Blogging for Baghdad: Part I

The World Wide Web is a phenomenon still in its infancy. In 1991, the world had access to 4 websites. Today, 29.7 billion web pages are a few clicks away and the information superhighway continues to undergo expansion in a big bang fashion (Boutell 2007). No other region in the world has seen such a radical increase in internet use over the last few years more so than the Middle East. Since 2000, the Middle East has seen a growth of 920% in internet users, while the rest of the world has seen a growth of 238% (World Stats 2007). This astonishing expansion in internet users has resulted in a massive blogging community that continues to weave its web across the Arab world. Blogs, which are personally owned diaries accessible to the open public via the internet, cover a wide range of topics from sports, entertainment, religion and culture to politics. No sphere of genres has seen such an expansion in Arab blogging than politics. The taboo of public discourse has liberated itself through the internet, and specifically the blogging community. The Arab world has expressed itself through blogs in such rapid and dramatic fashion since the turn of the century due to the oppressing authoritarian governments and humiliating occupations that have spread across the region. The blogging community represents Arabs of all walks of life, and has evolved to become a massive soapbox with an increasingly growing audience.

While blogs became popular in the West in the early 2000s, Arab blogs have become more of a recent trend. In fact, the first annual Best Arab Blog Awards were voted for in February 2005, which drew worldwide media attention. The path to cyberspace discourse hasn’t been smooth, however. The citizens of the Arab world face many obstacles in their pursuit to have their voices heard on a massive scale. Reporters Without Boarders, which is an international organization that advocates the freedom of the press, identified a list of states across the globe as being “enemies of the internet,” not to be confused with the “axis of evil” (Hofheinz 2007, 56). Among these states were United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tunisia. These states have used a filtering and blocking system to deny people access to sites that the governments deems inappropriate for moral or political reasons. Yemen and the Libya have been guilty of this as well. The technology which allows the governments to have such a stronghold over cyberspace was purchased from a U.S. based commercial company, SmartFilter. SmartFilter is also widely used in educational institutions and private companies, where it controls and monitors a list of millions of web pages that is organized into over 70 categories for “flexible policy enforcement options” (Hofheinz 2007, 56). Thus, big brother can not only filter sites, but spy on users to see which sites they have visited.

No nation has been more transparent about its loathing of bloggers than Saudi Arabia. Its internet restrictions are directed by a special “security committee” headed by the Ministry of Interior (Hofheinz 2007, 57). The state was so terrified by the possible implications of internet use amongst its people that it wasn’t until 1999 that they opened the internet to public access because it was only then that they acquired the technology capable of controlling internet use. The state also stresses to alert them of sites that are objectionable in their ‘keep the net clean’ campaign. The most blocked sites feature content on Christianity, pornography, gambling, and religious conversion. Again, SmartFilter is the tool of choice for the Saudi government.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the region’s most wired country with one-third of the population online, is even more restrictive than Saudi Arabia. The largely state owned Etisalat, which is the sole internet service provider, blocks sites that are “inconsistent” with the nation’s “political, moral, and religious values” (Hofheinz 2007, 56). Unlike Saudi Arabia, the UAE also blocks all sites registered in Israel. They also strive to block sites related to gay/lesbian material, dating sites in English, and sites critical of Islam (Hofheinz 2007, 58). Although political sites are accessible, there is specific targeting of several sites. The Arab-American Arab Times is completely blocked, as is every site related to Israeli politics. The UAE utilizes SmartFilter as well.

Another satisfied SmartFilter customer is Tunisia. In contrast to the abovementioned countries, Tunisia is aggressive with its political blocking. While the country blocks the same content as Saudi Arabia and UAE (pornography, religious conversion, gambling etc), it also strives to block all sites for political opposition and criticism of its record on human rights. Human Rights Watch, an organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world, concluded that Tunisia’s policy had been “guided less by fear of terrorism or incitement to violence (a reason often given to justify censorship) than by fear of peaceful internal dissent” (Hofheinz 2007, 58). The government also allocates monitoring responsibilities to internet cafes, which by law are required to supervise users and their site surfing. Computers are positioned so that staff can easily see what is on the screen, and all customers must register for an identification card to even have access to a computer.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, Tunisia is not transparent in their censorship of the internet. While internet users in Saudi Arabia stumble across sites that display messages describing that it has been blocked by the state, Tunisian users are served with a generic failure page upon loading. Make no mistake, however, Tunisians are aware that the government is watching them. In 2002 Zouhair Yahyaoui, a publisher of a website critical of the regime, was arrested and sentenced to 28 months in prison. He was accused of “disseminating false information” and “stealing Internet services” (Hofheinz 2007, 59). He would be released due to international pressure in November 2003, however after years of harassment by the police, would die of a heart attack in March of 2005 at age 36. He has been considered the first “marty of cyber-dissidence” (Hofheinz 2007, 59).

Like Tunisia, Syria has its own fears regarding the free flow of communication amongst its own people. When the founder of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS), Bashar al-Assad, succeeded his father as the president of Syria in 2000, Syrians expected that that the internet would become liberalized. While the internet was opened to the public immediately following al-Assad’s entrance into office, the last Arab country to do so, access was being infringed upon by the stingiest filtering system in the Arab world. Political opposition sites were inaccessible, as were any political information sites no matter how popular or well regarded. Communications were encrypted, many websites failed to load, and even e-mails could only be sent on government-controlled servers. A Syrian student was quoted as saying, “It’s not the internet, it’s the ‘enter-not’” (Hofheinz 2007, 59). Since 2000 Syria has had more internet-related charges against its citizens than any other Arab state. Bloggers were detained for months, even years for forwarding political jokes or news clips to friends via email. Masoud Hamid, a journalism student who used the internet to collect photographs of police violence against Kurdish children in 2003, won a prestigious prize for “cyber dissidents” in 2005 (Hofheinz 2007, 59). The Syrian government, in a move intended to intimidate other journalist students from replicating Hamid’s efforts, arrested him while he was taking university exams. He was tortured, held in solitary confinement for a year, and sentenced to three years in prison.

The Western world has capitalized on the authoritarian regimes repressive cyberspace tactics by supplying them the necessary tools such as SmartFilter to censor their citizens. Also, the West supplies an alternative method for blog aspiring Arabs to publish their thoughts online. Spirit of America, a charity based in the U.S. that seeks to promote freedom and democracy in Iraq, is utilizing the power of blogs to achieve their goals. They have created a website that Iraqis can blog on in their native Arabic, friendsofdemocracy.net (Hofheinz 2006). Most Arab bloggers are as critical of blog hosts like the aforementioned site as their own authoritarian regimes, however.

Blogging for Baghdad: Part II

Salam Pax used to be an inconspicuous 29-year-old Iraqi of no fame nor fortune. He lived his life just like any typical Iraqi, until the world turned its eyes in his direction as the second Gulf War was underway. In his blog, Pax discussed the war, his friends, and disappearances of people under the oppressive government of Saddam Hussein. Pax’s popular and gripping posts would soon reach the New York Times and The Guardian (Hamdy 2006). Pax continued to post entries his blog even after it was temporarily blocked in Iraq. During the war, he gave first hand accounts of bombings and other attacks from his suburb of Baghdad until his electrical grid fell victim to American bombing. Pax was one of the few Iraqi voices being heard by the outside world as Operation Shock and Awe ravished the Iraqi landscape. His vivid, powerful, and personal accounts of living in an environment tormented by war drew a global audience, proving that expensive studio equipment, large scale manufacturing and state-of-the-art satellites weren’t necessary to communicate with people across the world. One man, one computer, and well over one million visitors is one of many examples that proves that the Arab world isn’t merely whispering to the world through technology, it’s deafeningly bellowing.

Every blog has a face. Behind the graphics, the advertisements, polls and various other accessories, there is a person. They sit at their computer as I do now and they write. They write about their experiences of yesterday, of today, and their desires of tomorrow. Some blogs have catchy titles, others don’t. Some act as stress relievers, others as political lighting rods. Lady Sun, the pen name of one of the first Iranian women to post a blog, acts as a mixture of news, commentary, and random ramblings. “We always wear masks in our society.” said Lady Sun, who started her blog in November 2001 and later married one of its readers. “This is a place to take them off” (Murphy 2004). 70% of Iran’s population is under 30 years of age, and the country has an estimated 75,000 bloggers (Heuvel 2005). In fact, most of the major candidates in the 2005 Iranian election had their own blogs.

Hossein Derakhshan, widely regarded as the “godfather of blogging in Iran,” has a wide following, and numerous Iranian bloggers link to his blogspot titled “Editor: Myself” (Heuvel 2005). Derakhshan offered daily observations on the 2005 election and had said that blogs have “given much more transparency to how campaigns operate.” He also said blogs “enabled the campaigns to reach out to a network of educated and influential young students who make up the majority of the blogging community” (Heuvel 2005).

Pedram Moallemian, an Iranian who runs the popular eyeranian.net from San Diego, reaches many Iranians with observations on everything from the Iranian elections to U.S. news programs. “The blog in Iran is truly an amazing phenomenon,” Moallemian said. “It shows that Iranians are saying, ‘Look, we’re part of the world as well’” (Heuvel 2005). Clearly the internet has had a positive affect on the political landscape in Iran. Even former Vice President Mohammad Abtahi created and maintained his own blog that he seemingly grew an addiction to. Several times he was reprimanded for divulging too much information to his readers. Iran is in the embryonic stages of a full fledged blogging hotspot.

Malek Mostafa, an Egyptian blogger, became an overnight sensation due to a single blog post on October 25, 2006. Titled Downtown’s Sexual Rabies, his post rocked Egypt’s independent media and caused an epic stir on his own site. Previously, his posts averaged 30 comments, by the time Mostafa woke up the next morning his post had elicited over 750 comments. Why the massive increase of interest in Mostafa’s otherwise innocent blog? His post broke a news story that the Egypt’s state-run media had longed ignored: the sexual harassment of women in Downtown Cairo during the Islamic post-Ramadan feast holiday Eid in October 2006 (Al Malky 2007). His post included an eye-witness account of mistreatments taking place, as well as photographs taken by journalist and fellow blogger Wael Abbas. In one week, the post was read by 60,000 people, and Malek’s site was averaging over 8,000 visitors a day. “One of the things I believe bloggers like me have achieved,” says Malek, “is create a new breed of citizen journalists who communicate what they witness like any correspondent” (Al Malky 2007).

Malek and Wael had been sitting at a downtown café when word quickly spread that there was a mass harassment of girls taking place outside the local cinema. Celebrity belly-dancer Dina had made an appearance at the theatre to publicize her new film, and quickly drew a large crowd of men. The crowds had gotten out of control, and were attacking the women, ripping their clothes off as the girls sought cover in local shops and taxis. Less than an hour later, Malek had blogged the entire incident in graphic detail. More witnesses would speak out, detailing how the police made no effort to protect the women. One blogger quoted an officer as saying, “What do you want us to do? It’s Eid. Happy Eid to you too!” Officers also refused to file complaints brought by the violated women. There would be no reference to the incident in any mainstream Egyptian media outlet. “Some bloggers alleged that Al Jazeera had footage of the episode but was given strict orders by the authorities not to air it.” (Al Malky 2007) Television news stations remained silent, newspapers remained blind, but the bloggers acted as a catalyst for world wide awareness. In a few short weeks, the blog post had reached the independent press, where investigations occurred and columns would soon appear in the daily Al Masry Al Youm, Al Dustour, El Karama, El Fagr and also on Egypt’s most popular news station’s top show Al Qahira Al Youm. The power of the blogging community in the Arab world was never as evident as it was in Egypt a year ago. The success of Malek’s blog exposes the chinks in the Egyptian government-run media, as more and more Egyptians turn to independent sources to gather information. “There has been a huge difference in how blogs are perceived since I began in 2004,” says Wael. “Many independent newspapers depend on them, and while at the beginning there was talk of competition for audiences between e-news and print, now there is convergence” (Al Malky 2007). The power to influence the state run news agencies inevitably implies a power to reach the authoritarian regime. “Blogs are so influential to the point that they elicit responses from the highest state officials,” says Wael (Al Malky 2007).