Iranians supporting Obama?

A few months till US presidential elections, many Iranians think democrats will be the best choice for the US foreign policy toward Iran.



I know many Iranians and Iranian-Americans who support Barack Obama, not only because he is democrat or came from a minority but also he looks intellectual.

Comparing Obama to McCain or G.W.Bush shows how deep is the difference.

In my opinion many Iranians prefer democrats, they may remember what happened when Shah supported Republicans and Carter won, he insisted for freedom of speech in Iran which called in Iran” Open Political Era”, but regime was so corrupted so any open era couldn’t save it, we have the same situation with Islamic Republic that many believe no reform can not carry on.

When Obama, talked about Iranian Bloggers, many of 1.5 million bloggers repeat his words and welcomed mentioning by a democrat.

I had wrote about a draft for death sentence for Iranian bloggers last week and recently three political prisoner in Iran sentenced to death and at the same time Ahamdinejad interviewed with NBC talked about luckyness and happiness of people, people who in the heat of hot summer have no electricity and water for more than 5 hours, people who more than 45% of them are under of the poverty line, people who even can not choose what to wear,…

Many Iranians believe, we need more support by the world, voices like Obama in his historical speech in Berlin, will influenced more than some politicians like G.W Bush who seems to be more like cowboy than a president.

Cowboys can always do business and sometimes do stupid adventures, I really hope we have rational and close relationship between two nation after Obama.

Death Penalty for Iranian Bloggers

A few weeks ago, the Islamic Parliament in Iran approved a draft law which shocked the country and is at the center of current debate.

The draft law is asking for expanded sentencing for those who publish atheistic articles and pornographic materials and facing them to death.

In that draft, journalists, bloggers and intellectuals publishing such articles are considered same like crimes such as rape, sex slave exporters, banditry, prostitution, depravity, and kidnapping.

According to this draft, which was approved for faster review by the majority of Majlis [Iranian members of Parliament], the death sentence could be used against bloggers, journalists, artists, and intellectuals who can be easily falsely accused and convicted by intelligence services or the judiciary branch for publishing "articles against Islam."

Beside China, Iran is the most dangerous country for the bloggers and maintains one of the tightest controls over the Internet. Yet, more than 1.5 million bloggers write daily about their life, publishing about local news or criticizing government and mandatory Islamic rules. Based on Alexa, Iranian internet users are eager to read blogs as a source of news, semi-news, gossips, or entertainment.

Blog providers inside Iran are very sensitive to the content of blogs they host. If they find an anti-Islamic or pornography focused blog, they immediately delete it. If they ignore the blog, the filtering center in the Communication Ministry will delete it. My Persian language blog, like many blogs and websites criticizing the regime, is banned and filtered inside Iran by either the service providers or the government.

This new draft law, which brought waves of criticism against new conservative Majlis, including from major EU and human rights organizations, brings the prospect of harsh suppression of intellectuals and bloggers. The death penalty is an option.

To underscore the point, there are many political prisoners in the notorious jails inside Iran who are there because they have been accused of atheism or have been targeted by fatwas issued by top mullahs including the Supreme Leader Khamenehei. Under Islamic law in Iran, the sentences these people face include beheading, crucifing, whiping, executing and the cutting hands and feet.

Bloggers inside Iran believe the draft law is created to threaten youth and intellectuals, as well as suppressing freedom of speech and expression.

Published in: The Seminal

English Plz!

NYT reported that I.R.Iran has distributed a letter in 5+1+1 meeting in Geneva last week full of dictation and grammer mistakes, it seems nobody in Tehran do not take this meeting seriously!

There was nobody in the Foreign Ministry or Security Council of regime who can write an understandable letter?

Or they wanted to bewail western diplomates?

Of course in that cabinet there are a lot of Mullahs and fanatic ideologues who usually talk and write in Persian that most of people can not understand, we can  only understand Ahmadinejad`s speech and really laugh...

The brilliant tactic used to write that two-pages informal letter is the same as I.R. Iran`s leaders always doing, talk about something which is not demanded by audience!

BTW, noboday in Geneva didn't know how to rise Islamic Republic`s flag?

Or that was like IR`s letter a sign?

So it seems nuclear talks is going to be interpreted by linguistic and Semiotics instead of diplomatic language!

interesting... I like that move...!

I am Gaza Citizen too

A few months ago, when Gaza was in the siege and Israel cut fuel supply for Gaza’s power station, I wrote a personal note in Radio Zamaneh website in pseudonym.

I wrote about my friends in Gaza and Israel and tragedy over there the Title was: ”… and Gaza sinks in darkness”.

That was the night which about 1.5 millions of people spend in darkness. I wrote about Dr. Mona El-Farra and some of my online friends and all miserable people who suffered from hunger and sanction.

The article has got one of the most articles hits in the website and also the link in Balatarin, Persian version of Digg, was the top link of the week.

Although, there were some users asking me, why do you supporting Palestinians? They argued Islamic Republic spending a lot of money for them while there are peoples in Iran who need Electricity, roads and health services also.

I didn’t answer them, but I don’t understand why some young users believe Iran’s government send money to Palestinians, we may guess they support Hezbollah or all fundamentalists groups in the region including Hamas, but what to do with Palestinians people?

They don’t spend money to somewhere there is no benefits, so they just use them for propaganda.

In my article, there was some links to my Israelis and Palestinians bloger friends, I also send a message to Mona and ask her if she like to do an interview , but it was reasonable got no answer during the blackout.

I really respect her and got some comments from Rami Almeghari a journalist in Gaza for the news (at that time I was news editor of Radio Zamaneh).

But a few days later checked her blog for news about ending blackout, I found a comment from a small group in Islamic Republic called themselves private news agency which actually running by government institutions.

Someone form the link of my article found her blog and wrote there we are supporting you and representing your suffers in our “Alternative” news agency!

Then they cut and past some lines of my article and my news from Radio Zamaneh to their website to show how an “Alternative” news agency works!

Usually we are calling Alternative media to whom are different from main stream or hegemonic, government’s media, But they also copy & past my comment there in their name again, and called themselves “Alternative” media.

The way they use Palestine conflict and Palestinians are like the way they use such terms like “Alternative Media”.

On the other hand, I,like many Iranians who have empathy with Israelis, have a lot of Israelis journalists and blogers friends, every time hearing about an attack against innocent children and people of Israel; I think what kind of ideology can make a tribe, a group or a band so violent and without mercy, how do they think with killing innocent people could dive directly to heaven?

I am happy the conflict with two side is seems calmed down now.

Although the situation in Gaza is not improved yet, But I am sure many people in that region know what is Islamic Republic’s propaganda for.