Editor: Myself

another reformist e-zine

After Emrooz.org, another reformist e-zine is launched. It is related to the major reformist party, The Islamic Iran Participation Front, whose paper, "Nowrooz" was banned from publishing last week by a court in Tehran. "Rooydad", which means News or Event in English, is the second serious e-zine by reformists in the past 2 weeks and it shows a new approach toward electronic media in Iran by reformists. It's estimated that Iran has about half million Internet users now. It's dramatically increasing every month and there is no central control or filter on it yet.

prostitution legalizitoin rejected, but publically discussed

BBC and AFP has two stories on the Islamic prostitution house proposal which is rejected by the officials after public dicussions about it. It's the first time that such a taboo is publicly challenged by wiser parts of the government.

who rules in iran?

GlennFrazier: "So what's going on here [in Iran], anyway? Aren't the "reform" parties the good guys? Well, as in all things of this nature, the situation is more complicated than the general consumer press makes it out to be."

conservatives to legalize prostitution

Finally they found a way to legalize women's prostitution in Iran, using ironic Islamic laws and judiciary's tolerance. If Iran was in a stable and normal economic situation and people could afford their cost by normal jobs, that'd be very reasonable to allow prostitutes to work legally. But at this time, and particularly by these kind of people, I think it's another way to make huge profits and to help building another Mafia around it. (Surprise: I didn't find even a single story on this subject in English!)

visiting new friends

Weblogs have helped all of us find new friends. I am visiting these kind of friends these days in Tehran. I just met some of them yesterday in a one-day trip to North of Iran. They all have weblogs and I had never seen them before. Lots of photos I took.

BRINGING THE MOUNTAIN TO MOHAMMED

Geoff Grivitz, in Shift Magazine Online: "Yet how is it possible for a nation that clutches a highly political interpretation of Islam to let the internet go unguarded, especially when the idea of a balance between religion and democracy terrifies its neighbours?"

shops closed at mid-night

All shops, restaurants and cafes must close at midnight in Tehran these days. This is going to cause a huge problem in long summer nights, where in Iran you never go to a party earlier than 9,10 PM, no matter what night it is, weekday or weekend. Actually there is no difference between the nights of the week in Iran. People always have fun whenever and wherever they can. So if you want something to drink or eat after mid-night, you have to search the whole city, maybe you can find an illegally-open grocery store where you can get a Persian coke with a cake!

OJR article: Guide to Online News in Iran

Mahasti Afshar, OJR: "There are a growing number of news portals in Persian/Farsi."

GlennFrazier.com: Anti-American Protests

GlennFrazier is closely watching Iran's recent political situation, especially after the official demonstration against US.

google launched farsi version

Google has finally launched it's much anticipated Persian interface.

i am in tehran now

This is so hot here in Tehran. I had no trouble entering the country and I'm hoping the same when exiting. Yesterday there was a anti-American demonstration. Although we all know these kind of demonstrations and people who participate in these kind of stuff. Most of them are govenrment staff who are forced to come, or they are gonna have problems. Even some of them are brought down to Tehran from other cities. So nobody should take these things seriousely. Iranians love Americans and their life-style, you just have to come here to see it.

top remormist journalist says bush's statement was pretty good

Alireza Lavai Tabar, one of the top reformists and a close friend to Said Hajjarian, writes in an article in Emrooz (Persian text) e-newspaper that Bush's recent statement had very positive point, but it seems that Khatami and the government hasn't actually realized those points and treated like the "Axis of Evil" statement with it. He thinks the main point of the statement is that States accept that Iranian people has chosen their way to democracy and freedom through reform and not another violent revolution.

bbc analysis: struggle for iran's future

I'd urge everyone who wants to know more about internal political situation in Iran, to read this BBC's Roger Hardy's analysis on the future of Iran. Although the piece is written last year, it still hold up. There are also great stories on the right hand side of the BBC story which could be helpful.

bloggers support iranian people

The open letter which John and other fellow bloggers are preparing to support Iran is great. The only thing is that they haven't considered any difference between reformists/hardliners or elected/unelected parts of the regime. This is not true that all parts of the current regime are helping the tyranny. The fact is that the parliament is actually out of function by a hardliner council which should confirm every single law that parliament passes, while all members of this council are all chosen by the leader. (Take a look at the power structure in Iran) I'm not a politician to figure out a way to get rid of unelected parts of the system, but I think what we can do now, is to attract world support and understanding from all around the world for what Iranian people really want and how they want it; they want a democratic free society in a peaceful way.

shift.com - world's total information on hard drives

Shift: "We're storing almost all of the world's total information on hard drives with one-year limited warranties. What's to become of our cultural and personal history? by david emberton "

blogsphere to support freedom in iran

Random Jottings: "Maybe this is a situation where the Blogsphere could help. Something like a Blog-burst. Or perhaps something like a chain letter, rippling outwards. If we all raise a ruckus it might attract notice. Also, I've hard that there are many Iranian blogs; they've become a sort of Samizdata there. If anybody has links, we might exchange some messages of encouragement and support, or help them be heard."

the truth laid bear: iranwatch: let the purges begin

NZ Bear writes, "The beat goes on: Now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is actually admitting that maybe Ayatollah Taheri had a point about the whole corruption thing That's from the BBC, of course. (Hello, CNN? MSNBC? NYT? WaPO? ANYBODY?)"

supermodels are lonelier than you think!

hey say Supermodels are lonelier than we think!.

post-revolution iranians have nothing against us

Boston Globe Online: "It really is very striking how un-anti-American young Iranians are," said professor Pirouz Pivan, who teaches sociology at Tehran's Allemeh Tabetabei University. "Iran is a country of contrasts, you can't generalize about it. This is just one way in which it defies stereotypes.

iranmania news - iran in deepest political crisis since revolution

IranMania News: "Iran is in its deepest political crisis since revolution."

ledeen calls for a "speedy democratic revolution in iran"

Michael Ledeen writes in National Review: "The best hope for Afghanistan is a speedy democratic revolution in Iran, and we can all hope that between now and the 9th of July our leaders will put the United States solidly behind the just cause of the Iranian people.Faster, please."
Who is Mr. Ledeen to decide about our destiny with a "speedy democratic revolution"? Does he think he is more human than other people, or he thinks America is the king of the world? Iranian people are wise enough to choose their own fate, which is defenitely a democratic and secular government, but not a "revolution" again.

cleric denounces iran 'chaos'

BBC's Jim Muir: "A senior religious figure in Iran has resigned and issued a bitter condemnation of the way the country is being run. He went on with a bitter litany of accusations against a system which he portrayed as deeply corrupt, self-serving, hypocritical and repressive."

iran and us: not that separate

Travelling Shoes on Iran-US relations: "They've got oil; we want oil. They hate Saddam; we hate Saddam. They want a stable Afghanistan; we want a stable Afghanistan. As Shi'ites, they're worried by Saudi-sponsered Wahabi excesses; we're worried by Saudi-sponsered Wahabi excesses."

iran bans dancer from teaching

Iran Bans Dancer From Teaching Ruling that teaching traditional Iranian dance corrupts the nation's youth, a court banned an Iranian-American dancer from leaving Iran for 10 years and from giving dance classes for life. (Yahoo! News)

muchmusic's jennifer hollett heads to afghanistan

MuchMusic's Jennifer Hollett heads to Afghanistan. I saw her in Milestone's restaurant and when I didn't know her at all! When I got home, my friend called me and said "Do you know who that girl was? She is on the MuchMore music all the time! She is a VJ..." Now I know her and I even know that she is a GTABlogger as well.

lasik surgery in iran for $800

Noor Vision Correction Center in Tehran is perhaps the best in the middle east. I had my own LASIK surgery there for a total amount of 600,000 Tomans (about US$800!). So maybe it's worth it to travel to Iran just to do that surgery for Eroupian and North Amercian people. By the way, they keep an English weblog!

arafat annouces khamenei as a major terrorist financer

Arrafat has named Iran's leader, Khamenei, as a major financer for terrorist groups in Palestine, in an interview with an Itialn magazine called "L'Unita". (English translation by Google)

iranian-american dancer Is on trial in tehran for 'corruption'

NYTimes: "Iranian-American Dancer Is on Trial in Tehran for 'Corruption'"

tehran, cheapest city in the world

IRNA: "Tehran remains by far the cheapest city in the world with a cost of living index less than a third of that of London. The Iranian capital is less expensive than 130 other cities surveyed with a rating of 30 compared with a base rate of 100 for New York."

i'm on guardian's weblog directory

"Editor:Myself" has apeared in a directory of weblogs maintained by The Guardian website.

kaveh's article on persian weblogs

Kaveh: "Iran was once called "Land of the Flower and the Lark", but that picture seems to be erased carefully from the memory of the western world, even the more ancient name Persian for the language has been changed to Farsi, to make sure to disconnects us from a celebrated (but not necessarily better) past. Maybe these blogers can bridge this cultural gap, and accomplish something that might mark the beginning of a new era for Iran."

google technology director answers slashdot

Google Director of Technology, Craig Silverstein: "However, the advantages of Linux for us are pretty strong: It's an environment our developers tend to be familiar with, it offers unsurpassed tech support (we usually talk directly to the author of a piece of code when we're having problems with it), and it's cheap -- an important consideration when you have over 10,000 computers."

toronto: hot like hell

Who has told the Toronto guys that here is a cold city? I'm really sweating like I'm playing soccer, while I'm typing these words. Why all these buildings have no air-conditioners?