During the 2005 presidential elections, I made loads of short videos with my little Canon photography camera, mostly from the reformists campaign where I spent most of my time.
Then when I got back, I was invited to have a little presentation in the Middle East department at the Columbia University about what I saw in the elections. I decided to put them together in a few chapters and make a longer version documentary.
I wanted to put it in this blog before the recent parliament elections, but I didn't manage to. Here it is now:
Just for your information, President of National Endowment for Democracy, Carl Gershman, was on VOA's Persian TV last week and he 'discussed NED's mission and the prospects for democracy in Iran.'
Here is the full-length video:
The newest star of the Neo-conservatives, after the faded away 'talented' Mr. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, is Nazanin Afshin-jam, a former Miss Canada who can hardly speak Persian and I'm sure can not read or write in Persian. (I interiewed her for BBC Persian a few years ago, when she had just won Miss Canada in 2003 and knew nothing about Iranian politics.)
Her new career, as a pathetic pop-singer, is symbolised with a new album, called Someday, which is also the name of hit single of the album.
Showing pictures of Ghandi, Ahmad Batebi, student protest in Tehran, Serbian and Ukranian 'revolutions', Nazanin repeats the same rhetoric of her real boss, Reza Pahlavi, on the necessity for unity to so 'someday, the dankness fades away.'
P.S: Here is the lyrics of 'someday':
SOMEDAY- (THE REVOLUTION SONG)
By Nazanin & Peter Karroll
VERSE I
They were on the march then
In 1978
They filled our minds with hate
They deceived the nation
In the name of religion
And soon it was too late
When the soldiers came
We were on the run
Our lives forever changed
That was no solution
Regressive Revolution
Together we must stand
CHORUS
Someday
We will find a way
Someday
Someday
Someday
Someday
The darkness fades away
Someday
Someday
VERSE II
I'm calling all the children
Now that were all grown up
Is it time to make a change?
Take this old oppression
With a new aggression
Redeem our rightful place
REPEAT CHORUS
BRIDGE (SPOKEN)
I have a new solution
Its called Progressive Revolution
And someday is right now
CHORUS
Someday
We will find a way
Someday
Someday
Someday
Someday
The darkness fades away
Someday
Someday
CHORUS
Someday
We will find a way
Someday
Someday
Someday
Someday
The darkness fades away
Someday
Someday
Thanks to vpot.tv a recorded video version of my presentation in Paris last December in Le Web 3 conference is now online. In it I've tried to provide a broader and more fair definition of Internet censorship in the world, focusing on Iran.
Other presentations are available at the same website. Just search for leweb3 and you'll find them. I can't link to them, since everything is in bloody Flash!
You can listen to the full interview in my latest podcast.
My parents were both very worried that I couldn't get out of Mehrabad airport. But fortunately, due my father's connections, we managed to find someone at the airport who helped me get out faster.
However, something strange happened when they were checking my passport. They asked me if I had a British passport as well as my Iranian one, and I answered no. Then we got out quickly and nobody cared.
Later in the week, when I was leaving Tehran, I realized what the problem was.
Despite the state pressure, newspapers are still relatively free as long as they don't touch taboos such as Khamenei and judiciary.
But it doesn't mean they are poplar as they once were during the first years of Khatami. Their circulation even reach to almost 6 million everyday in total. But now many of them have less than 150,000 circulation which is absolutely disastrous, given the population of literate in Iran (over 40 million).
However, there are many economic newspapers emerging these days in Iran; a sign that economy is doing not too bad for whatever reason -- most likely for the sudden hike in oil revenue.
On June 10th, 2005, I left London for Tehran, fearing what was expecting me at the airport, as a blogger whose blog was already filtered by the Iranian regime for its political content.
Before leaving, however, I wrote about why I was going and how I wanted my readers to support me, in case something would happen.
I'm going to post more videos like this in the coming weeks. Special thanks to Jay and Ryanne for their continuous encouragement and support.