We Are Iran The Persian Blogs

by Alavi, Nasrin

• ISBN13: 9781933368054
• ISBN10: 1933368055
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-08
• Publisher: Soft Skull

Summary

"We Are Iran provides a moving and multi-voiced portrait of contemporary Iran using that nation's weblogs - internet diaries - as its primary source. The voices - translated from Farsi and infused with Persian lyricism - are full of wit, anger and optimism, and are refreshingly at odds with the grim vision of the country peddled by Western governments. Iranian bloggers talk of conflicts with the law, the condition of women, of repression and its subversion, and of culture, religion and the world around them."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Nasrin Alavi is the author of We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs, which was translated into several languages. She is a contributor to The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Freedom in Iran. Her writing has also been published in the Financial Times Magazine, the Times, the Independent, La Vanguardia (Spain), and Das Parlament (Germany); and she has written extensively for Germany's Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education).

Table of Contents

A Virtual Community	1	(34)
Voting Against `God's Representative on Earth'	7	(3)
The Children of the Revolution	10	(8)
Cultural Invasion	18	(6)
Upholding Iran's Morality	24	(7)
Hezbollah: The `Party of God'	31	(4)
Revolution, War and Dissent	35	(56)
Decimation of Non-violent Dissidents	39	(5)
The Struggle for Power	44	(6)
`Treacherous' Legacies of the `Enemies Within'	50	(11)
The Elimination of Dissenters: Mass Executions and Torture	61	(4)
The 1980--88 War: Consolidation of Power by the State Clerics	65	(5)
The Komiteh, War and Your Daughter's Wedding	70	(2)
Looming Conflict	72	(4)
Toppling Dictators	76	(3)
Death to America -- Not	79	(4)
Death, Mayhem and Destruction	83	(8)
Celebration of the Censored	91	(26)
The Revolution Devours Its Children	97	(4)
Secular Martyrs	101	(4)
Islamic Reformation or Bust	105	(6)
The Freedom to be `Blasphemous'	111	(6)
A Nation of Steadfast Revolutionaries	117	(42)
The Shia Paradox	123	(6)
Cultural Paradoxes	129	(8)
The Paradox of Education for the Masses	137	(6)
The Defenders of the Faith	143	(3)
Khomeini's Promised Land	146	(3)
The Imperialist Plague: Drugs, Crime and Prostitution	149	(10)
Virtually Unveiled Women	159	(60)
The Fight for Political Rights	159	(4)
Battling Prejudice	163	(1)
Veil or Be Damned	164	(2)
Under the Veil	166	(9)
Going for the Burn	175	(4)
Love, Marriage and Legal Identity	179	(9)
Crime and Punishment	188	(6)
Struggling from Within	194	(6)
The Failure of Parliamentary Reform	200	(5)
Womanly Paradoxes	205	(14)
Virtual Media	219	(28)
Defying Media Control	219	(2)
Digital Depictions of Youth Culture	221	(2)
Messages in Bottles	223	(3)
Salaam Cinema	226	(4)
Elvis, Schubert and Celine Dion	230	(1)
Forbidden Icons in the Blogosphere	231	(3)
Revolutionary Pop	234	(2)
The Songbird of Dawn	236	(3)
Putting On a Show	239	(8)
Spreading the News	247	(48)
Covering a Natural Disaster	249	(5)
A Test of `Divine Grace'	254	(4)
Organizing Action	258	(3)
International Rescue	261	(4)
Enemy Soldiers	265	(1)
Discarded Militancy	265	(11)
Revealing the Unspoken News	276	(4)
A Covert Mass Celebration	280	(3)
Surrogate Media	283	(7)
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the `Cultural Invasion'	290	(5)
A Quarter of a Century Later	295	(68)
The Chicken Farmer President	295	(4)
Free and Fair Elections	299	(11)
The ever more exclusive elite	310	(6)
Concealed Force	316	(6)
Challenging the Revolution's Legitimacy	322	(3)
The Diehards	325	(9)
Access Denied	334	(12)
A Tough Neighbourhood	346	(8)
The Human Rights Trade	354	(3)
Iran's Vicious Circle	357	(6)
Notes	363