Blogging for Iran

It has been thirty years since the Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Iranian monarchy. The result was a hybrid political system within which elected politicians rule under the guidance of the life-time appointed Supreme Leader, since 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei (Seyed Ali Musavi Khamene’i). For Iran’s media environment that means three decades of religiously motivated tutelage and censorship. But oppositional groups and individuals coerced into silence – either living abroad or at home – are increasingly making themselves heard: online, and especially on blogs. With ‘blog’ standing for ‘weblog’, it is exactly this, the opportunity to ‘log on’ and thus participate in contemporary debates and media communication formations that is so appealing to Iranian dissidents.