How have Iran’s persecuted religious minorities used technology to organise themselves, express their religious beliefs, and cultivate online faith communities?
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging an intense and protracted campaign of discrimination and violent persecution against several of the country’s religious minority communities, whilst reducing others to second-class citizenship through inhumane legislation and
institutionalised discrimination.
But these communities are not passive victims; every day they demonstrate strength and creativity in the face of terrible oppression. Small Media believes in the ability of technology to bring about change, and the online activism and community organisation undertaken by Iran’s religious minorities is a clear demonstration of this change in action.
So we look on with real concern at the Islamic Republic’s efforts to control and monitor online activity, a move that threatens the future existence of these minority communities.
This report illustrates the essential role the the internet is playing in em-powering Iran’s repressed religious minority groups, and shows exactly why we need to continue fighting for a free and open internet in Iran.
James Marchant // Research Manager // Small Media // 30/5/2014
MAZAR-E SOLTANI
in our words
This site provides Iranian Sufis with access to the Sufi leader Mazar-e Soltani’s religious and philosophical teachings. Each day, a new audio file of Soltani’s sermons is uploaded to the site, and subsequently shared on a number of social media platforms.
The site also hosts an extensive archive of past content, though it is difficult to locate specific files based on content.
in their words
“The website of Mazar-e Soltani hosts statements from the leaders of the Nimatullahi Soltan Alishahi Gonabadi Order, as well as live radio and television broadcasts.”
user feedback and engagement Mazar-e Soltani’s Facebook page18 has received a total of 2141 likes (as of 08/05/2014), and hosted content is in fact more accessible than it is on the original website. Every day, the page is updated with new audio content, which is accompanied by a short description (missing on the site.) Posts tend to receive around 10-15 likes, though they are rarely shared, or commented-upon. Twitter19 is also a fairly popular platform for the site. The site’s Twitter account has a respectable 1371 followers (as of 08/05/2014), and publishes tweets on a near-daily basis.
Over 100 videos have been uploaded to the YouTube20 channel in the past year. The number of viewers of these videos varies from 38 to 400.
The site has a Yahoo group,21 with 1427 members (as of 08/05/2014). This space is used to share the same content as other social media platforms, on a daily basis.
Google+ is used,22 but isn’t particularly influential amongst Mazar-e Soltani users. The affiliated page had just 34 followers (as of 08/05/2014).
social media interaction
The site is comprehensively integrated with a number of social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and even Yahoo.
MAJZOOBAN
in our words
Majzooban is a Persian and English-language news site established to cover human rights abuses against Iran’s Sufi community. It has two primary audiences: the Gonabadi Sufis of Iran, and the international community.
Majzooban also covers other human rights violations, publishing and re-sharing the work of several human rights organisations.
The site, updated daily, encourages visitors to be active reporters by submitting reports on anti-Sufi discrimination via email or by using a provided webform.23 Archived radio programmes,24 articles, readers’ letters,25 and short book reviews27 are also hosted on the site.
The majority of the site’s administrators were arrested in 2011,26 and it is now administered by the remaining founder Farhad Noori.in their words“Our goals are to inform Sufis about their legal rights, to break the state media’s boycott of Sufi news, to admonish the regime for implementing the law improperly, and to ensure Iran’s commitment to international treaties. The regime’s pressures, lies and ‘news boycotts’ are the reasons that have forced Sufi communities to become active in cyberspace, in order that they may truthfully reflect their downtrodden situation and express their views.” user feedback and engagement Majzooban’s Facebook27 page is the most engaged-with platform, with 3980 likes (as of 08/05/2014). Updated website content and news articles are posted to this page. Recent posts have been shared several times, and hold a minimum of 20 likes each, demonstrating the existence of an attentive and engaged audience.
Majzooban’s Twitter28 account is less popular, having just 226 followers (on 08/05/2014). The page re-tweets links to new website content on a daily basis.social media interaction
Majzooban is well-integrated with social media, with an active presence on both Facebook and Twitter.
web-address:
majzooban.org
status:
social media integration:
blocked
minority muslim communities162 religious minorities in iran
FEATURE INTERVIEW
An Interview with Farhad Noori of Majzooban Noor
small media:
Please introduce yourself, and the work that you do.
farhad noori:
My name is Farhad Noori. I’m 28 years old, and I am one of the founders of the Gonabadi Sufi news website Majzooban Noor. Since 2007 I have held a number of different positions at the site, including editor, journalist,
technical director and security director.
small media:
What are the major difficulties facing Sufis in Iran today?
Why does the Iranian government seem to have a problem with them?
farhad noori:
The most important issue facing Iranian Sufis is that their civil rights are not respected. The pressure is not coming from the elected government, but from the religious radicals and extremist groups at the core of the Iranian regime who enjoy the full support of prominent clerics such as Nouri Hamedani and Makarem Shirazi in Qom.
small media:
Could you talk a little about the history and activities of Majzooban?
farhad noori:
Iranian Sufis have faced a lot of repression in recent years, none of which was covered by the national media.
The first attacks on the Gonabadi Sufis went unreported, as did the 2006 destruction of the Shariat Qom Hosseinieh (the Sufi place of worship in Qom) by security forces, the arrest of 1500 Sufis, and the trials of several hundred more. Majzooban Noor was launched in early 2007 by a number of lawyers, jurists and Sufi activists to shatter the state’s boycott of Sufi news, and to report on the gross violations of the community’s human rights. Except for myself, all of the other founders of the site are in prison. Their names are: Hamidreza Moradi Sarvestani, Afshin Karampour, Farshid Yadollahi, Omid Behrouzi, Amir Eslami, Mostafa Daneshjou, Reza Entesari and Mostafa Abdi.
small media:
Who is Majzooban’s primary audience? Is the site targeted at Sufis in Iran, or people outside Iran?
farhad noori:
Both. The audience of Majzooban Noor are Sufis inside and outside of Iran, as well as news agencies and human rights organisations. After years of covering community news, Majzooban Noor has become the official news website of the Gonabadi Order. It reflects the violation of Sufi rights, and is used as a reference by institutions and human rights organisations. For example, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed has made use of the information published in Majzooban Noor in his monthly and annual human rights reports.
small media:
How active is the Iranian Sufi community online? What kinds of websites or social networks are they using?
farhad noori:
It’s difficult to figure out a precise number, but we estimate there are around 10,000 Sufis active on Facebook, alone. Majzooban’s Facebook page has more than 7000 likes, and there are a number of other Facebook groups with several thousands members, as well. On average, Majzooban’s website receives over 1 million visits per month. During periods of pressure on the Sufi community, and on Sufi prisoners, it can receive up to 2 million visits per month.
small media:
How do Sufis use social networks? Do people set up closed Facebook groups, for example? What kinds of topics do Iranian Sufis talk about on social networks?
farhad noori:
On Facebook there are several Gonabadi Sufi groups that have been launched by Sufis. Some of these groups are only used to share texts or quotations from Sufi leaders, or Sufi imagery. News from Majzooban also gets shared in these groups. Most of these Facebook groups are open to public.
small media:
Does the government attempt to interfere with or restrict Sufi communities online? Are Sufi websites
blocked? Why does the government do this?
farhad noori:
News about the Gonabadi Sufi community is boycotted by the media, and the state does everything it can to prevent information about human rights violations being made public. Since 2007, Majzooban’s web address has been blocked more than 40 times. Since September 2011 we’ve suffered four severe DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on our servers, two of which caused the site to come down for several hours. However, with the help of some friends the site soon continued its activities once again.
small media:
As the government closes more and more hosseiniehs, and imposes more limits on the Sufi community, do you think that Sufis will begin to organise more and more online? What do you think the future holds for Iran’s Sufi community?
farhad noori:
The growth in people’s usage of the internet and new communication methods has increased the speed at which Sufis can share information. This has helped us a lot, especially when we need people to react to situations quickly by spreading information to a large audience.
At the same time, this spread of technology has caused problems for Gonabadi Sufis working with Majzooban Noor, as network security breaches and new forms of online communication have sometimes made them more vulnerable. Despite the extreme limitations Iranian Sufis have faced over the centuries, they continue to maintain their unity and will continue doing so in the future. With further developments in the tools and media available to them, they will surely be able to communicate with each other more quickly and more easily, because this community is like a very big family: we face our problems together, and we solve them together.
FACEBOOK COMMUNITIES
Sunni and Sufi groups have been increasingly smothered in public spaces in Iran; Sufis have seen their centres of worship demolished, and their congregations disbanded, whilst Sunnis have been regularly treated as second-class citizens, frequently being denied access to appropriate religious leadership, and suffering disproportionately from state harassment and arbitrary arrest. Websites such as Majzooban Noor and Sunni Online are useful platforms for minority Muslims in Iran, serving the national community whilst pushing to raise awareness of human rights violations in the international community. But they are activist sites – how do regular Sufi and Sunni Iranians use the internet? Are their social media interactions similarly politically-charged, or do they use it to discuss matters of faith? The names of users, groups and pages have been omitted, in order to protect them from state monitoring and persecution.