Iran: A nation of bloggers

[anewlife]

Created by Vancouver Film School students Aaron Chiesa, Toru Kageyama, Hendy Sukarya, and Lisa Temes through the VFS Digital Design program...

[Lush]

That's terrific, I bought a book at City Lights in San Francisco called "We are Iran: The Persian blogs" filled with translated blogs from Iranian students and people.

It's amazing to see what these people have to face on a day to day basis, everyone thought the Shah's regime was bad but it's incomparable to the Islamic Republic government. I have tons of family there and I want to visit really badly because I haven't met any of them (except for my grandma who has visited on a few occasions), but I would have to marry my fiance in order to go there with him and not face any problems.

[matéo]

This was great. It made me think of the movie "Persepolis" so I decided to go rent it. AMAZING!

[decypher]

Persepolis is a great animated film with some historical backdrop and an engaging personal story of struggle.

I really liked this short on blogs though. The animation with the different countries showing the stats for amount of blogs was a great visual. VFS always puts out great stuff.

[Sykonee]

Neat.

Let's just hope they remember that blogging is not enough though...

[Lush]

^ activism there will get you killed, they hold public executions all the time. You really can't speak out against the government without seriously jeopardizing your life.

[Vitamin-X]

Perhaps their Shah was better.
Next time they decide to hold a revolution, they might want to have
something better in mind.

[decypher]

You say "they" like there was some sort of monolithic group of people. If you actually look at the history you'll see there were many different parts of Iranian society that rose up during the revolution. I.E Secular and religious Iranians along with the communists and the various levels of political and military power. Part of what Khomeini did was unite these different groups in a revolution but after only one group consolidated and institutionalized their power under one theocratic vision. This does not represent the opinions of the entire Iranian society at the time nor today.

Part of what is great about these blogs by Iranian youth is seeing that there are a wide variety of opinions. This can possible educate westerners such as Vitamin-X who have a poor understanding and hold a negative view towards Iran.