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# The rise of Iranian blogs
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/19123/
- Published: 2006-08-16T13:08:01.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:07.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**By Jessica Reed**

When back in 2002 Hossein Derakhshan (also known as 'Hoder') started to blog and regularly update his webpage titled '[Editor: myself](http://hoder.com/weblog/?ref=opendemocracy.net)' in Farsi, some said he had [started a revolution](http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58976,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) : by porting blogging tools from ASCII to Unicode he gave many Iranians the opportunity to blog in their own language. Here is an extensive list of [Weblogs by Iranians](http://blogsbyiranians.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net) written in English.

According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian%5Fblogs?ref=opendemocracy.net) there were 700,000 Iranian pages in the blogosphere as for October 2005: the e-journaling trend is exceptionally popular amongst Iranian youth. It is said that blogs in Iran tend to be unregulated compared to other forms of expression - however many bloggers/journalists' written words are carefully monitored, sometimes even [leading to arrests](http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/cat%5F%5Fsinas%5Farrest.shtml?ref=opendemocracy.net) and lengthy interrogations.

Things might change now that President Ahmadinejad [has a blog](http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/?ref=opendemocracy.net) \- a choice widely criticised and ridiculed by [Iranian](http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/015454.shtml?ref=opendemocracy.net) and n[on-Iranian](http://www.solanasaurus.com/?p=160&ref=opendemocracy.net) bloggers alike- a majority of bloggers seem to deem the trendy PR decision as a populist move.

**Elsewhere**: [Pensive Persian](http://pensivepersian.blogspot.com/2005/02/im-so-sick-of-seeing-iran-cast-in.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) wrote "*the average North American viewer knows next to nothing about Iran*" + The Guardian's [attempt at humour](http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,,1850857,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) reads like that: "(...) he \[President Ahmadinejad\] surely ought to know he can get us on the internet these days".