Iranian vice-president is blogging

November 24, 2003 2:24 PM

Iranian vice-president is blogging. Mohammad Ali Abtahi is perhaps the only major politician who publishes his personal diary, and his secretly taken photos from official meetings (e.g. the ousted president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze) on his weblog, which is unfortunately only in Persian. (via iranFilter)
posted by hoder (9 comments total)

Yes, he makes several good points:

"???? ?? ??? ???. ?? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???.

3. ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ??????. ?? ????? ??? ??. ????? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????. ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??????. ???? ?? ??? ?????????? ????? ? ????? ??.

4. ??? ??? "

I really couldn't agree more.
posted by jon_kill at 2:34 PM on November 24, 2003

Gah! That looked perfect in preview! What happened?

Sorry, everyone.
posted by jon_kill at 2:35 PM on November 24, 2003

Very cool news. What's the uptake of internet like in Iran, hoder? Do you have an idea of what percentage of citizens in Iran uses the web?
posted by mathowie at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2003

jon_kill he asserts ???? but I know ???? ???? ?? to be a fact. And I don't think ???? ???? follows at all from his premise.

It would be interesting to know whether this is a "real" weblog or whether it's PRspeak.
posted by tcskeptic at 3:18 PM on November 24, 2003

Um... it's not _only_ in persian. There is an english version as well... though it does appear to be smaller.
posted by silusGROK at 3:41 PM on November 24, 2003

The English version of the website is not actually functional yet, but you can check out his biography in English.
posted by hoder at 4:07 PM on November 24, 2003

Fascinating, iranFilter is going into my bookmarks now.

Gah! That looked perfect in preview! What happened?

Yeah MeFi codes a little buggy on foreign characters, the only way to post them is with character entities... سايت شخصي سيد محمد علي ابطحي راه اندازي شد
posted by bobo123 at 5:04 PM on November 24, 2003

Canada's prime minister to be also has a blog.

Although he doesn't seem to update very often.
posted by mfli at 5:50 PM on November 24, 2003

"???? ?? ??? ???. ?? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???.

3. ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ??????. ?? ????? ??? ??. ????? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????. ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??????. ???? ?? ??? ?????????? ????? ? ????? ??.

4. ??? ???

5. Profit!

Seriously, though. As disappointment over the failure of Khatami's reform presidency grows, Abtahi is getting increasing attention for his pragmatic approach to building in reform at a more grass-roots level. Clearly, he's in the next generation of political leaders, and a name to. watch.

That said, he's just one of several narrow-portfolio vice presidents, more like a White House counsel with cabinet rank. (And the Iranian executive is much less powerful than in the US; all the real power resides in the theocratically-controlled judiciary.)

At least he gets to work with Steven Spielberg, though.
posted by dhartung at 9:34 PM on November 24, 2003