Iran's top elected political leader not only blogs, he approves negative comments.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is not the first name that comes to mind when thinking of net surfers and instant messages. Yet, it turns out, the man is a blogger.
Equally surprising for a leader known for a kind of thundering public presence, his blog is not especially tough. He condemns Washington’s policies, but writes infrequently and more ponderously than in his confrontational speeches. Yet the reader comments posted alongside his own seem far less censored and harsher than one might expect.
“I think you are an evil leader,” one comment posted by an American reader said. “Freedom and tolerance are necessities in this day and age, and the fact that your country kills intellectuals, journalists, minorities is horrible and deeply disturbing.”
Another reader said his claim at Columbia University in September that there were no gays in Iran was absurd and called his domestic policies “brutish.” Still another wrote: “Shut up please, would you? I get headaches reading your nonsense stuff.”
Those comments run along with supportive ones, including postings that seem to refer to the new American intelligence estimate that Iran is not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, something Mr. Ahmadinejad had repeatedly asserted.
“I knew you were telling the truth,” wrote a Canadian.
The exchanges are available at ahmadinejad.ir in Persian, Arabic, English and French. The president has been keeping the blog for more than a year and promises to spend 15 minutes a week updating it.
“He has a very keen understanding of publicity,” said Karim Arghandehpour, a political scientist and journalist in Tehran. “His Web log shows how he believes in modern publicity instruments and wants to use them.”