This morning’s Boston Globe has a thought-provoking profile of Iranian bloggers who are risking everything, quite literally, to bring a modicum of openness and truth to a society where the former is not tolerated and the latter strictly defined by government/religious authorities.
Courage is a word bandied about with an obscene casualness in free societies — my favorite being the pro golfer facing a tough lie from behind a tree — but there can be no overstating the fearlessness required to openly challenge such an authoritarian regime.
Four Iranian bloggers are on trial as this story is published, accused of fomenting anti-government sentiment through what the authorities define as propaganda. Censorship is a way of life there.
Yet here is a passage from the Globe story describing the efforts of one of the bloggers:
She has been blogging in her spare time for two years. Her first blog was shut down within three days, she said, after she wrote that school officials were providing access to abortions in clinics for young students.
Now she’s back at it. She blogged a few days ago that while (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad wants people to have more children, his economic policies make it difficult for many families to do so. She said she received some obscene and abusive replies. In a poem on her other blog, she compared Iran’s leaders to the pharaohs of Egypt.
The bloggers in the Globe story are apparently quoted by name, a decision I can only imagine was made because the bloggers are professional journalists by trade and thus intent on expressing themselves openly. Personally, I still question the wisdom of printing their names in that it take no leap of logic to presume that Iranian authorities will perceive a difference between bloggers pushing the envelope on their private blogs and seeing those efforts trumpeted in the U.S. press.
We should all hope they are spared repercussions … and take the time to salute their courage.
