesome. Is there a site anywhere online explaining the event? I couldn't understand anything at persianblog.com.
posted by mathowie at 7:14 PM on December 26, 2002

Very cool. Another reason to have hope for mankind.
I couldn't read anything at persianblog.com, either. Although I did see a picture of Jim Morrison and there is a burger joint advertising "buy 6 get one free."

btw...Isn't Persian read right to left?
posted by jaronson at 7:22 PM on December 26, 2002

That's very cool. I kept seeing "persianblog" linked on daypop and couldn't understand anything about it. I still don't...but this gives a bit of context. Thanks.
posted by Badmichelle at 7:30 PM on December 26, 2002

I couldn't understand anything at persianblog.com

Dude, what part of ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ?? ???. ??????? ???? ?? ?? ????? ? ?? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ?? didn't you understand?
posted by dhoyt at 8:08 PM on December 26, 2002

Ah shit, it didn't work. (Strangely, the original Arabic characters were visible on Preview)
posted by dhoyt at 8:10 PM on December 26, 2002

Here is a woman's Iranian blog, for those of you without Persian, it is in English.
http://www.womeniniran.com/english.htm
posted by Postroad at 8:10 PM on December 26, 2002

I was surprised to read that few of the discussions are about politics, but when one lives in a country where talking about a film or music is verboten, blogging must be heady stuff. Maybe it will take people awhile to relax into that kind of freedom. Or maybe a lot of Iranians (like a lot of Westerners) don't care for political debate. They just want to be able to live their lives and voice thier concerns on whatever in safety and comfort.
posted by orange swan at 8:12 PM on December 26, 2002

Here's one in english. Cool stuff.

"I don't know what american and british people think about iranian people! but most of iranians think that amercian and british people are all very rich and thinking good about iran! I know that this weblog has some american and british visitors. Please tell me your opinions about iran"
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:03 AM on December 27, 2002

That BBC article links to a 'Lady Sun Weblog'.. which when clicked ends up at http://www.khorshidkhanoom.com/ (NOT WORK SAFE!!!).. hacked? or a real punch in the face to Iranian values? Either way, it doesn't look like a blog, and isn't what I'm used to the BBC linking to(!!)
posted by wackybrit at 11:42 AM on December 27, 2002

Lady Sun's website has just been hacked into. It should be online in a few days again.
posted by hoder at 1:10 PM on December 27, 2002

Blogs and maybe cheetahs, too.
posted by y2karl at 4:40 PM on December 27, 2002

Another fascinating post, hoder. So you're the guy who wrote the Persian guide to blogging that helped this movement take off? If so, my hat's off to you.

Btw, hoder's blog is a great jumping off point; I've been wading through his links since he posted this thread last week. This Iranian film journalist in London gives a sense of the excitement:

This morning -or maybe last night- two curious Iranian bloggers, one in Iran and the other in Canada did me a favour and wrote about the beginners' blog. In a matter of a few hours, I received tens of comments and e-mails. I did not believe it...My students at the Azad University, the younger generation of enthusiast film readers and video-tape watchers, are coming to surface from the mysterious waters of pen names. I am re-discovering them. An amazing generation they are, I should say.

And this post from Iran made my heart ache:

1. Tonight I have heard news makes me feel strange. Makes me think about this basic question: Where do I leave?
2. Have you ever heard about Universal Declaration of Human Rights? or read it? [...] if not please read it at least one time.
3. There is an article in this declaration which has been banned most. it is the 19th article :” every one has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”
4. I am thinking of where i am living. again ..... and ..... again..... and ..... again..... and ..... again

I'll bet that captures perfectly what a lot of young Iranians are feeling right now.

The Weekly Standard also ran an article about Iranian bloggers in October, "www.free-iran.com: Will bloggers liberate the Middle East?"
posted by mediareport at 8:28 PM on December 27, 2002