Some countries filter sex. Some filter uncommon believes or disbelief. Some other, filter the sites of the opposition political parties. There are also some countries who block the individual blogs. A few also block satire. Iran blocks all of these :) and not only these but also some nonsense sites. Just like this one:



Here is a screenshot of a dangerous site: Web.Resource.org but luckily our wise government is here to defend us. If you try Web.Resource.org in Iran you will see nothing harmful:



:) Thank's to our rulers, know we are safe :)

I was in Afghanistan / Kabul for two weeks. I was training two NGOs to start their websites. Unfortunately both are in Persian.

This was my second time in Kabul. It is a nice city with friendly people. The main problems there are not being clean and not being safe. Everyday the are some killings in the news and you read about how "some people" killed "some other". While I was there, 3 newspaper reporters where murdered and more than 20 polices. One day one of trainees did not attended the class. When I asked him the day after he said: "One of my relatives were killed during a conflict with Taliban; he was a policeman".

One good point there is the freedom of expression :) Although it is dangerous but legally you have the right to speak out your idea. This might be only available during the "honeymoon" of the country and it seems the government is trying to decrease it because of national security.

I met many people there. I went to Afghan PEN sessions, met politicians and people from newspapers and media. This was good. Most of the people were not with the Karzai and told me that he is not doing well.

Oh and as soon as I have returned back to Iran, Police have arrested one another activist! Again an active woman from "1 million campaign". This time Ehteram Shadfar. A 62 years old woman is in the prison because of ... nobody knows.

Wow... What a brave person he is.



Let me start for the beginning. In Iran there is a semi-secret-police group called HERASAT. Literally it means "guarding/protection" and its logical function should be protecting (guarding) the entrances of the organizations, universities, offices and ... (kind of doorkeeper).

This "HERASAT" - in the recent decade - has morphed from a doorkeeper to a secret police. They are scary, "big" people who can order the head of the university to throw out a student, they can introduce you to the secret police and the intelligence services, they can ask anybody to go to their office to be asked questions, they can arrest "bad hijab" people and they even can investigate and regulate professors interviews and travels!

As you can imagine, this people are becoming more and more powerful and "important". Nowadays they have their own office in all the universities and many many compaies. They check you in the Airport in Theaters and practically everywhere.

Oh.. Let me return back to the story! These people also have an office in our university and in the previous week protests against all the problem our government is making for us, they confronted students a lot and even attacked to the students and broke the windows and ...



In the photo you can see that a student had attached a Sign to this HERASATs office. It reads "HERASATs office is closed by students because of committing VIOLENCE". Great Idea. Nowadays I am at Kabul (doing a website design training for human rights groups). I am sure these students need help and support; I wish I was in Tehran.

After one year of debate on "To publish or not to publish 50000 Rials bill", they have published it last week. Some economists argued "By publishing this, you will raise the inflation"; But I think when the price of a house is doubled during the last year, it is logical to publish new bills. Maybe the more logical act would be eliminating some zeros from this weak Rial.

Anyway, This is our 50000 Rial bill which equals to less than 5 Euros.



For me, this piece of paper is more like a Political/Ideological Placard than a bill. It shows a map of Iran with the "Persian Gulf" written on it. In addition it has an Nuclear Energy sign and a saying of Prophet Mohammad about knowledge on it. I bet the other side includes a photo of Khomeini.

have a look at This nice collection of photos from. Then add some bombs to the photos using your imagination; Attack to Iran if the result looks attractive. We have problems here, we have human rights violations, we have obligatory was of coduncts, we have Ahmadinejad as our "selected" (not elected) president and we do not have to say we are against authorities. But BOMBs will not improve our situation.

Although I am in Kabul but this recent arrest (among them one of my organizations board members (Sussan Tahmasebi), Three of my colleagues Maryam Mirza, Mahboube Hoseinzadeh and Asieh Amini) made my boss to decide to add an English section to our "Civil Society's News site". He emailed me to work on the English section from here because it's launch is vital. I am glad that we are going to have an English section. I have started to design it and will try to finish the first functional version just today! We need more and more news in English and other languages.

The few activists who are outside of the prison are deciding if they are going to celebrate 8th of March in streets or not. It will be VERY dangerous and most of the brave participants are in prison. I will not be in Tehran at 8th of March. May be I am lucky because I don't know what should I do.

The photo is Shadi Sadr, A famous Iranian lawer. She is among arrested people. Source: Kosoof

I am traveling to Afghanistan for one week. My friend and I are going to train some technical persons in Radios to create fast, easy and active websites.

But there are also some other news. Bad ones first ? yes ! so we will be able to finish with good ones. Three of our friend and two of my colleagues are on trial for peaceful demonstration (read more from human rights watch), among them are my good friend and colleague Sussan Thamasebi. Their trial is on Sunday and don't forget that in Iran, judiciary is totally dependent to the Supreme Leader.

Oh but let's finish with the good news. Eight of March is on the way, just one week. As women's movement is the main and most strong movement in Iran, the 8th of March is an important day. It is illegal, but celebrated in recent years.

Next one? A group of my friends are going to organize an protest against obligatory departure(pushing out) the Afghan workers from Iran. Government treat these people very bad an unhumanly and our friends want to protest against it and at least say "Hey government! your treatment is not fair, these people worked here (although illegally) for years in Iran and made our country, you can not treat them as criminals". Good and brave campaign. I will send photos of this event as soon as possible.

More? yes. Tomorrow an NGO which my wife works with (Hastiandish) is going to Pre-Celebrate(!) the 8th of March by handing out brochures in the mountains. Many people go to these mountains to spend their leisure day.

And we are going to celebrate the "4 shanbe soori" in a couple of weeks. A great ceremony: the last Wednesday of the year in Persian calendar. It is a pre-Islamic ceremony and Islamic government tried to ban it for years but it is still alive. I have to write more about it but the main idea is jumping over the fires to let the "bad" burns in the fire.

Tehran is a city with a population of 12'000'000 people. These people needs Transport and one of the main means of this transportation is the Taxi cabs. A normal taxi in Tehran is a Shared Taxi or a Taxi Pool. These taxis work in specific Lines. For example I know that there is a Line between HafteTir and Fatemi squares so I will stand in the former and take a taxi to the latter. Three other persons may (and will) be in this taxi. These taxis are cheap (around 10-40 Euro cents) but work in specific lines.


source

These shared taxi are a great place for chitchats. Many people believe that our secret police has many of these taxi to know about peoples opinions. It seems to be true as people always start to talk about politics, economy and everyday issues in these taxis. They are a great place for this chats because you are 5 persons in the car (driver, 1 in front and 3 in back) with diverse ideas and you don't know each other (so you have privacy) and you are going to leave each other in some minutes and are not going to see each other again.

There are also closed door taxi or call taxis. These ones will go anywhere you say and you will be their only passenger but will costs around 3 euros.

And one last point before returning back to the main issue; There are many cars which are not official taxis but work as taxis in the city. These are normal cars, with the functionality of the taxis. We can recognize them from their older models and their open windows (because they want to hear people telling the destination), just like this one:


source

I use two of these shared taxis to go to my job everyday. Today I reached to the second station of these shared taxis but instead of the taxis I saw a police officer with a colt and two soldiers with the machine guns, shouting: do not stop ! move! . It was a bit strange but before I could think about it a cold blooded taxi came and stopped there, the officer was shouting to make him to leave but the driver was a calm old man who just stayed there while me and other 3 persons was getting into the car.

We were 5 people in the car. Driver: and old man. Front passenger: an old woman. In the back: me, a young girl around 20 and a boy with same age. We found out that somebody has stolen a "Do not stop" sign and the police believes this is the act of taxi drivers. The drivers started:

driver- These polices are silly ! There were no "do not stop" sign here ever.

old woman- Oh come on! there was a "do not stop" sign here.

driver- No there was not! And we are paying these polices 100'000 a month to be able to work here (they are not official taxis and has to pay bribes) and from know on they are going to ask us more money! They are going to put a "no stop" sign here and ask us more money to be able to stop here.

me- Are those polices ?! The have to defend our rights but ...

young girl- Our rights ? we do not have any rights in this country.

young man [has just finished his talk with his cell phone]- Don't be worry. In a few weeks the security council of the UN will decide about these guys and soon we will get rid of them.

young woman- No... we are not going to be free. These people are going to rule for 400 years!

young man- You are pessimistic. I have spend all my 21 years with these rules but I think it's my time at last. I love to live with freedom and I want to enjoy my life.

driver- These polices are the worst of the tyrants.

old woman- Maybe. but you only have been encountered with these ones. Tyranny is the method of their ruling.

young man- oh.. but It will be finished soon. In a few weeks these tyrants should leave the government.

driver- Yes.. and there will be no "do not stop" sign anymore :D

We are at the destination now. Everybody says goodbye. I mention that if we want a change, WE should make it. Most of them agree. The driver says "We did a revolution 30 years ago and the KING left the country but these people became the new KINGS, yes! WE have to change".