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Iranian Blogs You Must Check Out
Weblogs, familiarly known as “blogs”, have abounded
since the beginning of the Internet. Essentially, blogs are online
diaries written for all to share. Blogs are not necessarily an expression
of political ardor or carefully constructed essays. For the most
part, they are simply random observations and comments jotted down
by their authors, inviting comments from the millions of people
who make it a hobby to peer into someone else’s version of reality.
Iranian blogs are particularly celebrated both inside Iran and abroad,
for many reasons. For some, it is a unique window into the closed
off world of Iran. For others, it is an opportunity to have a voice
in a society that lacks freedom of expression. This may be why blogs
are especially popular with Iranian women. Anyone and everyone can
publish their innermost emotions from frustration and anger to happiness
and joy behind the anonymity and safety provided by the computer
screen. Or can they? Recently, Sina Motallebi, an Iranian journalist
and weblogger, was arrested for alleged crimes against Islam and
his blog was shut down. Fortunately he was released after some time
and after an initial period of panic when bloggers deleted their
archives or shut down their sites, the Iranian blogs seem to continue
to multiply. The rise of the blog in Iran has been made possible
by the huge growth of the Internet there. There were 400,000 people
on the Internet in Iran in 2001, according to government figures.
But officials expect this to grow to 15,000,000 over the next three
or four years. Hossein Derakhshan’s blog,
http://www.hoder.com,
is arguably the most famous of the Iranian blogs and has been featured
in numerous mainstream media including the BBC as an example of
the Iranian blog phenomenon. The following are other, less high
profile Iranian blogs (published in both English and Farsi) that
should be of interest to our readers:
The Upper Echelon of Happiness:
Written by Shadi, a young Iranian-American woman living in Southern
California, this blog is much more than a miscellaneous array of
quotes and quips. At times poignant and moving, other times humorous
and self-deprecating, Shadi touches on a number of issues we could
all relate to such as: love, nostalgia for the homeland we left,
anxiety and doubt about the future, the wonders of friendship, etc.
And she also comes up with really good poems. Don’t forget to check
out the often hilarious or touching comments to her entries made
by her devoted friends and fans alike. Bonus is a long list of links
that will take you to other imaginative blogs.
http://www.theupperechelonofhappiness.blogspot.com
Pejmanesque
Another view from the Iranian-American diaspora, this time from
a young man. His blog is very elaborate, discussing a lot of politics
but can be as silly as posting a curious picture of J.Lo. A great
thing is you can search the blog through a subject matter index.
http://www.pejmanesque.com
Notes of an Iranian Girl:
The author of this blog is billed simply as “IranianGirl” and is
posted by a young female student living in Tehran. Iraniangirl candidly
talks about her frustrations with the Mullah regime as well as jotting
down more personal problems such as upcoming exams. Thankfully,
for young hyphenated Iranians who have lost the art of deciphering
the characters of their mother tongue, it is available in English.
http://iraniangirl.blogspot.com/
Cowboy Khalil:
You will laugh at his entertaining satiric pieces such as “30 tips
to keep Iran out of the matrix” (Tip No. 1: If Bush asks if you
have WMD, don’t deny it or this is sure proof that you’re lying).
http://reachm.blog-city.com
Zane Irani:
The older version of Iranian Girl, this blog is written by an Iranian
mom who expresses her frustration at the powers that be as articulately
as the perennial female rebel poet Forough Farrokhzad. A sample:
“They have enslaved me… with the direct connection to their Gods!
And they make me feel ugly to my bones. And to them…I am a whore…
walking in the streets of my life. ...they don't care...But they
have their Iran and I Have Mine!”
http://www.zaneirani.blogspot.com
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