Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

Iran is a fascinating place, on the surface it seems so similar to Egypt, but once you find out how dynamic Iranian society is, you begin to see it as unique. Trying to find out anything about Iran is a difficult task though, the only sources available to you are western media, and judging by western media's coverage of Egypt (which is relatively more open and liberal than Iran and hence more accessible to westerners), the last thing you want to do is to trust the media.

So I resigned myself to learning about Iran through the occasional film or book, great art is being produced there but again I am not so sure it is a good window into Iranian society, I mean if you wanted to learn about Egypt it takes more than watching Youssef Shahin's latest festival favorite, you have got to see "El Lemby".

Does Iran have "El Lemby"? Are they allowed one? Does it exist underground? How do I find out this kind of thing?

Then comes the internet, the youth compromise 70% of the population in Iran (just like Egypt), most of them are educated (unlike Egypt) and from 4 to 8 million have access to the internet (just like Egypt), but unlike Egypt Iran sports 70000+ blogs, sounds like a great way of learning about the country, read the daily diaries/opinions/rants/navel gazing of 70000 almost random individuals. I believe Egyptian bloggers present a fairly decent window into the country and we are only 400 or so, try and imagine what image you can construct from 70000 blogs.

But of course the Iranian bloggers are not writing on the web everyday to explain to clueless Egyptians, or westerners what their society looks like. They are there to talk about their own lives to each other, most of the 70000 blogs are in Farsi and remain inaccessible to the rest of the world. And that is why I got excited about Nasrin Alavi's "We Are Iran", a book that claims to be about Iran's thriving blogging scene.

I had very clear expectations from the book, I expected to finally understand the enigma that is Iranian society, to get a glimpse of how young Iranians from all sorts of different backgrounds think, but more important to get a clear map of Iran's 70000+ blogs, how they look like, what kind of debates and flamewars erupt on the comment sections, what are the different networks these bloggers formed, etc.

Half way through the book I realized I was being stupid, I assumed it is a book about blogger written by a blogger for bloggers when it wasn't. I posed all sorts of silly questions, the type of questions you normally get from clueless foreign reporters covering the middle east.

To her credit Nasrin managed to shake me out of it, the book baffled me, and while I learned a lot about Iran I find myself still confused (but thats ok I'm still confused about Egypt too).

With a corny title like "We Are Iran", and even cornier chapter names like "A Nation of Steadfast Revolutionaries" it becomes obvious that the book has an agenda, it is very much written for the western reader in mind and the goal seems to be to convince the reader that foreign interference in Iran's affairs is the last thing Iranian needs. Too obvious a point if you ask me.

But still the book was quite confusing, half of it is Nasrin's own writing about the politics, history and culture of Iran, and it is not just giving context to the blog posts, in fact the blog posts seem to be there to support her writing and not vice versa.

Nasrin doesn't quote blogs only, she quotes poetry, newspapers (foreign and local) and she even quotes Lonely Planet!!! The book is full of photography and artwork a lot of it not coming from the blogs at all. There are no conversations with the bloggers and minimal description of the blogging scene.

out of the 70000 blogs less than 200 are presented, some of them quoted on every chapter.

the book is full of photography and artwork alot of it not coming from the blogs at all.

there are no conversations with the bloggers, minimal description of the blogging scene.

Confusing? No? Not what you would expect from a book about blogs eh?!

I worried a lot about how objective/subjective/selective she was being, how accurate she was etc. I tried to check every broad claim she made, turned out she was quite accurate about everything, and even when presenting a subjective opinion she makes sure to mention a spectrum of conflicting opinions (hundreds of pages later though).

Then it hit me, the title is not corny, my worries about fair representation are stupid and the book is not simply about blogs.

The book is a mashup, a product of the rip, mix and burn culture of the internet, what Nasrin did was cut samples from blogs and other sources and paste and remix them all up weaving them with her writing to give us a book about her Iran, about an Iran that millions share with her, if others see Iran differently that doesn't make the book less accurate.

Instead of transferring the blogs to another medium she used them to create a new form more suitable for the medium. And it works out great, come to think of it merely translating and republishing the blogs would have made no sense. Blogs exist in a complex environment, their value comes not just from the words written in them but from the networks they build and the interactions around them, a book won't offer the same environment, reconstructing a new environment for these blog posts was "the right thing"(TM).

After this I stopped trying to LEARN, I treated the book as art, and instead of seeing confusing differences between the only society I know and this alien society I am obsessed with I started seeing similarities between individual human beings. There is this great post from http://peaceiran.blogspot.com in which he gives "Tips on how to liberate Iran" to the US Army, it is hilarious and his description of Tehran fits Cairo to the very last detail including the artists cafe that has horrible coffee and primordial waiters (Al Bostan anyone?).

And you still get a good glimpse of the blogging scene. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of it is how it spans different groups, different generations (there is a great post by a mother who must be as old as my mom talking about her son mocking her 'Look at you, the trendy young rebel, keeping a blog ...'), different backgrounds (the dissent in Iran comes from mullah's as well as from university students, how many of you know that the imprisoned blogger Mojtaba was actually a cleric and a student of the holy city of Qom), and different classes (wonderful post by a female taxi driver comparing her shopping list to the shopping list of her passenger the wife of some big government official).

Mashup or not the book is still very political, and you will learn a lot from it, for instance I always thought that the dictatorship in Iran did not lead to corruption, but it turns out there is rampant corruption there, not unlike what we got in Egypt (and yes Iranians too believe they got the most corrupt officials ever). The book presents many of the key individuals in the reform and dissent movements, some are known to western media and many are not. And it doesn't stop at politicians and activists, artists and poets are mentioned (the legendary Googosh for instance).

Writing the book probably spanned several years, it starts on a very positive tone, almost fetishizing dissent and the author doesn't put much effort in explaining the other side. Reading it I felt the 2005 elections do not fit with the picture she is drawing at all, but in the last chapter the author and the blogs become very critical of the reformist and the whole idea of reform from within, Nasrin then puts a very convincing explanation of the 2005 elections.

In the end, the blogs remain the best thing about the book, gems like Z8un.com's piece about her parents challenging the regime by kissing in the streets alone make the book a must read.