February 2005 •
Anthropology News
27
K N O W L E D G E E X C H A N G E
O
RKIDEH
B
EHROUZAN
Today in Iran many experience a dual life, and
speak what I call a “dual language.” There is an
expansion of ambiguous talk routinely affecting
all aspects of a person’s daily life. Lying,
hypocrisy, fear of punishment and being judged,
and an urge to please superiors are all common.
In opposition to dual life in Iran, many young
Iranians are increasingly turning to Persian blogs
as gateways for speaking out. According to unof-
ficial statistics, there are more than 100,000
active Persian weblogs updated regularly, and fig-
ures suggest the larger portion belongs to ones
maintained outside Iran. Themes vary tremen-
dously from a regular documentation of how one
feels about basic daily incidents, to sports, news,
arts, business, religion, science and in its most
complicated and probably risky shape, politics.
Ironically, it is again modern technology that is
challenging conventional traditions tightly
watched for decades, if not centuries. One can
hardly avoid being reminded of the long history
of modernization obstacles in a society whose
infrastructure is traditional and has been severely
affected by monarchy in its different forms—the
ultimate nutrient of dual language.
Why Blog in Iran?
Creating and maintaining blogs has become a
new movement for a generation curiously con-
nected to the world outside Iran via the Internet.
Through blogging an individual is able to feel
and express oneself without being judged. As
opposed to the West where blogging is one of sev-
eral ways to express personal opinions, knowing
that one can blog anonymously about any
desired or culturally taboo subject is critical in a
heavily censored Persian society. The opportuni-
ty to bypass censorship seems to be the main
attractive characteristic of online journalism, eas-
ily applicable to blogging. Already Persian blogs
are discussing taboo subjects ranging from
Hejaab, or concealing women’s hair, to homosex-
uality (see www.zananeha.com), the death penal-
ty and the illegal prosecution of journalists.
Another attraction of maintaining a blog is the
possibility of rapidly and spontaneously receiving
feedback from diverse readers, after simply and
immediately publishing your views to a world-
wide audience. Although slow Internet connec-
tions and the time needed to filter specific web-
sites hinder many Iranian’s regular access to the
Internet, bloggers in Iran are updating their blogs
regularly, whether you are the young girl who
updates Zeitoon, or a scholar, who discusses phi-
losophy and sociology daily at Parde-o-Rang.
Politics and News
Young Persians are keenly discovering and apply-
ing ways of communicating directly through blogs.
Long Live Iran, a blog dedicated to patriotic
Iranians, and Hot News Moment by Moment, for
example, break away from the routinely vague and
biased narrative forms and terms used in the con-
ventional, government-sponsored Iranian media.
Instead these blogs simply narrate events using an
everyday vernacular.
Bloggers, often formerly active journalists, have
happily accepted the responsibility to cover the
Persian news in a very colloquial way. One former
Iranian journalist now maintains Rooznegar from
outside Iran, where he only recently was released
from prison. Although the media in Iran has its
own criteria for broadcasting selective news and
information, it is impossible to universally apply
these criteria to the Internet, even if many blogs are
blocked daily by the national servers in Iran. With
ongoing pressure from international human rights
organizations, freedom of speech is becoming
expected of Iranian blogs.
It is hard to miss the subtle signs of protest in the
blogs of young Iranians. It is clearly marked in the
titles—Hichestan (No Man’s Land), Bineshani (Of
Nowhere)—and invoked through impressively
elaborate phrases and words like Khaake Gharib
(Lonely Land), Carpe Diem, Koochi (The Migrant
Bird), Afkare khosoosi (Private Thoughts),
Prosecution and Man yek zanam (I am a woman).
Many others use phrases from Persian poetry.
These protests are not only against representa-
tives of an oppressed culture, but also a confused
society, and even family structures harbouring
fundamental conflicts. Persian youth, despite the
traditional approaches imposed by the ruling sys-
tem, as well as by a wide range of families, are
asking for more and more modern points of view
to analyse their lives.
Persian bloggers also create an online network,
where participating bloggers share their lives,
thoughts and feelings with each other, frequent-
ly developing friendships. Bloggers tend to sup-
port each other when needed, regardless of the
location and the theme, whether it is personal or
Persian Blogs against “The
Dual Language”
political. They sign petitions for arrest-
ed bloggers and journalists; they call
for help and try to seek the attention of
international NGOs. It is through these
networks and practices that blogging could bring
hope for reuniting the scattered Persian popula-
tion.
Women’s voices are also being heard through
weblogs in a unique way. Political issues, women’s
rights, social restrictions, legal flaws, family issues,
relationship struggles and personal feelings are
put into words enthusiastically by female bloggers
who have hardly had a chance to speak out in
such a way. Just look at the Iranian Feminist
Tribune and Zananeha, both excellent examples
of blogs contributing to women’s rights.
The Vulgarity Debate
Blogs have also become main venues of debates,
such as the “vulgarity (Ebtezaal) debate,” which
focuses on whether some Persian blogs are vulgar.
In his paper in the December
American
Anthropologist
, Alireza Doostdar clarifies that the
issue of vulgarity refers to, first, not complying
with the rules of grammar and orthography, espe-
cially when writing in a colloquial style, and sec-
ond, to making deliberate mistakes and engaging
questionable linguistic and cultural behaviours.
He conceptualizes the vulgarity debate as a clash
between two classes of people with unequal access
to cultural capital, and mentions that what has
been identified as vulgar is an interpretation made
by the dominant class in writing and literature.
He brings up the intellectual hegemony issue fac-
ing cyberspace, which is a much less-restricted
environment for publication, easily accessible for
non-intellectuals as well as for intellectuals.
Regardless of how we understand the vulgarity
debate, and whether or not vulgarity applies to
all non-literary forms of writing and all taboo
subjects discussed, this so-called “vulgar sprit” in
Persian weblogs is a means of confronting dual
language, by which some bloggers intend to use
somewhat unconventional modes of writing to
express what they understand as their “pure” and
“real self.” This, however, could be contrasted
with literary, linguistic and aesthetic standards
that are indeed indispensable to a professional
and thoughtfully vetted and researched point of
view. But blogging can be far beyond profession-
alism, and is more of a public tribune that can
appear in almost every possible form. Although
criticized by literary critics and professional writ-
ers in Iran, the Persian blogsphere is attending a
somehow primitive yet valuable workshop on
democracy, which targets respecting and accept-
ing different language genres.
Whether certain trends in blogging can make a
difference in the future of Persian society is a
tempting question. Although we can’t determine
where this path of uncensored self-expression is
leading to at present, there are clues that they will
lead to a promising destination.
â–
AN
Orkideh Behrouzan
is a medical doctor doing a PhD at
Oxford University in the UK. She has also studied Persian
literature. See her blog at koochi.persianblog.com and
oxpersia.blogspot.com
Persian Blogspots
Zeitoon
: Updated daily by a young girl living in Iran.
www.z8un.com
Parde-o-Rang
: Maintained by a scholar who discusses
philosophy and sociology.
parde-o-rang.blogspot.com
Long Live Iran
: Dedicated to patriotic Iranians.
http://parazit1.persianblog.com
Hot News Moment by Moment
: A news source narrat-
ing events using an everyday vernacular.
http://chekhabar.persianblog.com
Iranian Feminist Tribune
: Blog for women’s rights.
www.iftribune.com
Zananeha
: Women’s rights and taboo subjects, such as
Hejaab, the death penalty and homosexuality.
www.zananeha.com