An ongoing hiking mishap

Two hikers accused of espionage and illegal entry will go to trial on May 11 after spending 19 months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Joshua F. Fattal

Joshua F. Fattal and Shane M. Bauer, both 28, and Sarah E. Shourd, 32, were hiking near the Iranian border in June 2009 when they unknowingly entered Iranian territory. Shourd was released on bail last September for medial reasons.

Judges have delayed a verdict in the case twice before, crediting it to the absence of Shourd.

According to Fattal and Bauer’s lawyer, Masoud Shafiee, Shourd has been summoned in a letter from Iran’s Foreign Ministry to return, but it is unlikely she will.

“When there are several accused persons, a judge cannot postpone the case just because one of them is not present,” Shafiee noted. “The judge must issue separate verdicts for Shane and Josh. Sarah’s verdict can be issued in absentia, or her case alone can be delayed.”

In an interview in November, Shourd said that she, Mauer and Fattal were hiking on an unmarked dirt road and accidentally crossed into Iran.

Shane M. Bauer

Iranian officials have acknowledged that the border region is marked inadequately, but will continue the trials this month.

It seems obvious that the hikers were unaware they were in Iranian territory. It isn’t fair the government wont let them go. I feel for these three Americans. They should’ve been more aware of their surrounding or taken a guide to hike with them, but if the government knows it is easy to mistake the trail and border then it shouldn’t even be much of an issue in the first place. The border guard should’ve just told them to turn around.

The Freedom House reflects reality

The Middle East and North Africa Freedom House ratings for 2010 from least to most censored according to freedomhouse.org.

1. Israel
2. Kuwait
3. Lebanon
4. Egypt
5. Jordan
6. Algeria
7. Iraq
8. Morocco
9. Qatar
10. Bahrain
11. Oman
12. United Arab Emirates
13. Yemen
14. Saudi Arabia
15. Syria
16. IOT/PA [Israeli Occupied Territory/ Palestinian Authority]
17. Tunisia
18. Iran
19. Libya

The press in the nations listed above have a strict standard of censorship and freedom. Israel is the only country considered "free" in the MENA region. Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt are considered "partially free" and the remaining 16 nations are considered not free.

For Iran, this means that the media is completely censored by the government. During the 2009 presidential bid of Mohammed Khamtami, many websites and news articles were blocked from the Iranian people.

Yaarinews.com, Yaan.ir, and Khatami.ir were three of the websites blocked during his running.

Why were these sites blocked?

According to Behrouz Shojaei, editor for one of the sites listed above noted the dispute between Khatami and Ahmadinejad as the reasoning.

"At midday, we learned that our Web sites have been blocked," Shojaei said. "Closing down our Web sites means hard-liners are not going to tolerate Khatami challenging Ahmadinejad."

The control the government has in daily news-media life is very prominent and easy to detect in Iran as well as other MENA nations. It is sad knowing that the people aren't given the proper information to choose their government. Although there are elections, it is still controlled because the people are given the information by the government itself.

Using the internet in Iran

The internet and email was created originally for military intelligence use in the US. It has since spread to nearly every single country on Earth, including Iran. Iran’s internet usage has continually increased since it was introduced into the country.

To begin in the 21st century in the year 2000, Iran had 250,000 users. Another way to look at this is as 3.8% of the population based on a population of 69,442,905. By 2002 the usage jumped to 5,500,000, in other words 7.5%. By 2008 23,000,000 Iranians were using the internet, and by 2010 33,200,000 people were using. This is almost half of the population: 43.2%.

How has this affected daily life in Iran?

The Persian people are one of tradition. From the woman’s desire to cover their faces, to the men’s desire to go to the Mosque and pray, centuries of day to day life have stayed the same.

Recently, however, people are realizing the advantages of the internet. According to Alexa.com, it is clear to see a favorite activity of the Iranian people is blogging. Of the top fifteen sites, five of them are geared towards blogging. Other to sites include Google (number one), Yahoo (number two), Wikipedia (number eight), and Facebook (number thirteen).

The pros of having these websites in the top fifteen is that the Iranian people can become easily informed. They can do their own searching instead of constantly relying of the government, and they are seen to the outside world as regular people- searching and doing the same things we are: blogging, face-booking, searching, etc.

Unfortunately, there are cons to the increasing internet access. The people of Iran are seeing how the outside world is interacting and conducting themselves, and they are realizing that they are living under harsher conditions that other people in other countries. Although this is something they already knew, they are more tempted to try to rebel which is detrimental to the people because the government is extremely zero tolerance in terms of speaking out against the government.

Internet access is not the only thing that is on the rise. Telephone usage has been climbing as well. In 2007, Iran ranked number 29 in cell phone usage worldwide. It had a total number of 29,770,000 of its citizens connected by cellphone. This number has since increased and will continue to do so with the growing times and growing population.

This introduction to new technology has helped Iran immerse into mainstream society. It isn’t viewed as a third world country and will never become one if it stays on its current course. The people of Iran are doing a great job of expressing their views (while holding their tongue against the government) through blogging and keeping in touch with family and friends.

It’s a great thing that technology has reached this part of the Middle East. The Islamic regimes easily dictate their citizens, and knowing that the people have the freedom to blog and talk to whomever they want is a relief and calms the negative stigma outside nations may have towards Persians.

Top 10 sites according to alexa.com
1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. BLOGFA
4. Peyvandha.ir
5. MihanBlog
6.PersianBlog
7. Varzesh3.com
8. Wikipedia
9. Tabnak.ir
10. Cloob.com

Why is it?

While browsing the world wide web I came across a Los Angeles Times article that gave insight into the minds of Persians and their take on the Arab protests and unrest.

Mozhgan Faraji, a 33-year-old Iranian journalist was interviewed and subsequently brought up a good point.

"Why on Earth are the Western powers not interested int he unrest in Yemen and Bahrain?" she told the Times. "Are human rights in Yemen and Bahrain not as important as in Libya? Perhaps the Western countries are worried about the emerging revolutionary brand of Shiite in the region. But honestly, I am happy that the crazy leader of Libya is oing to be toppled."

This made me wonder, why are we paying greater attention to Libya than to other revolting nations? Are we paying too much attention to Moammar Kadafi and his overwhelmingly wanted dismissal from power?

Other Iranians interviewed agreed on one key statement: Kadafi has to go.

Some, like 48-year old Dokhi Sofi felt that the protests were a result of Western interference.

"I think Great Britain and the U.S. administration are behind the unrest in the region," she said. "They did the same with us 32 years ago and now the pro-U.S. and pro- U.K. are emerging in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. So the next regimes in these countries will be sort of Islamic. Like the Islamic Republic of Yemen or Bahrain."

These two views of the uprisings has me wondering how media is portraying the Western world in their publications. Is Iran printing anti-western articles purposely to fuel the hatred some Iranians already have for us or were these ideas created on their own?