While Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned the opposition not to hold protest on 4^th of November, Iranian people prepare for huge rallies against dictatorship. 4^th of November marks the anniversary of US embassy seizure. 30 years ago, students grabbed the embassy, but now students have changed significantly, so this time in the memory of that day they want to sent peaceful message to the world.

As a result, the internet received massive artistic posters that are expressing Iranian’s thought, moreover these posters are aimed to encourage people to get together and protest dictatorship and discrimination, and stand for equality and human rights.

Besides, huge amount of blogs are trying to express their opinions about the current condition of the Iranian society, an important number of podcasts have been published online about 4^th of November. Facebook and Youtube are filled by clips, images and notes in the memory of those killed during the post-election’s protest.

In contrast, prominent politicians and the IRGC warned the opposition and the people not to hold any other protest except the one that is against the US. In the meantime, government tried to put the mainstream media under pressure as recently one of the Iranian newspapers has been banned with unclear reasons.

IRGC pointed out that, people should be careful not to stray from the fundamental governmental policies. According to IRGC, the opposition is induced by foreign governments such as US and other western countries. The Iranian regime send a warning, on the IRNA state news agency, that it would be not tolerate any “diversionary and false” slogans.

However, opposition’ leader Mr. Mousavi and Karobi are still encouraging people to come out and stand for their basic rights. Moreover, there are too many actions that came out from universities and even high schools in order to support Iran’s green movement. Universities’ movements activated largely after one of the students from Sharif University shouted over dictatorship in front of Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting.

The atmosphere within academic sphere in Iran such as universities and high schools is convulsive as with many protests. In addition, 4^th of November is also called students’ day.

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• According to some sources from Iran, the internet speed has become too low and even when using ADSL, it is hard to open emails or display small size images.
• According to Emipmans blog, it seems that Yahoo messenger is inaccessible in Iran. Moreover, some proxy software such as Ultra Surf and the like are not working.
• According to Saitak, the Iranian government wanted to change the route (map) of protest by sending false emails to Iranian users.
• Also Saitak pointed out that some ISPs in Iran opened the access to Youtube and Facebook in order to identify and track users who are people upload video clips and other content.
• Saitak2 blog argued that the government has send warning SMS to people containing the following message: “by laws if you get involved in protest you will be identified and arrested.“
• According to Saitak2Mobile internet access has been blocked as well.
• More and more Iranian are reporting that a huge number of websites are being filtered. The amount of noises on foreign channel such as VOA, BBC Persian and so on is too high and they are inaccessible. People are also reporting that the SMS system does not deliver their massages, also the antenna coverage range is such low that people cannot call each other easily.

However as Balatarin shows, too many blogs and websites are being updated every second. They all try to cover the news and events. It is clearly seen that every Iranian user is trying to get involved in this event. They stay updated and organize their movement using blogs and social networking websites, such as Facebook.

Newly, the Green movement in Iran just launched a new web site called Green Chain that aims to Encourage bloggers who are supporting the movement to stay in touch with each other and guide them to publish mass texts i support for the movement.

The Iranian internet is almost filtered, proxy softwares do not work and Yahoo, MSN, G-Talk and even other sites such as meebo and so on are inaccessible. However, bunch of clips and news came out from Iran.

Here is a lis of some video clips covering the recent protest in Iran:

• >no to left no to right we want Iranian republic.
• Mehdi Karobi one of the leaders of Green Movement can be seen, was injured by Basij militants during the protest.
• Special Guard attacked people during the protest; too many people have been injured as a result of that.
• weapons and basij wouldn’t stop us anymore.
• another protest in Shiraz University
• Tehran University was also inflamed and students were protesting there as well.
• while basij tried to disperse people from the main square, protesters gathered in smaller groups in minor streets.
• Protesters shouting: “Khamenei is a murderer so his leadership is futile“.
• people helping injured youth who have been aggressed by basij.
• massive protest in Ferdowsi university in Mashhad, Khorasan .
• police officer attacking people, mostly women and students. Gunshot can be heard clearly.
• BBC: political prisoners should be freed..
• how police forces are treating Iranian people: here and here.
•  and interesting video clip about what happened on November 4th.

Display more videos on Youtube by accessing this link

Or you can search “13 آبان” in Youtube.

According to (BBC Persian, there were huge protests in Tehran and other big cities of Iran. Reports from Iran pointed that people protested from other provinces such as Rasht, Isphehan, Zahedan, Kermanshah,Tabriz, Mashhad and Shiraz.

As witnesses reported, police, special guard and basij attacked people by tear gas; also batons and electrical shocks were used.

Moreover, more reports from Iran are saying that universities and school students are covering Teheran walls with green color, the symbol of the Green Movement.

These new blogs have launched to publish IRGC's dogmas and are aiming to change people's mind. Moreover, these blogs are intended to avoid current Iranian issues to be debated online and replace them instead with governmental propaganda.

It should be mentioned that The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announced the launch of 10.000 blogs for the paramilitary Basij forces at the end of 2008 “to control the Internet and other digital devices including SMS“.

به کمک تُر و وردپرس، ناشناس وبلاگ بنویسید

The Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide is now available in Persian thanks to this translation by an Iranian blogger and friend who wants to remain anonymous.

The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.

به کمک تُر و وردپرس، ناشناس وبلاگ بنویسید is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you experience difficulties viewing PDF format online, try this linkable and blogging-friendly HTML version.

Please download the guide and help disseminate this important information. Feel free as well to help us translating the guide into your own language.

The guide is also available in the following languages:

English
French
Portuguese
Arabic
Chinese
Italian

For further information please contact us at: advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

به کمک تُر و وردپرس، ناشناس وبلاگ بنویسید

Gerdab gathered a professional team to observe the internet. It is aimed to catch opposition web sites and blogs by reporting and/or undermining them. This will constitute an unprecedented threat for the safety and security of Iranian bloggers and another disturbing step to undermine online free speech .

As Gerdab claims, there should be in Iran no place for web sites and blogs that do not toe the line of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, it is also pointed out that, after Iran's rigged election, some of the regime's privacy policies have been adapted, in an attempt to introduce a new system that hides its abuses.

Gerdab strongly stands against western ideologies. It is opposed to all kind of social networking websites such as facebook and twitter, perceived as tools conspiring to topple the regime. Moreover, by articulating a rather negative perception of the Internet, Gerdab claimes that they “we want to filter the internet in order to keep our youths clean and pure from vices.”

Gerdab noted that Western countries such as the United State and Israel are using the Internet as a tool to change people’s minds. It also claims that by focusing on Iran's internal affaires, they're strategies of using the Internet is aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime.Therefor, Gerdab urges the Iranian Internet users to be very careful and not publish their critical opinions on the Net.

Generally, it can be seen that Gerdab website is running to create a climate of public fear and anxiety in order to control the use of the Internet by the people. It has too many articles to bash people about the internet and its negative effects on daily life.

However, Iranian people have used their cell phones and computers to disseminate information about the green movement and it was remarkable as they succeeded in communicating with the outside world.
Now, they have found another way to make their voice heard. They gather in any places where governmental media are placed, such as football stadiums.

For instance, few days ago there was a football match in Iran and people gathered in the stadium and started protesting the government and shouting slogans against the dictatorship and it became a scandal when the government censored the shouting when it was relayed on the Iranian television.

They were also gathered for another match between two famous soccer clubs in Tehran and this time you would be able to hear their voices when they are shouting slogans. They were saying:”We don't like political football matches.” As recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spent huge amount of money on football to make a black market and get the benefit of that.

In another case, people call in during live shows that stream on government’s television and talk about the green movement in Iran.

Here you would be able to see how people are making use of social media:

People in stadium are looking for their votes.

People are against political sport.

An Iranian woman congratulated an official TV narrator as he wears green T-shirt and joined the green movement in Iran.

Apart from serving as an additional means of personal communication, Twitter is used in the Arab-Islamic Middle East by a whole range of groups and individuals, covering the entire gamut of society. ‘Tweets' are employed by political and social movements, religious websites and Islamic cultural centers, as well as for the promotion of films, fashion and commerce. News organizations, such as CNN, the BBC (especially its Persian language service), Al-Jazeera and the Voice of America all have popular Twitter feeds. Twitter speeds up the capacity to deliver the news because of its short and restricted structure, so much so that it is often chosen over newspapers as a person’s primary news source.

As a parallel information universe, Twitter enables the dissemination of information, mobilization of public opinion, and evasion of governmental censors.  In Syria, for example, Twitter enabled a wave of protests against the decision by the website, ‘LinkedIn' – a social networking geared towards those interested in business – to block its services in Syria, and the decision was ultimately reversed. Earlier this year in Iran, Twitter was employed by ‘the March 18^th movement' in remembrance of the Iranian blogger, Omid Razah, who died in prison on this date, and to pressure the authorities to release seven Bahai leaders that were arrested during the month of May.

A particularly powerful demonstration of Twitter’s potential came following the arrest of an American journalism student in Egypt while filming a demonstration. He immediately sent a message via his cell phone announcing his arrest to 48 “followers” on Twitter, and the message quickly spread around the world. As a result of the ensuing attention and entreaties, he was quickly released. Similarly, the well-known Egyptian blogger, Wa'el Abbas, was quick to publicize his arrest and subsequent experiences with the police this past April, causing embarrassment to Egyptian officialdom.

The usages of Twitter by women in the Arab world are especially varied, not surprisingly, given the relative anonymity it provides to the user. Twitter allows women to search for spouses, describe their lives, discuss issues pertaining to the status of Muslim women in their societies, and communicate and show solidarity with like-minded individuals, for example, lesbians. Women from Saudi Arabia tend to hide their personal ‘Tweets' so that only those who have received their permission in advance can read their announcements. Women from most other Arab societies, which are socially more open and less hierarchical than Saudi Arabia, are more likely to enable their ‘Tweets' to be read by all.

Women’s advocacy groups make good use of Twitter: for example, the Egyptian group ‘All of Us are Laila' has fought against the inequality in women’s daily lives, in Egypt and the Arab world in general, for the last three years. So does Queen Rania of Jordan, who writes about diverse subjects on an almost daily basis, to a readership of about 125,000.

To be sure, there are those who belittle Twitter’s reliability as a source of information, pointing to its maximum limit of 140 characters per item, and the instant worldwide dissemination of Twitter items without any cross-checking information to confirm their truthfulness. But these limitations are also the basis of its strength. Twitter serves as a speedy and direct platform able to bypass official state media oversight and the limitations on free speech by authoritarian governments. In the Middle East, in particular, it is nearly the only path for different social groups to get their messages across without government interference.

The power of Twitter in transmitting onsite and immediate reporting was highlighted in the months leading up to the Iranian presidential elections and in the subsequent demonstrations against the falsification of the results. Along with other on-line social networks, Twitter served as an almost exclusive source for the unfolding events in the streets of Tehran.

However, Middle Eastern governments have not remained passive in the face of the rapid expansion of the new media, and particularly of on-line social networks which increase the possibilities for individual action and challenges to governments.  The authorities around the region have invested considerable efforts in regulating and restricting these new means of communication. For example, the Dubai government partially blocked the use of the highly popular social networking Facebook website and the internet voice and video Skype program, claiming that their action was justified by “content that was not concurrent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.” Iran has cracked down heavily on Twitter and other social networking sites.  Not only has it blocked access to particular internet sites, it has also installed content filters and monitored traffic on them. This was done by means of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) features installed as a condition for the company’s access to the Iranian market. The ability to monitor internet and Nokia cellular phone traffic resulted in the arrests of a number of persons transmitting reports about the unfolding events in Iran, resulting in a consumer boycott in Iran of Nokia phones as an act of protest.

Time will tell regarding the impact of Twitter on the relations between Middle Eastern authoritarian governments and their citizens. In the meantime, Twitter has demonstrated a capacity to serve as a means for continuous and rapid dissemination of information among wide sectors of the population.  To be sure, this alone cannot bring about far-reaching social change or a fundamental expansion of political and social freedom, but it certainly carries much potential, and even inspires hope among long-disenfranchised and cynical Middle Eastern publics.

This research has been published on July 26th, 2009: Tel Aviv Notes, Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University (PDF).

In the court Abtahi, who appeared wearing prisoner's pyjamas, looked weak and seemed to have lost weight. Abtahi, who had been jailed for several weeks and had no contact with the outside world, said in the court, “I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship… and if this happened, there would be no name and trace of the revolution left.”

Abtahi has been accused of taking part in a “velvet coup” against regime.

Several bloggers reacted to Abtahi's so-called confession and his physical presence. Several have published photos of him before and after the arrest. (ABOVE: L, before arrest; R, in today's trial).

Kaveh Ahangar says [fa] that we could see evidence of torture and threats behind each word coming out of Abtahi's mouth. The blogger adds that on seeing Abtahi on TV, he became emotional and cried.

Alfba writes [fa]: “Dear Abtahi, we know you were under pressure and you family suffered a lot. You should know what you confess, we still love you. We support you.”

Forever696 tweeted with irony that if we believe in Ahmadinejad's 24 million votes, we will believe in these trials.

Saharlar writes [fa] “today it's Abtahi, whose turn will be tommorow? The blogger asks readers not to be discouraged and not to take these kinds of “shows” seriously.”