1. Freedom of Expression in Iran Transmitting Memes of Democracy Nima Darabi i@nim.ir October 13, 2010 Trondheim, Norway

2. PART 1 Selfish Meme! Problem Definition

3.  Location: Central Eurasia, Middle East  Area: 1,648,195 km 2  Population: 76 million (2010 estimate)  At the moment is a theocracy in a form of an Islamic Republic  How to bring democracy and human rights to this land?

4. Geographic and historic overview:  Variety of climates  Traditional lifestyles, beliefs, cultures in ethnicities  So many contradictious historic eras ◦ Pre historic and early history (3200 BC – 625 BC) ◦ Pre-Islamic era (625 BC – 651 AD) ◦ Middle Ages (652–1501) ◦ Early modern era (1501–1906) ◦ Recent history (1906–present)

5.  Challenge: An ancient civilization, a culturally old and rich land, is less likely to achieve a sustainable society, environment, and economy.  The memory of the past human experience in this land have given the nation different contradictious cultural components (memes) and many of these components have survived to this day:  Self-inconsistency: Conflict of cultural components ◦ with self (intra-mental conflict) ◦ with other people (inter-mental conflict)

6.  A selfish meme at the moment has conquered the rest.  Yes! Unlike the contemporary western world, it is possible that a government does not represent its people.  Why Freedom of Expression is important?  Using an evolutionary model of cultural transmission (Memetics)  A “Meme” (cultural version of gene) is a unit of idea, symbol or practice, which can be transmitted from mind to mind through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, ….  Freedom of expression is the infrastructure for the information transfer of a democratic culture.

7. PART 2 Freedom of Expression Status in Iran

8.  According to the Reporters Sans Frontières:  Killed journalist: 25  Detained Journalist: 157  Detained citizen Journalist: 112

9.  According to the Amnesty International:  The Islamic Republic of Iran has recovered its status as the world’s biggest prison for the media.  The authorities continued to repress dissent by ◦ restricting access to the internet. ◦ banning newspapers and student journals. ◦ prosecuting journalists whose reporting they deemed critical.

10.  Professional journalists, human right activists, gender equality and student activists, teachers and labor activists, citizen journalists, bloggers, and … are just to be charged for articles they write for the campaigns, blogs, virtual magazines. They are convicted for: ◦ “spreading propaganda against the state”. ◦ “disturbing public order”. ◦ “moharebeh” (war against God)  Scores of students were suspended or expelled from university for supporting pro-reform groups.

11. PART 3 Internet The Virtual Experience for Freedom of Expression

12.  The modern forms of journalism have evolved in different forms with time:  Newspapers  Night letters  Underground pamphlets  Student journals  BBS (Bulletin Board System)  Blogs  Social networks

14. Produced by Vancouver Film School (VFS)Vancouver Film School (VFS)

15. PART 4 Take Action! What should be done

16.  Akbar Ganji:  “People of the Middle East had been living under the tyranny of secular and corrupt governments, which were supported by the United States and some other Western countries. This context left them resourse to only one political alternative: religious fundamentalism. The United States and the Western world reaped the first fruit of their own deeds with the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and today they face fully grown and powerful trees of violent fundamentalism."

17. Warning: As a reaction to secular dictatorship, we Iranians were the first nation in the contemporary Middle East who actually went into a trap called religious fundamentalism as a political system. We have experienced it now for more than three decades and now as the counter-reaction we are about to survive. Sooner or later this totalitarian theocracy will be overthrown. What should concern us is the replacement (another form of dictatorship, again?) and more importantly the status of our neighbors: a possible dark future for some other Middle Eastern states. Pakistanis, Arabs, Turks, … should not repeat our mistake.

18. ‫Campaign in three steps:‬‫ 1- Choose one to three prisoners of conscience as your family member or close friend.‬‫ 2- Advocate your family member's cause until his/her freedom.‬‫ 3- Send your generated contents or description of activities to Campaign's website‬

19. Amirhossein Tavakoli, a great friend of mine has been sentenced to 2.5 years of prison, for arranging an event in memory of his martyr university classmates. Fortunately at the very moment, after his family had to bail him out of jail for a 220,000$ surety bond, they could have him for his 26th birthday. The picture above, taken two months before the rigged election, shows us happy and hopeful for the future, in the Sa’dabad Palace, Tehran, while giving a tour to our Norwegian guests. I have adopted him as my brother, and will advocate him until his freedom.

20.  Stay in solidarity.  Follow us on twitter/facebook/blogs.  Share our stories.  Sign petitions.  Spread out the word.  Avoid war!  Instead, provide us with means for freedom of expression.  Keep encouraging us.

21. We will be victorious!