Saturday, February 27, 2010

A picture is worth a thousand words. . .

Hey guys,

I took this week off from the more intense posting (thank you Prof. Yaros) but I wanted to at least post the 1000-word picture segment. I really enjoyed this one more than the others. It speaks a lot to the role of women in the democratic movements in Iran. If you haven't already, I encourage you to read my post below on women in Iran. There will be more content in the coming weeks regarding the role of women in Iran but for now enjoy lady liberty from Tehran.





source: http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/iran/ig/Iran-Cartoons/Lady-Liberty-in-Iran.0KI0.htm

Thursday, February 18, 2010

A picture is worth a thousand words. . .

For this week's thousand-word post I've chosen the following cartoon. It doesn't pertain to this week's theme of gender and race but it sure as hell speaks a lot to the usage of technology in Iran (namely since the elections)




(Source:http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/iran/ig/Iran-Cartoons/Iran-Citizen-Journalists.htm)

Women in Iran

Women in Iran are known to be more assertive than women in most other Islamic countries. Their beauty is surpassed only by their confidence and boldness. Since the early twentieth century when the first policies regarding the hijab, or scarf, have deprived Iranian women of a free, self-determined choice of fashion. This website features pictures of Iranian women protesting just after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. At that time those who didn't want to don the scarves were called prostitutes and were spat at. As in years prior women were forced to follow male-forged policy--like in 1979, as men sought to make them where scarves, or as was the case during the Shah's rule, when he sought to criminalize religious scarf-wearing. Today modesty police roam streets of Iranian cities. They publicly scold and ticket women in places like North Tehran, where the women have started a lipstick revolution and have commandeered scarf-wearing, turning it into more than just a fashion statement, but also a political one.

Dolls are no exception: Barbies are sold only through the black market as the Islamic Republic found the dolls Western and immodest--entirely inappropriate. Porochista Khakpour wrote a deeply insightful Op-Ed for the New York Times last March, titled "Islamic Revolution Barbie." In it she talks about how the IR raided stores and even pushed its own dolls--the more modest and Islamic "Barbie and Ken", Sara and Dara have stocked Iranian stores since 2002. Khakpour emphasized her dread of looking nothing like her Barbie dolls: "I even attempted to 'tan' Peaches ’n’ Cream Barbie’s skin for hours one day," she writes, "praying for her lotion-slathered skin to turn brown like mine, which it never did."

For years women have fought tenaciously for their rights--participating in countless movements, weathering arrests, beatings, and public castigation all for the sake of their desire for freer lives. The One Million Signatures campaign in Iran has been gathering signatures slowly but surely for years--signatures buttressing women's rights in the face of discriminatory Iranian laws (for instance, in Iran a women's testimony in court worth half that of a man's). Nobel laureate and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi continues to fight for women's rights in Iran. In November 2009 her Nobel prize was confiscated by the Iranian police and her bank accounts were frozen. In the post election protests in Iran her sister was arrested. Nonetheless Ms. Ebadi is still visible and still vocal in her fight against the Iranian regime: just last week she called for diplomatic sanctions against the Iran government (she condemned economic sanctions "as hurting the Iranian people" -Reueters).

Many Iranian women have also found a role model in the recent elections. A PhD, the former chancellor of Alzahra University, former advisor to ex-president Mohammad Khatami, and wife of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi,Zahra Rahnavard did something a woman had never done before in the Iranian political scene: be a presence. Ever-visible, she was vocal force in her husband's election efforts and many women related to her and supported her husband for it. She was the Michelle Obama of Iran, said the Huffington Post. She served as the newest stage in the evolution of the paradigm of the Iranian woman--a strong, intellectual, and vocal political participant.

A week ago Jean M. Geran of Foreign Policy magagzine wrote about the women of Iran in an article titled "The Women Behind the Green." Geran writes: "The Iranian women's movement has a proud history of fighting for women's rights and has been a driving force behind the green movement's push for reform." She continues saying, "Iranian authorities censor dozens of websites and blogs, especially those covering women's issues." As she notes at the end it is important to support the green movement in Iran, and I agree. But I say it is especially important to support those who have been fighting for democratic rights for over century: Iranian women


Here is some more great content about women in Iran:
CNN's "Women in Iran March Against Discrimination"
In 2008 interview Shirin Ebadi discusses the US's Iran Policy and women's rights
ABC News Coverage of the Lipstick Revolutiuon in the post-election period

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Huffington Post: Iran Social Media Facing Serious Obstacles

The Huffington Post covered the shutdown of Internet access--regular and through proxies (channels that let Iranians travel to forbidden sites)--on 22 Bahman (February 11).

It's a great article and discusses how twitter and facbook were shut down.

Take a read here

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Digital Divide in Race and Gender (Assigned Blog not Iran-related)

I read about the role of technology and its relationship to gender and race in the article "Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Gender, Race, and Information Technology Use." I wasn't too surprised by some of its findings while some that really stood out.

First, the article argued that technology has its positives and negatives. For instance, it stated, like my parents did, that video games may fry brain cells; or as the article more eloquently put it, lowered GPAs. But on the other hand a connection between the video games and math skills was found. They found that Internet usage could solidify social relationships in certain users while for other, more reticent users it could exacerbate isolation.


The article also pointed out a growing issue: cyberbullying. I've heard about it before and did a little background research. Cyberbullying is just what it sounds like: being mean online. The article noted it is occurring more frequently as youths connect more--through IMs, texts, facebook posts, etc. There is an anti-cyberbullying site and in it there is a description about what needs to be done to fight cyberbullying. It reads, "If [children] don’t allow the cyberbullies to use them...cyberbullying will quickly stop...and in the end, our children will be safer online and offline. We will have helped create a generation of good cybercitizens, controlling the technology instead of being controlled by it" (the Italics are mine). This addressed an issue we confronted earlier this semester in class. I think it is remarkable that the question of who-leads-who goes beyond innovation, and is starting to seep into the social world. It is also very scary.

Another thing that caught my eye was the racial divide in the use of technology. The article says, “even within income levels, there are race differences in home Internet access favoring Caucasian Americans” (Jackson et al. 438). The article specifically highlights the difference between races in the United States, as it reads:

Comparing African American and Caucasian American youth on global measures of self-esteem generally find no differences. However, when specific dimensions of self-concept are considered, Caucasian American youth score higher … on social and academic self-concept…whereas African American youth score higher on physical appearance self-concept (438)

The article also notes a disparity between dial-up and broadband users. It says that broadband users access more diverse sites and participate in more online activites. Moreover the authors say, “the rate of information and online literacy skills and uses will continue to accumulate differentially” (438). This means that a new digital divide will arise, one that isn’t based on access but instead is based on use.

As the article mentions in the discussion there are differences between race and gender in regard to technology use and self-perception, but not in “overall self-esteem” (439). The largest indicators were household-income and gender. Higher income youths had more access to technology; boys played more video games then girls and were more likely make purchases online. I can’t say I find these conclusions shocking, as they match what my previous ideas of technology use were. If one had access to a computer, one would use it; and the same goes for an X-Box 360.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Iran and Education - Assigned Blog

This week we were given the assignment of discussing the connection between technology and education, in relation to our topic. Thank you to Professor Yaros for finding and providing me a report filed by Bibi Eshrat Zamani, scholar of Education and Psychology at the University of Isfahan, in Iran. The article is titled "Successful implementation factors for using computers in Iranian schools during one decade (1995–2005)" and discusses the integration and usage of computers within the Iranian education system. One of Eshrat Zamani's goals is "to see what changes had been occurred [sic] during one decade."

Before I go any further here are some important facts about Iran's population: The CIA world factbook indicates that the median age in Iran is 27 (the median in the US is 36.7); that 77% of Iranians are literate; and Iran spends 5.1% of its GDP on education (the US spends 5.3%).

According to the publication, Iranian students have used computers since the late 1980s and today officials boast that most high school graduates are in some way computer literate. From 1995 to 2005 the number of schools within the city of Isfahan that had computer labs rose from seventeen to ninety-four. In 1995 89% of students did not have home computers; that number plummeted by 2005 to 38%. Over the same period of time students stated their primary use of home computers was for entertainment purposes; secondary usage centered around academics.

A disparity also exists in attitudes towards computer usage. Teachers and administrators did not enjoy computer as much as their pupils: "In 1995, 89% of the teachers and 91% of principals’ believed that using computers in education was a complex process. This percentage has been changed [sic] to 76% for teachers and 82% for principals in 2000 and 73% for teachers and 76% for principals in 2005." For educators knowledge of computers required extensive technical and language training: "According to teachers, using computers in classrooms need a lot of computer knowledge and experience including computer and IT literacy. In addition, they should have English proficiency in reading and writing computer menus and messages." The students though felt differently: "Average 63% of students liked computer practical classes, because they felt more freedom compared to other theoretical classes...[in 2005 an] average 58% of students did not like the content of computer studies courses, they were interested to learn more about application programs and Internet." Unfortunately the access to computers was not indiscriminate: in 2005 88% of boys surveyed had prior computer knowledge against only 45% of girls.

Going back to Eshrat Zamani's goal of examining the changes over the decade, there is clear evidence that usage has risen, as has reception of technology. As is seen all over the world, Iran's young people are leading the technological growth. Teachers and administrators seem increasingly receptive to the introduction of technology but at the same time they seem to be happy with traditional means of education. Students would be better prepared to teach courses than their teachers. But there is a matter that Iranian students must deal with that many others don't: politics. The study found that "81% of principals in the study in 1995, 2000 and 2005 stated that computer education in Iran has been depended on the political situation"--that if the ministry of education decided to cut funding or if the West tightened sanctions, access to technology would be adversely affected. Iranians, especially its younger population, are thirsty for access to the outside world, to free information and the increased usage of technology in their classrooms has absolutely helped them on the path toward this inalienable right.


Friday, February 12, 2010

Coverage of 22 Bahman

Hello again,

So yesterday was the thirty-first anniversary of the fall of Iranian monarchy and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The IR welcomed reporters to the official ceremonies held in Azadi Square in Tehran, but kept them fenced in and away from any other areas of the city. As you can see from the pictures from coverage by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal the event was heavily stocked by bussed-in government supporters. Ahmadinejad made it clear that the day was about Iran's unrestrained nuclear future. The government went to great lengths to break up any and all protests, as well as keep those opposition forces out of Azadi Sqaure.

The New Republic, among other sites (i.e. Andrew Sullivan @ The Atlantic Monthly, Kimber's Iranlog, and a blog by the Mehdi Saharkhiz, son of imprisoned Iranian journalist) was live-blogging the events here . Tehran Bureau, my go-to site, reported in its preview to the protests that "A complex scheme is to be implemented in which the routes to the northern and eastern sides of Azadi Square, from where protesters customarily emerge, will be blocked for several kilometers in each direction. People trying to make their way to the square via those routes will be diverted away from the eyes of the international press, who will be confined to designated areas within the square" (Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/02/overview-reading-22-bahman.html).

If you'd like to see some videos from the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran check out this collection, put together by TB. Seeing as the press was limited in its access, we once again learned the value of camera phones, twitter, and other tech, especially in the fight against tyranny and oppression.

This weeks reading list (not class assigned)

Hey guys,

This week has been a pretty tumultuous one in Iran. Along with some explanation of what's going on and why, I've provided some links that will definitely help you learn a thing or two about what's going down.

If you weren't following the news here's a quick breakdown. Yesterday was the thirty-first anniversary of the deposition of Mohammad Reza Shah (shah = king) at the hands of the Islamic Revolution. The Islamic Republic (IR) celebrated its anniversary while suppressing many thousands of opposition supporters, rallying for their civil and democratic rights--freedom of press, political expression, etc. It was on February 11th 1979 (Iranian calendar date of 22 Bahman 1358) that 2500 years of monarchal rule ended in Iran. The day was "supposed" to mark the beginning of a democratic (yet, Islamic) government. Things haven't exactly turned out as they were expected to.

Thirty-one years and 11 days ago Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the spiritual and political leader of the Islamic Revolution returned to Iran from a fifteen year exile. The day Khomeini arrived was the first of what is now known as the Ten-Day Dawn, chronicled here by brilliant writer and self-made scholar of Iran, Muhammad Sahimi While Dr. Sahimi is actually a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California he, over the course of the last few months has posted numerous and incredibly well written articles--like why Ahmadinejad didn't actaully win and a very thorough piece about General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)--on TehranBureau.com, a site run by PBS. On the tenth day after his return, the Iranian army (after a failed attempt at a coup by higher ups) laid its weapons down and surrendered to Khomeini and his supporters. Even before Khomeini had arrived in Iran the army lost conscripts to the Revolution, as many soldiers no longer trusted the despotic rule of the Shah. That is what the Iranian people were supposed to be "celebrating" today.

Definitely give a read to some of the articles. I recommend all of them as each one provides strong insight and background to the current issues plaguing Iran. The article about the Ten-Days Dawn definitely helps shed some light on the most important and final days of '79 revolution; the article about Ahmadinejad's election fraud will, naturally, argue that he cheated (doing so with common sense and strong evidence); and lastly the article about the commander of the IRGC, General Jafari is very important because it explains the rise of one of the most important players in Iran's current political scene. Many experts are suggesting that the IRGC, Khamenei (not to be confused with Khomeini), and Ahmadinejad are running the country by way of dictatorial triumvirate. I wouldn't be surprised. Nonetheless I'm going to keep reading--I hope you do the same.

A picture is worth a thousand words. . .

This week's thousand-word picture is from one of my favorite editorial cartoonists out there: award-winning political cartoonist Mike Lukovitch.




Source: http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/iran/ig/Iran-Cartoons/Iran-Twitter-Revolution.0KHy.htm

Friday, February 5, 2010

Reading list

Hello again

So I'm going to start a new segment on this blog in an effort to publicize/introduce readings on Iran. There's a lot to read out there and I figured I could post some links here to consolidate some of the better ones. The purpose of this segment is to supplement the regular postings as they are very informative and well-written.

This first one is a fantastic piece about the direction in which the Green Movment is/could be heading. It's written by a wonderful writer named Muhammad Sahimi and wast posted on Tehran Bureuau, a website run by PBS that provides really strong and well-done material Here is a link to the piece.

Happy readings!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A picture is worth a thousand words. . .




Source: http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/y/m/2/stop-or-tweet.gif

The Candidates

In the 2005 elections Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then a largely unknown candidate and mayor of the capital city of Tehran, won in stunning fashion. Behind candidates [incumbent and political superstar] Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani and [cleric, former parliamentary speaker and notorious liberal] Mehdi Karroubi, Ahmadinejad came from behind to make the startling win. It was widely speculated [and for many, assumed] that the election was stolen. Eight years earlier, the liberal cleric Mohammad Khatami won the 1997 elections in a remarkable landslide. With the election of Khatami millions of Iranians expected a drastic shift in civil rights and liberties within Iran. Unfortunately they were wrong. Ayatollah Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran--aka the guy with the real power--closed newspapers and intimidated opposition forces with beatings and killings. It is not a stretch to suggest that it was with Khatami's attempts to initiate a liberal society in Iran, Khamenei and his crew opted to create an alternative political reality--one in which the Iranian public could "vote" for the right candidate. And that's how a holocaust-denier was "elected" in 2005.

2009 was pretty much the same thing but with one significant difference.

While Ahmadinejad "won" this election the campaign that was conducted differed drastically from that of previous years. This time around the candidates utilized technology both before and after the elections. The award for most prominent use of technology easily goes to Mir Hussein Mousavi. Mr. Mousavi followed the in the path of Howard Dean and Barack Obama, turning to online for grassroots organization and mobilization of supporters. The strength of the Green Movement is direct a result of vast network of communication constructed on the foundations of text messaging, emails, and facebook messages/posts. Mr. Mousavi himself had (and still has) his own website, an account on facebook (which has over 125,000 fans), twitter, delicious.com, a youtube channel in addition to an extensive Wikipedia page. His base in technology is so strong that I regularly read updates of Iran's goings-on through his facebook status updates. His facebook also posts pictures and videos of the candidate himself, sometimes appealing for help from the world or decrying the maltreatment of political prisoners.

It is no mistake that this movement is still alive: the potent blend of passion, dedication, and of course social networkign sites has allowed for democracy-seeking Iranians to sustain their fight.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Society or Technology? Who Leads? (Reading Response)

Instead of writing about the candidates and their usage of tech in the elections I am going to respond to our assigned readings regarding the relationship between society and technology, specifically related to Iran.

Professor Yaros asked an important question in class this past Thursday: Does society guide technology or does technology guide society? According to our readings there is no clear-cut answer—and I agree. I see this question as one seeking to address the origins of innovation. And yes, while human creation is innovation there is more to the question than just what begets what; what also must be considered are the guiding principles—the ethos (the spirit/essence/attitude of a society or culture)--of the technology. What may navigate the manner in which technologies are used in United States will inherently differ from the way in which they are utilized in China or Greece or Iran. Even within the Western world there is no uniform ethos—everyone's got an opinion.

Not only are there geographic/cultural differences. There are also differences in how technology was viewed in terms of time period. Today the "guardians" of technology are quite different from who they were in the 19th century. Today's tech world is very, very user-generated/user-dependent. According to "When Old Technologies Were New" it was the "electrical professionals" (scientists, electrical engineers, etc.) who led the way in the early days of technology. Their job was to "engineer, promote, improve, maintain and repair the merging technical infrastructure” (Marvin 9). Most significant was their societal standing. These were cultural elites who were determining the direction of technology. Today this situation is not vastly different—mostly well-educated, upper-middle class tech developers create websites; the socio-economic gaps are unconscionable to ignore. But as was explained in class there is no technology gap, but rather a participation gap. Anyone with a library card can access and alter content on the internet. With this widening of the content-generating audience the question of whether society leads technology sort of becomes clearer. In order to better discuss this matter I want to take a short look at the use of tech post-election Iran.

Without ruining any of my future posts/explanations of the situation in Iran, the world's knowledge of that situation is largely based on user-created content. Yes, the actual construction of websites facebook and twitter required professionals but the people of Iran guided the usage of the technology. Once it was in their hands they dictated its usage. The people's ability to publicize the post-election events were dependent on the technologies available, but the guiding decisions as to how those technologies used and what they contained were entirely human.

The question posed for this assignment is a moral question in addition to being a tech question. Ethicists and academics will (if they haven’t already) struggle with this one for years to come. Essentially this is a shinier version of the chicken or the egg conundrum but today it is ultimately the user that guides the technology. At least until A.I. really takes over. . .