Monday, May 05, 2003

Virtual voices

I've been participating in a group project called Virtual narrators. It is a kind of polyphonic ensemble. We all virtual narrators write in Farsi and the goal is to write a novel without a linear direction of a story or any direction or story at all. There is no rule how to write or what to write; something between democracy and anarchy. I am Iranian, born in a country full of dictatorship in its past and present. I live in abroad, but most of the participants of this project live in Iran. They write whatever they desire or whatever they think they should, having the fact that they live under a permanent shadow of fear. Recently, the young weblogger and journalist Sina Motallebi has been arrested and been in custody ever since, just because he was writing his weblog freely and he might have crossed some lines. Lines that you can't find them in law books. These lines are invisible to people. That's why writers, artists and activists never know when they are crossing a line and when they are going to be punished. Despite this uncertainty of law, people, specially young ones take the risk and do what they want. They write weblogs freely, wear what they want, speak out, party, they make love; even though they know all of the above is forbidden or considered as sin. And I salute them.

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