ABSTRACT
On July 18, 2003, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial entitled “The Blog Shall Make You Free.” With this bold announcement of the liberatory power of blogs, the editorial lauded Iranian blogs for allowing women “to talk about dating, sex and other taboo subjects,” for “playing a real role in Iran’s democracy movement,” and for “giving Iranians a new free-speech outlet.” The editorial also credited English-language Iranian bloggers outside of Iran as the main reason why “Westerners” know about the then newly inaugurated Iranian governmental campaign of punishing bloggers.1 In 2005, similar ideas reappeared in the work of Nasrin Alavi, who published a book of translated blog excerpts under the title We Are Iran. Although the pseudonymous author provides no information on his or her selection process, Alavi maintains that the passages chosen for publication – almost all of which variously critique the current government and express dissatisfaction with those aspects of their lives that are most impacted by its policies – reflect “today’s real Iranians.”2
