Kathleen McCaffrey, Associate Editor
Ideology: Libertarian | Writing from: New York, NY
Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is supposed to announce unrestricted internet access as a top policy priority. In this, Clinton is supposed to offer “financial support to grass-roots movements that promote Internet freedom.” Roughly 30% of the world lives in countries that censor the internet – something I cannot fathom. I certainly hope that Ms. Clinton fulfills her promise, particularly when I consider the youth in Iran.
According to Abbas Maroufi, the youth in Iran are one step ahead of the Secretary. Maroufi, the exiled Iranian author of several controversial novels, explained to my class in December that many students at leading Iranian Universities have continually outsmarted the firewalls that their country spends an egregious amount of money constructing. These students are already targeted if they do well on tests, one can only imagine the risk they take just to receive information like you – the reader – are right now.
AccessNow.org already plays a significant role in this discussion as a group that helps videos and communications get past Iranian Internet barricades. This is because opposition groups in oppressive regimes find their greatest success through sharing information. In many cases, totalitarian regimes operate through an intricate network of lies and coercement. (See also: The Stasi, KGB, North Korea…) This is not usually possible if there is contrasting evidence that is found to be more legitimate or credible. The democratic Western way of living is probably more appealing when it’s portrayal is not perverted and monopolized by a megalomaniac religious zealot.
Beyond internet access, though, the US “Voice of America” and British BBC (satellite) TV could be a great way to inform what the west is truly like for the older generations. As it stands, Iran tries to jam broadcast signals in defiance of international law.
I have been told by Mr. Maroufi that the youth of Iran is willing and eager to abandon the destructive dictatorship they have been raised under. Access to knowledge of history and translations in Farsi to guides to nonviolent change like Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy” could go a long way in the hands of charismatic youths. If our country cannot take a harder stand against the leaders of these disenfranchised Iranians, the least it can do is help the majority of Iranians help themselves. After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Now if we could just get those debates on CSPAN like President Obama promised…