Shirin Abadi Nobel Peace Prize News
The power of the Iranian blogs was demonstrated in 2003, with the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Abadi winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Because her human rights work had much to do with representing women, children, and dissidents against the regime, the official Iranian news failed to report the win. Several hours later it included in the nightly news a 15 second mention of the win, while failing to report her actual accomplishments aside for “a children's Charity.” Rather than traditional channels, therefore, the news and reactions to it spread on multiple blogs. Nasrin Alavi, author of We Are Iran, brings the statistics of www.damasanj.com, a website which works out which stories are most talked about in the Iranian blogosphere, which found that Ebadi dominated the top ten Rankings.8 Most were congratulatory, and sought to provide bios and facts on the nature of Ebadi's work, which the traditional press had failed to print. Bloggers went a step farther when they organized a reception for Ebadi at the Teheran airport upon her return on October 14, 2003. They called for people to celebrate her victory, as well as use the venue to protest the current situation of women's rights and oppression. Rather than the media, it was bloggers that provided up to date pictures of the reception to the public. Thousands of people attended, proving that bloggers could translate to actual events. Eventually this forced the government to respond to Ebadi's Prize in a more serious light: it cast Ebadi as an apostate and a member of a foreign conspiracy against Iran.
Read more about this topic: Blogging In Iran
Famous quotes containing the words nobel, peace, prize and/or news:
“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“It must be a peace without victory.... Victory would mean peace forced upon the losers, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which the terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I think of no news to tell you. It is a serene summer day here, all above the snow. The hens steal their nests, and I steal their eggs still, as formerly. This is what I do with the hands. Ah, labor,—it is a divine institution, and conversation with many men and hens.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)