Posted on 05/20/2003 10:07:06 AM PDT by jalisco555
On April 19, Hossein Derakhshan, a young Iranian living in Toronto, got an alarming e-mail from a friend of his in Tehran. The friend, Sina Montallebi, wrote that he had been summoned to appear before the religious police.
The next day, Mr. Montallebi became the first person in history to be jailed for the crime of keeping a Weblog.
"They did it to frighten people," says Mr. Derakhshan, who came to Canada two years ago.
The story of the Internet and the mullahs is a fascinating study in how technology can subvert even the most repressive of regimes. In the past couple of years, Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on the country's reformist press, closing newspapers and arresting journalists. But it will be harder for the mullahs to close down the Web. Sina Montallebi has become a powerful symbol of the liberal and technology-savvy generation that the mullahs have failed to suppress.
I met Mr. Derakhshan, who's 28, in a downtown Toronto coffee shop, where you can get a latte while you surf. There, he gave me a quick Web tour of modern Iran. He showed me e-zines with names like Cappuccino. There are feminist sites with the latest information about women's legal status, and Weblogs published by 20-somethings with pseudonyms like LadySun, Steppenwolf, and IranianGirl.
For outsiders, these sites are a fascinating glimpse into Iranian society.
"I have to forget about those people who are trying to identify me," writes LadySun, a university English professor in her mid-20s. "It takes a long time to find me. And in case they find me, they can't accuse me of anything," she writes.
Weblogs (or blogs, as they're known) have been called the cheapest, easiest publishing tools ever created. They are individual journals that typically contain comments on current events, posted on the Web for anyone interested enough to take a look. In the West, a few e-zines (Slate) and Weblogs (Andrew Sullivan's, for example) have become remarkably influential. In Iran, they are sometimes a source of information you won't read in the censored press. More important, they're a way for people to speak relatively freely with each other.
"I think Weblogs are very powerful in the absence of a free press," says Mr. Derakhshan. But that's not the only reason for their popularity. "Blogs got popular in Iran because of the change in the value system. They're about self-expression, individuality, rationality, and tolerance." The Net is also popular with teenagers and young adults, he adds, because their parents have no idea what they're doing.
If the Net helps inspire the next Iranian revolution, Mr. Derakhshan will be part of the reason why. It was he who figured out an easy way to show Persian letters and characters on the Net. Now everybody in Iran uses the computer protocol he devised. He publishes his own Weblogs, in Persian and English, to keep Iranians aware of new Weblogs and e-zines (http://www.hoder.com/weblog).
Mr. Montallebi, who just turned 30, was a political writer for one of the reformist papers until it was closed down. After that, he turned to blogging. His Weblog was a hit, not just for its mildly critical political views but for its opinions on sports and entertainment. "Weblogs are a good opportunity, especially for younger people, to explain their views and attitudes," he wrote in London's Guardian last October. "So they are a way to freedom and democracy."
Because there's no law forbidding what he did, the police invented charges involving pornographic videos. He spent 20 days in jail before he was released to await trial.
Mr. Derakhshan guesses that around a million Iranians now have access to the Net, where they do most of the things Western kids do -- surf, chat, talk about sex, and find dates. Internet cafés in Tehran are common, and people can buy Internet cards that make surfing easy and anonymous.
The Net is just one of the many Westernizing influences that have swept Iran. People now get TV from all over. They can flip back and forth between the chador-clad newsreader and fashion TV. And although the mullahs are trying to clamp down again on immodest dress, young women are dressing far more freely than they were a few years ago. They favour tight, form-fitting manteaus (the overcoat that is required in public) in all the latest colours. They're wearing sandals without stockings, and their hair is escaping from their headscarves. Makeup has made a comeback.
Can you have social, cultural and economic liberalization without political freedom? Iran will be one of the test cases. And even though the regime is cracking down on the Net, the young Webloggers believe they can't crack down forever. "For sure it won't last too long," IranianGirl wrote recently. "Their time is over."
The short answer is "No". Something for the Iranian (and Chinese) tyrants to ponder.
The next day, Mr. Montallebi became the first person in history to be jailed for the crime of keeping a Weblog.
In Toronto!? I'm lost.
No matter, I'm still pi$$ed about our embassy and 444 days.
5.56mm
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