Nasrin Alavi
In September 2001, a young Iranian journalist, Hossein Derakhshan, created one of the first weblogs in Farsi. When he also devised a simple how-to-blog guide for Iranians, it unleashed a torrent of hitherto unheard opinions. There are now 64,000 blogs in Farsi, and Nasrin Alavi has painstakingly reviewed them all, weaving the most powerful and provocative into a striking picture of the flowering of dissent in Iran. From one bloggerâ€™s blasting of the Supreme Leader as a â€œpimpâ€ to anotherâ€™s mourning for an identity crushed by the stifling protection of her male relatives, this collection functions not only as an archive of Iraniansâ€™ thoughts on their country, culture, religion, and the rest of the world, but also as an alternative recent history of Iran. Government crackdowns may soon still these voices â€” in February 2005, one blogger was sentenced to 14 years in jail â€” and ,We Are Iran, may serve as the only serious record of their existence.
Cultural,Iran,Nonfiction,Cultural,Asia,Female Authors,Politics
We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs