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Middle East Review of International Affairs
Cyberdissent: The Internet in Revolutionary Iran
by Babak Rahimi
*
Abstract
This paper argues that the internet, as an advancing new means of communication, has played an important role in the ongoing struggle for democracy in Iran. While outlining its history in Iran amidst an ambiguous state response to its rapid development since 1993, the paper also attempts to show how the internet has opened a new virtual space for political dissent. The paper claims that the internet is an innovative method for resistance in that it essentially defies control and supervision of speech by authoritarian rule seeking to undermine resistance.
Full PDF Document, 15 pages, 85 kb
Note *: Babak Rahimi is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Political and Social Science at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He was also a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2000- 01. The subject of his dissertation is an historical sociological study of the early modern Iranian public sphere, 1590-1641. Back