Iranian Bloggers Do It Better

Here’s another trend piece about Iranian writers (you know the kind), but at least this one focuses on specifics: blogs and how they are opening up avenues of self expressions for young Iranians. The piece is essentially a review of the pseudonymous Nasrin Alavi’s new book We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs, but it places in the context of Iranian society today, and it’s a worthwhile read. Here’s a snippet:

Some of the bloggers’ language is very tough: ‘I s— on the whole of Hezbollah.’ Some is deeply evocative: ‘Have you ever been forced into exile? Has it ever happened that you just can’t get the pattern of those tiles in your Mother’s kitchen out of your head (for three nights in a row), but you just cannot remember the color? Has it ever come about that you call your Mother up from far away and ask her to describe the color of those tiles at which you both uncontrollably sob?’ Many Iranian women write with brilliant bitterness from their anonymity, and about it. ‘In the obituary columns instead of my picture, they place a picture of a rose,’ writes one. ‘[Because] the image of a woman can ensnare a man.’