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FREE SPEECH IN WEBLOGISTAN? THE OFFLINE CONSEQUENCES OF ONLINE COMMUNICATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

Elizabeth M. Bucar  and
Roja Fazaeli
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Extract

The irruption of Persian-language blogging since 2001, known to its participants as Weblogistan, has been accompanied by enthusiastic claims that weblogs are promoting previously nonexistent forms of expression, thereby rupturing traditional Iranian social, cultural, religious, and political norms. The political scientist Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone juxtaposes Weblogistan against the conditions of theocratic rule as “a public social space that allows free expression of self outside the confines of the politically manipulated physical space.” In a 2005 book, which includes translated weblog postings, Nasrin Alavi takes this line of interpretation even further, asserting that by making “it possible for young Iranians to express themselves freely and anonymously,” Weblogistan “is nothing less than a revolution within the Revolution.”

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Articles
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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 403 - 419
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

NOTES

1 See, for example, Hossein Derakhshan, “Weblogistan: How Weblogs are Affecting Iran,” posted 9 April 2005, http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/013982.shtml (accessed 29 February 2008); Khodadad Rezakhani, “Editorials without Editors: How Weblogs Are Changing the Iranian Youth Community in the Web,” posted February 2003, www.iranologie.com/ewe.htm (accessed 29 February 2008); Alfred Hermida, “Web Gives a Voice to Iranian Women,” BBC Online News, 17 June 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2044802.stm (accessed 29 February 2008); Mehdi Jami, “Iranian Blogs Take on the Election,” BBC News, 17 June 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4099380.stm (accessed 29 February 2008); Nouraie-Simone, Fereshteh, “Wings of Freedom: Iranian Women, Identity, and Cyberspace,” in On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era, ed. Nouraie-Simone, F. (New York: Feminist Press, 2005), 61–79Google Scholar; Amir Ebrahimi, “Performance in Everyday Life and the Rediscovery of the ‘Self’ in Iranian Weblogs,” Bad Jens (September 2004), www.badjens.com/rediscovery.html (accessed 10 March 2006); and Alavi, Nasrin, We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Soft Skull Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

2 Nouraie-Simone “Wings of Freedom,” 62. Weblogistan is characterized by sociologist Masserat Amir Ebrahimi as a semiprivate “alter” space, where honest performance of a “true self” can take place. Amir Ebrahimi, “Performance,” 1.

3 Alavi, We Are Iran, 7.

4 Ibid., 361.

5 The regulation of bloggers is not limited to Iran. In February 2007 an Egyptian weblogger was put on trial for writing blogs that criticized Islam and Egyptian authorities. See Amnesty International press release, “Egypt: Trial of blogger expands realm of repression,” 1 February 2007, www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGMDE120042007 (accessed 14 March 2008).

6 Unless otherwise noted, all English translations of Persian blogs are the authors'. We interviewed Omid Memarian and Arash Sigarchi in 2006 and relied on an extensive interview conducted by Mark Glaser with Sina Motallebi in 2004 titled “Iranian Journalist Credits Blogs for Playing Key Role in His Release From Prison,” Online Journalism Review, 9 January 2004, www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1073610866.php (accessed 6 March 2008). When the authors contacted Motallebi about interviewing him about his arrest, he requested that we use this published interview.

7 McLuhan, Marshall, “The Medium is the Message,” in Essential McLuhan, ed. McLuhan, Eric and Zingrone, Frank (New York: Basic Books, 1996), 151–61Google Scholar.

8 For a more detailed account of the medium of blogging, see Burnstein, Dan, “Introduction: From Cave Painting to Wonketter: A Short History of Blogging,” in Blog!, ed. Kline, David and Burnstein, Dan (New York: CDS Books, 2005), xi–xxviGoogle Scholar.

9 The first Persian blog was posted 7 September 2001 by Salman Jariri. www.globalpersian.com/salman/weblog.html (accessed 6 March 2008).

10 www.blogherald.com/2005/10/10/the-blog-herald-blog-count-october-2005/ (accessed 6 March 2008).

11 www.khamenei.ir/ (accessed 6 March 2008).

12 www.president.ir/fa (accessed 6 March 2008).

13 For example, the past two Iranian presidents maintain blogs: Sayid Muhammad Khatami, president of Iran, 1997–2005, http://khatami.ir/ (accessed 6 March 2008); Hashimi Rafsanjani, president of Iran, 1989–97, www.hasemirafsanjani.ir (accessed 6 March 2008). A number of prominent religious leaders also publish blogs: Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi, www.mesbahyazdi.org/english/ (accessed 6 March 2008); Ayatollah Saaniʾi, http://saanei.org/index.php?lang=en (accessed 6 March 2008); Ayatollah Hussayn ʿAli Muntaziri, www.montazeri.com/ (accessed 6 March 2008); Ayatollah Fazil Lankarani, www.lankarani.org/eng/ (accessed 6 March 2008), and Ayatollah Sayid Muhammad Sadiq Ruhani, www.emamrohani.net/ (accessed 6 March 2008).

14 Iranian Press Law, ratified 19 March 1986. Article 2 (a) and Article 1. English translation by parstimes, www.parstimes.com/law/Iran_law.html#Press (accessed 6 March 2008).

15 “To endeavor to negate the drawing up of false and divisive lines, or, pitting different groups of the community against each other by the practices such.” Ibid., Article 2 (c).

16 “To campaign against manifestations of imperialistic culture (such as extravagance, dissipation, debauchery, love of luxury, spread of morally corrupt practices, etc.) and to propagate and promote genuine Islamic culture and sound ethical principles.” Ibid., Article 2 (d).

17 Ibid., Article 4.

18 Ibid., Article 6.

19 Ibid., Article 6 (iii).

20 Ibid., Article 6 (i).

21 Ibid., Article 6 (v).

22 Ibid., Article 6 (vii).

23 Ibid., Article 6 (viii).

24 Ibid., Article 26, 31. Islamic Penal Code of Iran, Book 5, Chapter 2, “Insulting the Religious Sanctities or State Officials” (Article 513, 514); Chapter 15, “Personal Insults” (Article 608, 609); Chapter 18, “Offenses against Public Morality” (Article 640); Chapter 27, “Libels and Revilements” (Article 697, 698, 700).

25 Press Law, Article 27, 30. It is interesting that the same law has provisions for the rights of the press to critique and dissent: “The press have the right to publish the opinions, constructive criticisms, suggestions, and explanations of individuals and government officials for public information while duly observing the Islamic teachings and the best interest of the community. Constructive criticism should be based on logic and reason and void of insult, humiliation and detrimental effects.”

Ibid., Article 3. This is a tenuous mandate to act as a public critic. However, the extreme level of qualification makes it difficult to realize in practice.

26 “Iran Annual Report 2004,” Reporters Without Borders, www.rsf.org/print.php3?id_article=9940 (accessed 9 September 2006).

27 For example, in an interview with CNN Hossein Derakhshan stated, “In the absence of free papers, [weblogs] are performing an important role for spreading internal news that is very risky to publish in Iran.” As quoted by Erin McLaughlin, “Iran keeps an eye on the bloggers,” 18 July 2003, http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/16/iran.blogs (accessed 6 March 2008). Alireza Doostadar has pointed out that these articles have been “overly and naively enthusiastic in extolling the social changes that are (or are wished to be) coming about as a consequence of the adoption of a new communication medium by a small percentage of Iranians.” Doostdar, Alireza, “‘The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging’: On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogistan,” American Anthropologist 106 (2004): 653CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 As quoted in Berkeley, Bill, “Bloggers vs. Mullahs: How the Internet Roils Iran,” World Policy Journal (Spring 2006): 72Google Scholar. See also Granick, Jackie, “Nixing the News: Iranian Internet Censorship,” Defining Power 27, no. 2 (2005): 11–12Google Scholar.

29 Ibid. See also Stop Censoring Us postings from 28 October 2004 and 22 November 2004, http://stop.censoring.us (accessed 6 March 2008).

30 Ayatollah Makarim Shirazi was appointed to the first council of representatives and played an important role in writing the current Iranian constitution in 1979. See www.makaremshirazi.org (accessed 6 March 2008).

31 Fathi, Nazila, “Iran Jails More Journalists and Blocks Web Sites,” New York Times, 8 December 2004, 10Google Scholar.

32 Hussayn Shariat Madari, “Khaniy-i Ankabut” (the spider's web), Kayhan, 29 September 2004, www.kayhannews.ir/830708/2.htm (accessed 5 September 2006).

33 Ibid.

34 Arash Sigarchi, interview with the authors in Persian by phone and e-mail, August 2006.

35 Sina Motallebi was specifically named as a member of the spider's web who was a link to Europe. Omid Memarian, Hanif Mazrui, Babak Ghafuri, Shahram Rafizadah, Rozbah MirIbrahimi, and Shadi Sadr were among others mentioned (their names were abbreviated) as spider's web members working in Iran.

36 Omid Memarian, interview with authors via phone, Berkeley, Calif., 29 September 2006.

37 Glaser, “Iranian Journalist,” 2.

38 Ibid.

39 www.petitiononline.com/sina/ (accessed 6 March 2008).

40 Interview with Clark Boyd, quoted in “The Price Paid for Blogging Iran,” BBC News, 21 February 2005.

41 Memarian, interview.

42 Glaser, “Iranian Journalist,” 3.

43 For example, Motallebi said during his interview with Glaser, “Weblogs are a good experience where everyone can explain their ideas. And the government is very afraid of them.” Ibid.

44 Sayid Murtazavi also headed Court 1410, known as the Press Court. He is now the Tehran chief prosecutor. For more information on Murtazavi, see Reporters Sans Frontieres, “Iran 2003 Annual Report,” www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6688 (accessed 6 March 2008). See also Human Rights Watch, “False Freedom, Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa” 17, no. 10 (2005): 45–46.

45 Glaser, “Iranian Journalist,” 3.

46 Ibid., 4.

47 Memarian, interview.

48 Omid Memarian has posted on three blogs: Omid Memarian, www.memarian.info (accessed 6 March 2008), Persian and English, established January 2003; Iranian Prospect, http://omid.memarian.blogspot.com, English, established August 2003; and Konj-Daily Comment, http://omemarian.blogspot.com, Persian, established January 2003. For this article we drew primarily from postings on Omid Memarian, because this is the webblog he was best known for in Iran prior to his arrest in 2004 and it is the weblog that is currently “active.” However, postings on this blog from 21 July 2003 to 22 July 2004 and 22 September to 20 December 2004 are no longer included in the online archives. For these dates we rely on Memarian's postings on Iranian Prospect.

49 Memarian, Iranian Prospect.

50 Memarian, interview.

51 Memarian, “Two Months Away,” Iranian Prospect, 20 December 2004. Another blogger we interviewed claimed Memarian was among the bloggers who were forced to confess to a sexual affair with a fellow female blogger, Firistah Qazi, although Memarian would not confirm this during our interview. Adultery, or zināʾ, is a crime according to Iranian law. Zināʾ is defined by Article 63 of the Iranian Penal Code as the act of intercourse “between a man and a woman who are forbidden to each other.” The punishment for zināʾ ranges from 100 lashes to death by stoning, depending on whether the crime is committed by an unmarried or married woman. The latter case is called zināʾ muḥṣina and carries the death sentence. The charge of zināʾ is complicated by the number of articles in the penal code that deal with this crime. Articles 63–68, 73–76, 78, 81–86, 88, 90–93, 100, and 102 all deal with the definition of zināʾ and its punishments. Proving adultery is very difficult. According to Article 68, both parties must confess four times to receive the maximum punishment; otherwise punishment is left to the discretion of the judge. According to Articles 74 and 75, if the parties do not confess, the crime can be proven by eyewitness testimony (by two or four men, depending on the crime). Usually such witnesses have to have been present for the act of penetration.

52 On 5 September 2004 Memarian posted the following on his blog in English: “[Yesterday] one of my friends in Hayatinu Newspaper called me and was surprised that I answered him. ‘I [thought] you [were] arrested,’ he said. I was surprised too. I asked him that why he thinks I have to be in the prison. He explain that two friends of us are has been arrested on Tuesday. One of them Babak write artistic articles and comments. He mentioned that there is list of writers that they believe they will arrest in the coming days. I don't know really what to say. Because, I haven't been active in the political sphere during the last year. During the last two years the number of my political articles and comments are less than 10. I think that there is no reason for arresting young journalists and writers like me of my friends in newspapers because we are the kids of revolution. What happened for the revolution that after 25 years is trying to eat its children?” Omid Memarian, “New Round of Arrests,” Omid Memarian, 9 September 2004. See also the following, posted later in Persian: “The arrest of three young journalists (Babak Ghafuri, Sharif Zade, and Hanif Mazroee) has uniquely shocked other youth working in the media . . . I know Babak from Hayatah-Nu newspaper. He was humble and hardworking. He wrote on national and international cinema. I don't understand how Babak can be a threat to this country. . . . I am really worried. If Babak can be a danger to this country, then so can about fifty million other young people . . . By arresting young journalists such as Babak they are trying to create an atmosphere of fear amongst journalists.” Omid Memarian, “In Bachiha Chih Khabari Baray-i Mamlikat Darand?” (How Are These Kids Any Threat to This Country?), Omid Memarian, 10 September 2004.

53 In Iran it is difficult for journalists to write about what happened to Sina. Conservatives are now suspicious of web writers. Arresting the families of journalists instead of the journalists is a new and shameful way to stop them and restrict freedom of speech in Iran. Omid Memarian, “Dastgiriy-i Pidarah Sina Motallebi va Bargah Zarini Digar” (The Arrest of Sina Motallebi's Father and Yet Another Golden Leaf), Omid Memarian, 16 September 2004.

54 Omid Memarian, “Execution, Everyone Believe It!” Omid Memarian (31 August 2004).

55 Omid Memarian, “Bastih Shudan-i Sitay-i Siyasi” (The Blockage of Political Internet Sites), Omid Memarian, 26 September 2004.

56 Memarian, “Execution, Everyone Believe It!”

57 Omid Memarian, “Iranian Youths Chat About Love and Sex,” Omid Memarian, 7 August 2004. See also Omid Memarian, “Yik Naguftaniy-i Hajim” (A Vast Unmentionable), Shargh, 4 July 2004, www.memarian.info/articles.asp?id=1463303512 (accessed 6 March 2008).

58 Omid Memarian, “Libas-i Zanan: Masalih In Ast!” (Women's Clothing: This is the Issue!), Omid Memarian, 4 September 2004. Idem, “Izhar-i Nazar ‘Jumhuriy-i Islami’ Dar Muridah Libas-i Zir Banovanih Irani” (The Commentary of the “Islamic Republic” on Iranian Ladies' Underwear), Omid Memarian, 5 September 2004; idem, “Jashn-i Khanih-i Cinema, Hanuz Sujiyi Dagh Ast . . .” (The Festival of House of Cinema, Still a Hot Topic . . .), Omid Memarian, 14 September 2004.

59 Omid Memarian, “Alcohol Drink in the Islamic Country,” Iranian Prospect (17 May 2004).

60 Link on Memarian's blog on 24 July 2004 to Association of Iranian Journalists, “The State of Journalism in Iran,” http://omidmemarian.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html (accessed 6 March 2008).

61 Omid Memarian, “Nuclear Program: Nobody Knew about It,” Iranian Prospect, 15 September 2004.

62 Omid Memarian, untitled post, Iranian Prospect, 28 May 2004.

63 Omid Memarian, “Aghay-i Rais Jumhur! Aya Shabha Khaab-i Rahat-i Darid” (Mr. President! Do You Sleep Well at Night?), Omid Memarian, 11 May 2004.

64 Ibid.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid.

67 Omid Memarian, untitled post, Iranian Prospect, 23 June 2004.

68 Omid Memarian, “Two Months Away,” Iranian Prospect, 9 December 2004. During the fall of 2004 there was a wave of arrests of civil-society activists, including traditional journalists. Among the webloggers were Arash Sigarchi, Mujtaba Saminijad, Farnaz Ghazizadah, Babak Ghafuri Azar, Shahram Rafi Zadah, and Firishtah Ghazi. Mahbubah Abasquilzadah, an NGO activist, was also arrested. See Amnesty International, “Iran: Civil Society Activists and Human Rights Defenders Under Attack,” Amnesty International press release, 10 November 2004.

69 Memarian, interview.

70 “I spent two days in solitary confinement. . . . Having no connection to the outside world can be a kind of torture, especially for people like me, whose job it is to be thinking and interacting with others, to have to go into a room that is one by two meters was so destructive. The whole thing was very humiliating. So when they ask you to do something, like sign a confession, you accept. I was afraid I was approaching ‘my irreversible point’—the point after which I [could not] return to my life as myself.” Ibid.

71 Arsash Sigarchi, interview by authors via phone and e-mail from Rasht, Iran, 18 August 2006.

72 During the interview, Sigarchi asserted that his critiques were not whether the dissidents were right or wrong but rather stemmed from his strong belief in freedom of thought and expression. Sigarchi stated, “No one should be killed because of their beliefs,” and therefore the republic should be held accountable for its actions. Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ali Afshari spent two years in prison after the infamous conference in Berlin, where participants gathered to discuss reform in Iran. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., as a recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for Democracy.

75 Sigarchi, interview.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 The largest student-led demonstrations since the 1979 revolution took place in July 1999, on 18 Tir, according to the Iranian calendar. Students protested for political reform and increased freedom of the press; a number were injured, and some were killed during the protests. Demonstrations to commemorate the 1999 protests have been held annually on 18 Tir. For more information see “Iran Student Protests: Five Years On,” BBC News, 9 July 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3879535.stm (accessed 6 March 2008), and “The Protests Which Shook Iran: Special Report,” BBC News, 12 September 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/394155.stm (accessed 6 March 2008).

79 Sigarchi, interview.

80 Ibid.

81 Our use here of the adverb “emerging” instead of the adjective “new” is not merely semantic. It is meant to convey that Weblogistan is emerging from other forms. Fischer, Michael M. J., “Emergent Forms of Life: Anthropologies of Late or Postmodernities,” Annual Review of Anthropology 28 (1999): 455–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Fischer, Michael M. J., Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003)Google Scholar. Two excellent articles that focus on different aspects of Weblogistan have found Fischer's category useful. In her study of the public and private in Iranian diaspora weblogs, Janet Alexanian has drawn on Fischer to characterize cyberspace as an emergent form of life insofar as it “is constantly in process of changing, challenging the stability of concepts of the self, intimacy, identity, and community.” Alexanian, Janet, “Publicly Intimate Online: Iranian Web Logs in Southern California,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 26, no. 1 (2006): 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also invoking Fischer's category, although less explicitly, Alireza Doostdar explores how the structural features and social interactions in Weblogistan make blogging an emergent speech genre. Doostdar, “The Vulgar Spirit,” 651–62. This article differs from these earlier ones in that we explore the emergent genre of blogging specifically through the political context of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

82 Burnstein, “Introduction,” xxvi.

83 Omid Memarian, “Falling Short on Vision,” Iranian Prospect, 17 July 2004.

84 McLuhan, Marshall, McLuhan: Hot & Cold, ed. Stearn, G. (New York: Dial Press, 1967), 157Google Scholar.

85 According to the World Bank, by 2002 84 percent of men and 70 percent of women were literate in Iran; there were 72 computers per 1,000 people in 2003. World Bank, 2005 Little Data Book (Washington D.C.: World Bank, 2005), 111Google Scholar.

86 Omid Memarian, Iranian Prospect, 5 September 2004. The Persian is enqilab bachihayash ra mikhurad.