Fergie's Tech Blog

Writing Lolita in Tehran

Christopher Dickey writes in his Shadowland column in Newsweek that "Iranian bloggers have harnessed the subversive power of the Web to express themselves politically--and also to find dates in a society that curtails public courting."

An excerpt:

A curious query from Iran: “Has everyone noticed the spooky absence of graffiti in our public toilets since the arrival of web logs?”

I confess, this little detail of modern life in Tehran—which tells you so much about young people desperately in need of self-expression—might have slipped right by me if I hadn’t been sent a new book called “We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs.” Written by Nasrin Alavi (a pseudonym), and due for international publication this fall, it’s a survey of the personal diaries that Iranians post online. Five years ago, there were none. Now there are many tens of thousands. And you won’t get a better glimpse of the obsessions and frustrations that exist behind the imposed cliché of the black chador; ideas and passions that thrive despite the rule of what Alavi calls “mutant Islamists.”

posted by Fergie @ 6/01/2005 08:38:00 AM