Feb
26
Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, a blogger from Egypt sentenced to four years in prison this week. He charged with inciting hatred of Islam and Egyptian President.
– Report on RSF
Feb
16
Tehran is a city with a population of 12'000'000 people. These people needs Transport and one of the main means of this transportation is the Taxi cabs. A normal taxi in Tehran is a Shared Taxi or a Taxi Pool. These taxis work in specific Lines. For example I know that there is a Line between HafteTir and Fatemi squares so I will stand in the former and take a taxi to the latter. Three other persons may (and will) be in this taxi. These taxis are cheap (around 10-40 Euro cents) but work in specific lines.
source
These shared taxi are a great place for chitchats. Many people believe that our secret police has many of these taxi to know about peoples opinions. It seems to be true as people always start to talk about politics, economy and everyday issues in these taxis. They are a great place for this chats because you are 5 persons in the car (driver, 1 in front and 3 in back) with diverse ideas and you don't know each other (so you have privacy) and you are going to leave each other in some minutes and are not going to see each other again.
There are also closed door taxi or call taxis. These ones will go anywhere you say and you will be their only passenger but will costs around 3 euros.
And one last point before returning back to the main issue; There are many cars which are not official taxis but work as taxis in the city. These are normal cars, with the functionality of the taxis. We can recognize them from their older models and their open windows (because they want to hear people telling the destination), just like this one:
source
I use two of these shared taxis to go to my job everyday. Today I reached to the second station of these shared taxis but instead of the taxis I saw a police officer with a colt and two soldiers with the machine guns, shouting: do not stop ! move! . It was a bit strange but before I could think about it a cold blooded taxi came and stopped there, the officer was shouting to make him to leave but the driver was a calm old man who just stayed there while me and other 3 persons was getting into the car.
We were 5 people in the car. Driver: and old man. Front passenger: an old woman. In the back: me, a young girl around 20 and a boy with same age. We found out that somebody has stolen a “Do not stop” sign and the police believes this is the act of taxi drivers. The drivers started:
driver- These polices are silly ! There were no “do not stop” sign here ever.
old woman- Oh come on! there was a “do not stop” sign here.
driver- No there was not! And we are paying these polices 100'000 a month to be able to work here (they are not official taxis and has to pay bribes) and from know on they are going to ask us more money! They are going to put a “no stop” sign here and ask us more money to be able to stop here.
me- Are those polices ?! The have to defend our rights but …
young girl- Our rights ? we do not have any rights in this country.
young man [has just finished his talk with his cell phone]- Don't be worry. In a few weeks the security council of the UN will decide about these guys and soon we will get rid of them.
young woman- No… we are not going to be free. These people are going to rule for 400 years!
young man- You are pessimistic. I have spend all my 21 years with these rules but I think it's my time at last. I love to live with freedom and I want to enjoy my life.
driver- These polices are the worst of the tyrants.
old woman- Maybe. but you only have been encountered with these ones. Tyranny is the method of their ruling.
young man- oh.. but It will be finished soon. In a few weeks these tyrants should leave the government.
driver- Yes.. and there will be no “do not stop” sign anymore
We are at the destination now. Everybody says goodbye. I mention that if we want a change, WE should make it. Most of them agree. The driver says “We did a revolution 30 years ago and the KING left the country but these people became the new KINGS, yes! WE have to change”.
Feb
15
At last I updated my laptop's OS to FC6. It has some problems and I am working on them 
Feb
04
wow.. another set of questions… let's answer them too. I know I've answered many questions recently but this is also a nice set about women and their roles.
1. What is the role of a woman for you ?Hi Jadi,
[...]
1. What is the role of a woman for you ?
2. How does the islami discribe the role of a woman?
How would these prescribe Role transfered by the laws and by the society?
Is there something like a doublelive?
Are there differences between the countryside and the big citys?
(just a question which interesst me -not for the work- How important is the islam for young people today?)
3. How is her possition reference to the man?
Would she prefer or underprivileged?
If she would prefer, how?
If she would underprivilegegd or discriminat, how?
Are there some differences between what the legislator say and it the society handle it?
4. In which way woman could study and have a job?
Are there some jobs which they are not allowed to work and if yes, which?
5. How is the sexuallity role of a woman?
How important is it for a young woman to be a virgin before she get married?
Do they hold on this rule to be a virgin or search they ways to have sex before marriage?
6. Under which rules the woman have to suit? Do they avoid these laws and how?
O.k. for now thats are all of my questions. -I know, that are much, SORRY!!!-
[...]
Bye bye
Kneltzel
The role of a woman? I think her role is the role of any human. She can choose her role. I look at her as an human
Maybe I did not get the question.2. How does the islami discribe the role of a woman?
How would these prescribe Role transfered by the laws and by the society?
Is there something like a doublelive?
Are there differences between the countryside and the big citys?
(just a question which interesst me -not for the work- How important is the islam for young people today?)
Um… difficult. Islamic beliefs are very diverse and different and strongly dependent on the interpretations. But I think in most of them women's most important role is to be good mothers, raise good children and be good wives. There people who believe in this interpretation and people who do not. I think in cities and among educated people it is more common to believe that a woman is more than a mother and more than a wife.
Our law is an Islamic one, so you can see this interpretation of Islam in it. In our law a husband can ask from the judge to order her wife not work outside the house. This law (that a woman can not work if her husband finds it against family's order) was accepted 100 years ago but nowadays more and more people believe that women has same rights as men. Maybe not the majority but the number is increasing, specially among the younger generation.
3. How is her possition reference to the man?
Would she prefer or underprivileged?
If she would prefer, how?
If she would underprivilegegd or discriminat, how?
Are there some differences between what the legislator say and it the society handle it?
You know. I can not answer this one. For me, she is equal but I can not tell about whole society. I thing in rural areas, women are less than men. We can see the same pattern in cities but with less density. For sure there are some discriminations. have a look at We-change.org, 1000000 signatures against discriminatory laws.
4. In which way woman could study and have a job?
Are there some jobs which they are not allowed to work and if yes, which?
At least 64% of university students are women
but few of them have a chance to be among more important jobs. Leila (my wife) is an communication engineer and works for Nokia as an IP Planner. They are demanding their rights, they study well, enter the universities, live separately from their family and show to the others and the society that it is possible. But.. there are jobs in which girls can not enter. Some of them because of the society; such as truck driver, taxi driver, construction worker, …. Although there are some female drivers in Iran (even one truck driver) but as many other societies, their existence is strange for most of the people. There are also some jobs in which women are not allowed to work legally, among them I can mention military jobs (pilots, soldiers, …), judge (because in the legistrator believes their brain is not suitable for this!) and waitress in a coffee shop !5. How is the sexuallity role of a woman?
How important is it for a young woman to be a virgin before she get married?
Do they hold on this rule to be a virgin or search they ways to have sex before marriage?
In Islam, a women should obey his husband's orders and be ready for sex whenever he says. I think in society this depends to each person and each family.
Being a virgin is still important and in older times it was vital to be a virgin. The pattern might be changing as sex before marriage is increasing, specially if the boy and girl intended to marry each other. Have a look at Women Have Surgery to 'Restore' Virginity
This is common but this also shows a trend toward pre marriage sex.6. Under which rules the woman have to suit? Do they avoid these laws and how?
You mean their clothing ? If I am right have a look at my older article on Islamic Fashion Show In Islamic-Iran. If I did not get the meaning of suit, inform me
Important: there are MY ideas. To have a reliable answer you have to conduct a research about each question
Feb
03
Let's answer this email A nice collections of questions on blogging in Iran. After a long delay. Pardon me guys!
How many visitors do your blog have on average?Hello Jadi
We are three students from a university in Denmark and we are writing a project about Iranian bloggers. We've been looking at blogsbyiranians.com and found your blog interesting. We hope that you will help us in our research by answering the few questions listed below. You don't necessarily have to answer all the questions, but any information that you can give us will be greatly appreciated.
How many visitors do your blog have on average?
Why did you begin to blog?
What are you hoping to achieve with your blog?
Do you read/write/comment blogs both in Persian and English?
Do you see blogging having any effect on the Iranian society today, if so which?
How do you think the blog culture in Iran will develop in the future?
Best regards
Mikkel, Lasse and Kristian
These days it is around 550 people each day. In previous month (Jan 2007) I had 16834.
Why did you begin to blog?
I started blogging something around 5 years ago; but in Farsi (Pesian). Something around 2 years ago my famous farsi weblog (called http://jadi.net) was filtered so I decided to start an English weblog and started Inside Iran to write about my country. Before the censorship I was writing about everything, from gay rights, from nuclear pollutions and from religion. But after government censored that site, I started to write specially about the freedom of expression in my country and digital security in farsi (http://freekeyboard.net). I also started this weblog to tell the world what is happening in my country and at last I continued my divers blogging in my general weblog (http://jadi.wordpress.com).
What are you hoping to achieve with your blog?
I am writing for human rights and specially Freedom Of Expression in the Internet. For sure I will not reach to this goal by a weblog but I am sure that 1 is better than none and ten is better than 1. I am sure that writing about these issues make people more and more sensitive about it and if people will know enough about freedom of expression, the world will be a better place to live in.
In my country, we do not have access to the media. All the media is controlled by the government; so the weblog and the Internet is our only hope to communicate. We have to defend this right.
Do you read/write/comment blogs both in Persian and English?
| read | write | comment | |
| Farsi (Persian) | yes | yes | yes |
| English | yes | yes | no |
I do not comment that much in English weblog. I don't know why. Maybe I am not brave enough to write in English in others weblogs. I think I should start 
Do you see blogging having any effect on the Iranian society today, if so which?
Oh yes! In many circumstances the weblogs are the only source of the news. For example when police attacked the peaceful demonstration of the women in Tehran ( and ) the weblogs and specially the Kosoof.com's photos were the only source of the news.
Another example? There are weblogs dedicated to organizing and reporting on special movements / days (say students demonstration against President Ahmadinejad 16 azar 85 or Otobos1 which means TheBusOrganazation which is dedicated to the arrest of Mansour Osanlou, head of the executive committee of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company ).
How do you think the blog culture in Iran will develop in the future?
I am a researcher on this field. My job is researching on weblogs and educating people and organizations about it. The Weblogestan (farsi blogsphere) is professionalizing. After the first rush to writing weblogs, now the curve is slowing down but we see more and more professionals who write weblogs. At the begining years, the bloggers mostly were the younger generation who wanted to TALK and shout that “I AM HERE! I AM ALIVE” but in the recent years we see more and more journalists who use blogs as a media for their “unpublishable articles in the newspapers”. We see more and more professors who use their blogs to write about their real beliefs and we see more and more minority who use weblog as a tool to show that they exist.
Feb
03
One of my good friends had send me this flash. http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html : There are images of Tehran / Iran you dont't see everyday . It is a collection of photos from Tehran, without terror, without mullas, without army, without AhmadiNejad. You can see the people, you can see the life, you can see the joy. Please have a look. War will not only this LIFE but also our grassroot movements, our NGOs, our efforts and everything. have a look please .
I'm Jadi, an Iranian blogger from inside Iran. I'm blocked in my own country so I've decided to write in English for outsiders (
