Countries:
Iran
Topics:
Freedom of Speech

Last week something extraordinary happened in the Persian blogging community. Mohammad Abtahi, a former vice-president of Iran and an enthusiastic blogger was visiting the eighty-something dissident Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom, a religious city south of Tehran.

DSC00779w

“How is Mr Abtahi's blog doing,” the Grand Ayatollah jokingly asks during a pause in a small gathering, while sitting on his special teaching chair which is higher than usual chairs.

According to a post on Abtahi's blog, the Ayatollah later tells him that he reads his blogs and asks him about its readership and the time he spends on it everyday. Like many, the Ayatollah is also angry about his website being filtered and provides the blogger cleric with a new unblocked web address for his website.

Any time you have party-animal teenagers and dissident old Ayatollahs doing the same thing, you must know it's a popular thing.

4 comments

  • [...] Hoder is an Iranian blogger (based in Canada) which I meet in London during last GVO meeting. He is also a member of our Global Voices – Middle East & North Africa team. He is a very well known peace activist, especially when it comes to issues related to Iran. Yet, he is not one that American regime likes. [...]


  • [...] Hoder is an Iranian blogger (based in Canada) which I meet in London during last GVO meeting. He is also a member of our Global Voices – Middle East & North Africa team. He is a very well known peace activist, especially when it comes to issues related to Iran. Yet, he is not one that American regime likes. [...]


  • [...] The Iranian blogger, and GVO member, Hoder, is going to Israel in a peaceful mission which he describes as breaking a major taboo. Luckily, another GVO member, Lisa, will be his host. [...]


  • [...] Iranilainen Global Voices -bloggaaja Hoder on kyllästynyt valtiotason vastakkainasetteluun ja lähdössä Israeliin ystävyysmatkalle paikallisen bloggaajan tykö. Uhkana on, että matka tietää ongelmia. [...]


Join the Conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are moderated. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.