Stories about Iran from May, 2012
Iran: LGBT, an online reality?
“LGBT Republic of Iran: An Online reality?” a new study published by “Small Media”,a London based non profit organization, shows how Iranian's LGBT communities use internet in their daily lives.
Iran: Top figure hails Facebook
Iranian former president and now head of The Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who is close to reformists says: ‘Today we see that a simple free page on Facebook is effective more than a set of TV and radio stations… And this is good for the world even if some...
Iran: ‘Cultural programs’ in social networks
Iran's Revolutionary Guardians'would hold cultural programs in Facebook and Twitter’, an official in IRGC says. This two major social networks are blocked in Iran and users can check them only with circumvention tools. Iranian authorities blame such websites for ‘promoting regime change’ in this country.
Iran: Deprivation of Medical Care Jeopardizes Blogger’s Life
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Iranian blogger, is in dire condition serving 15-year prison term. Father says months-long torture caused kidney failure.
Iran: “Let's Save Lake Urmia With Our Tears”
Protesters fighting to save Lake Urmia in Iran from permanent environmental damage have not given up. In protests across the Azerbaijan region of Iran, they called on government to protect one of the world's largest salt water lakes.
Iran: Cyber Hezbollah Meeting
Farsnews reported “Cyber Hezbollah’ will hold its eighth meeting in Tehran on Wendesday.One of main points of discussion is Shahin Najafi‘s “insults regarding one Shi'ite Saint.”
Iran: Hadi Net,a new religious Social Networking
Islamic Republic has launched a new social networking called “Hadi Net“. Iranian media reported[fa] this social networking is an answer to Shahin Najafi‘s “insults regarding one Shi'ite Imam.”
Iran: Protesting against Google
Iranians have been complaining that Google Maps now has no name on the body of water called the Persian Gulf.IranFarda says [fa] Mr.Google do you like we call you, Yahoo?
Iran: Buying book can become dangerous
Several bloggers published a photo where a woman pushed to the ground by the security forces in a book fair. Gargagarga writes it happens in book fair and everybody is watching. It seems people get used to seeing such scenes.
Iran: A blogger was arrested
Iranian cyber police (Fata) announced [fa] a blogger in the northern city of Rasht was arrested. The blogger was accused of writing in his blog against Rasht's authorities and trying to “disturb public opinion”. Iranian police did not mention the blogger's name.
Iran: Successful campaign against lashes for cartoonist
An online campaign against lashes for Iranian cartoonist turned to be successful. Mahmoud Shokrayeh was sentenced to 25 lashes for a caricature of a local MP, Ahmad Lotfi. Iranian cartoonists launched a campaign on Facebook and cyberspace to draw Mr. Lotfi's cartoons in condemning this verdict. You can see some...
Iran: Cartoonist Eludes Sentence of 25 Lashes for Drawing Politician
An Iranian cartoonist, Mahmoud Shokraye, was sentenced to 25 lashes for drawing a cartoon of former conservative member of parliament, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtyani in the Arak region. A campaign to support the cartoonist was launched online.
Iran: 28.5 millions have access to Internet
According to official statistics,28.5 millions of Iranians are estimated to have access to Internet connection in 1154 cities of Iran. This figures says more than 2.1 millions of this Iranian users have ADSL connection and the rest are connected via dial-up. Iranian government has restricting rules for Internet connection of...
Iran: Calls for killing of ‘apostate’ rap artist
Several bloggers announced their support to Shahin Najafi, Europe based Iran singer.A Shi’ite cleric, has issued a death sentence against rap artist Shahin Najafi for apostasy. The sentence was issued after Najafi released a controversial song called “Naqi” (a Shi'ite saint).
Iran: Government prohibits ‘foreign’ mail services
Iran's minister of communications prohibited using ‘foreign’ mail services like Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and MSN, since he believes ‘they are tools for information leak’. Reza Taghipour has asked Iranian state offices, universities and companies to use Iranian mail services ‘which are hosted in Iran’.