Yesterday, boingboing.net reported that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a blog at www.ahmadinejad.ir.
Now they’re saying it might be a hoax.
I emailed the author of Fakhredinblog and asked for a little insight.
Here is the reply:
“There is no point to consider it a hoax, I think. The fact that he is using a gmail, etc. does not tell anything. His first entry on his blog is available in Persian, Arabic, English and French and includes an RSS feed. It is very clear that he does not run his blog personally. Simply he does not have time to organize a weblog in four languages including all those fancy features.
If one know a bit of background, it is very clear what the president wants to do. This blog is an attempt to show himself closer to younger generation, who are mostly bloggers. And, obviously, he tries to be away from the official president website, and keep this one personal. How far he can go, we wait and see. Some other politicians did it too. The most famous one is Mr. Abtahi who is the former vice president. He is successful, though.
BTW, it is annoying that < boingboing.net> use the phrase “Farsi-speaking.” I found no way on the website to leave a comment to say “Persian-speaking” is correct.
Fakhredin.
www.fakhredinblog-en.blogspot.com“
P.S. Here’s more info about calling the language Persian instead of Farsi.
Update: BoingBoing now reports that it really is his blog. And they link to this post.
In other news: BoingBoing Linked To This Post! And… somehow Wordpress messed it up and the post was marked as private for half of the day. So no one could get here! Argh.
I found it this morning, easily. In fact I wrote him. I asked for the release of the Iranian women sentenced to hanging for killing one of her rapists. I don’t expect an answer. : )
Comment by Patricia Hynes — August 16, 2006 @ 9:27 am
I found it on Monday, there was a link to it from Neal Boortz’s website. It took everything I had not to write him and tell him what I thought of him.
Comment by Patti — August 16, 2006 @ 10:10 am
This guy loves getting attention…the thing he would like the most, I’m sure, is to get one billion hits on his site. Even if all the comments are negative…he will love it. He’s like the bully on the playground…we need to ignore him.
I just hope and pray he doesn’t have or get nuclear capability.
Comment by Mark — August 16, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
all he wants is to get email from people like me, if you don’t respect him don’t email him, I am the guided one and I has just sent him email yesterday, and he will be Glad of hearing from me. do you know who the guided one is ? he is the imam Mahdi the one that ahmednejad is welcoming , wake up and see the world with your new eyes
Comment by abdifatah (imam mahdi) — September 22, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
I saw it and thought it was a hoax right off the bat.
He’s too busy smiling inappropriately and not wearing a tie to post in a blog.
Thanks,
LK
Comment by Laurie Kendrick — September 26, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
[not-so-]GentleWhisperer,
Why did you try to download *four* cookies onto my PC without my knowledge, as a price I must pay to hear your gentle whispering?
You’re not gentle. You’re not whispering, thank heavens, because anyone who chooses can catch you at your game. And can’t you please stop using your kids as a front? That’s abuse.
Ahmadinejad is at least upfront about his terrorism.
You stupid thing,
Lune
Comment by Lune Keltkar — September 30, 2007 @ 5:08 am
Lune,
Thanks for letting me know about the cookies. One of the extra traffic stats or widgets must be adding them. I wish you would have told me a little more info about them so that I could remove those features. I’ll investigate it a bit. I’m usually careful not to allow any tracking cookies.
The Meebo one probably only adds a cookie if you want to save your name in the chat box.
I’d appreciate a reply if you have any more info on what the cookies were for.
As to the rest of your comment, I’m sorry, it really makes no sense at all.
I’m sure you just stumbled upon this one post and assumed several things about who I am and what this blog is about.
Silliness.
Comment by Amy — September 30, 2007 @ 7:36 am
Many of the charges against President Ahmadinejad are trumped up lies. His speeches and writings in the native Persian language, Farsi, have been purposely misinterpreted to serve the interests of our war criminal President Bush, his henchman Chaney, and the Zionist, pro-Israel lobby that would love to see Iran totally annihilated (except for the oil wells, of course). This is the true reason we attacked Iraq. There were/are plenty of dictators on the planet far worse than Saddam Hussein. The Sudan, which is trying to commit genocide in Darfur, and the Right Wing Israelis who commit genocide every day in Palestine. But Mr Bush has no interest in protecting these people. Where’s the oil? Can the international corporations benefit from stopping the killing in Darfur? Rhetorical questions, yes, but perhaps they will lead a few people to think about what our present administration is really all about. We average Americans are being marginalized day by day. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is heading toward a greatly diminished quality of life. I earnestly pray that Bushy will not attack Iran before he leaves office, but I think the plans have been in the works for a long time now. And, I truly believe he will use nukes in his attack upon Iran. Our beloved Lord Jesus’ message was all about love. He taught that we should remove the tree from our own eye before we attempt to remove the splinter from our brother’s. Oh how I hope Hillary becomes our next president. Of course she is not perfect. No one can succeed in American politics without lying and cheating. But I am ready for an intelligent President who will lead the American people using vision and hope rather than fear. Respectfully, Steve McKinney
Comment by Steve McKinney — October 2, 2007 @ 6:44 am