September 28, 2010

Iran imprisons 'blogfather' for anti-state activities. Hossein Derakhshan, known as 'Hoder' online, given 19 years for charges of inciting anti-government feeling.
posted by homunculus 14 years ago
  • hee's also a thread on the blue, where hoder is a member. He's apparently in the same prison from which Sarah Shourd was just released. The circumstances are pretty dismal, there.
  • Here's a podcast of two interviews done this morning on CBC radio. One is with his ex-wife and the other is with his friend Maziar Bashari.
  • Hope he gets a break. But, I mean, what was he thinking? Normally, he'd only look at a hot stove in his apartment and touch his finger to the surface of it. I would guess. Because going to Iran where he's a suspect for interdiction, isn't that even more reckless?
  • I've been following this on Mefi. What a horrible situation - made worse, I think, because from where I am in NZ there is little to no public awareness of these imprisonments. If he wanted to draw attention to the political trainwreck that is Iran, I don't know that it will work beyond this corner of the internet. Poor guy. Hopefully the Canadian government will intercede successfully.
  • inciting anti-government feeling A crime you commit by being convicted of it!
  • Dan and Trac (and for that matter, quid) speak truth. As much as I admire him for standing up, I think about him deliberately walking into the situation, and can't help but think it wasn't a good thing. Memory is short when there is no voice shouting in the public ear.
  • inciting anti-government feeling a crime many governments do everyday
  • In Iran, you get thrown in jail and threatened with a death sentence (SO relieved that didn't develop) for "inciting anti-government feeling". In the U.S. you get TV shows, five-figure speaking fees and a chance to RUN the next government. As a matter of fact, it's getting riskier here to "incite PRO-government feeling". I used to think the U.S. system was so superior, but now less so. (And after the current "anti-government" folks end up in charge, they'll probably be working from Iran's playbook. Ironic or hypocritical? But, back on topic, I think Hoder took a calculated risk, based on the faulty assumption that positive change in Iran was possible. By now, I think it's becoming tragically clear that positive change in ANY repressive country is no longer possible, if it ever was.
  • Damn, we'd almost lost track of her while worrying about Hoder... we do need to be reminded that in Iran, such outrages aren't unusual.