February 01, 2004

• I enjoy IranFilter and have been following it for a couple of months. Lots of interesting links, whether (as he says) you care about Iran or not. Look, it's a metaphilter site, too, just like us. Aww.
• Iran Cracks Down on Bloggers
• Egypt too.
• That Blog-I-am! That Blog-I-am! I do not like That Blog-I-am!
• This Iranian American Life
• (Ah, I do love Middle Eastern music.) One thing that surprised me is how casual women there are about covering their hair. Iran is reputed to be the most conservative Islamic state about such things. so does it depend on what area one lives in, or is the society loosening up in general? I can understand the all female singing/drumming group, but the girl hailing a taxi would be shocking in some places.
• I think "hailing a taxi" would make for a great slang phrase reprersenting a kinky sexual practice, but I just can't think of what it would be. although I do enjoy trying
• Iranian censors clamp down on bloggers
• Meanwhile, Iran's president gets his own blog
• Meanwhile, Iran's president gets his own blog Just wait until he has to deal with comment spam. The price of oil will go up twenty dollars a barrel.

• The Iranian intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo, detained at Tehran airport on 27 April 2006 and held for more than four months in prison, was released on bail on 30 August...and he then visited the Iranian student news agency for an "interview" where he explained the reason for his arrest. In the interview, Ramin ... said that intelligence officers from hostile states had attended seminars he had given on Iran outside the country, and that these foreign agents had used him and his scholarly expertise. He also maintained that his comparative study of the formation of east-central European civil society and Iran could have been utilised in efforts to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran

  Ramin Jahanbegloo: a repressive release
• Iranian Jews sue ex-president Khatami
• RTD, my wife suggests that "hailing the taxi" should be slang for picking up a, um, large woman at a bar.
• Iran's Supreme Leader: Don't masturbate in Ramadan (or break DRM)
• In honor of Ramadan, I will eat extra pork and write about it for NaNoWriMo. The other white meat: great with the other white sauce, by Nuniella Bizatorrie.
• Release of persecuted Iranian trade unionist welcomed