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From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2044000/2044802.stm ... clip ... Underground lives The rise of the blog in Iran has been made possible by the huge growth of the internet in the Middle Eastern country. There were 400,000 people on the internet in Iran in 2001, according to government figures. But officials expect this it grow to 15m over the next three or four years. Contrary to expectation, the internet in Iran is not censored. This has allowed Iranians to use blogs to air issues that they cannot talk about in public. Perhaps surprisingly, few of the blogs focus on politics. "It is social issues mostly," said blogger Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian journalist living in Canada, "the underground lives that Iranian youth have these days. Things like girlfriends, boyfriends, the music they listen to, the films they see." This may seem surprising to people in the West, but Iran is a conservative society with an Islamic government. Free expression Hossein created one of the first blogs in Persian last year. "It was a good tool to get to know what is happening in Iran," he told the BBC programme Go Digital, "what the youth are talking about, what are their problems." He had so much interest from Iran that he decided to write a simple guide in Persian, to help others set up their own blogs. Seven months on, there are more than 1,200 Persian blogs, many of them written by women. "For the first time in the contemporary history of Iran, women can express themselves freely, even if it is not in their real name," said Mr Derakhshan. "They have found the courage to speak about themselves and how they see the world." ... end clip ... ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
