All material below comes from Nasrin Alavi's book "We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs"

Baba on Repression - March 15, 2005 - http://www.baba.eparizi.com

A blogger [Arash Sigarchi] has been accused of apostasy. As we know, if he is convicted he will hang. Who is he? A 26 year old who sometimes writes a blog… What has he done? Perhaps he has written something against religion or perhaps he has been critical of one of our self-appointed gods?...

Activists should use this tragedy to unify in calling for the most basic of human rights… a unified call against the penalty for apostasy… Even if it is merely to make people around the world realize that we Iranians do not wish anyone's death… and will not kill someone for his thoughts… Let's all shout: 'Hey world, believe us! We are humans too!"

Fmsokhan on Blogging Anonymously - March 8, 2005 - http://www.fmsokhan.com

I don't want to end up in a 2x1m prison cell… I don't want to be beaten and tortured. I don't want to repent and sell out my old friends. I don't want to wear prison clothes…. I want to be free and stay that way. I want to write freely… I have to hide my real name from the torturers… Blame a regime that in the most vicious ways tries to oppress anyone who dares to think and write.

Younessa: "An Illegal Existence" - January 30, 2005 - http://www.Younessa.com

Have you noticed that everything that Iranians do is considered illegal and is banned by the regime? In reality, everything is outlawed, in a way. Listening to music or watching a film. The clothes you wear, what you drink, the games you play, the conversations you have and what you discuss. What you read and write. What you do on the Internet…

In total, everything that Iranians do on a daily basis is outlawed and the way people live their lives is illegal. Perhaps there is no other country in the world where there is such a cultural gulf between the people and its rulers.

Student Samieh Touhidlo grills Former President Khatemi - Youth Day 2004

Do you remember the student dormitory [attacks]? That day, in addition to the brutal injustice we endured… instead of our attackers, our fellow students were imprisoned. You were silent and told us to be silent too… All at once 16 publications were closed down… When they condemned our professors to death, you were silent… From then on, one by one, our classmates en masse were sent off to jail and you were silent… What we endure today, this bitter silence, is your legacy.

Golnaz1982 - March 9, 2004 - writing after Basij attacked an International Women's Day Demonstration in Tehran's Laleh Park - http://golnaz1982.blogspot.com

As the baton brushed against my ankle, I could hear the voice of the officer in charge of security: 'Give them a good thrashing! Show no mercy!' I witnessed three girls being viciously assaulted, the arrest of two other girls, and a woman who was sobbing with pain… But even so we won, as we got our trembling voices heard… They called whores, bitches… Yes I am a prostitute, if by that they mean 'virtuous' and ''pure'… I am a whore to their 'virtue'… We are the loneliest women in the world, with a new era of repression ahead.

Shabah: "I am a Dishonored Iranian Man" - October 5, 2003 - http://www. Shabah.org

I want to shout out to the world: "I am a dishonored Iranian man and am not a party to these crimes! Cross my name off the list! I am a person and I belong to a different time and era! A time when humans don't hunt each other down, and the price of living with honor is not death…" For the day [will come] when they will ask of us: "What were you doing during those black days?"

Atefe on a Vision for the Future - June 24, 2004 - http://atefe.persianblog.com (weblog has since been disabled)

Dear Basij [regime security forces]:
In answer to your question, [this is] the government we Iranians want:
" No government official has a job for life.
" The people elect the head of our government every four years.
" What parliament votes for us law and cannot be vetoed.
" The head of the judiciary is elected.
" No power is holy or sacred.
" No religious groups or races are discriminated against, even atheists…
Without a doubt the worst way to solve the problems of any society is to have a revolution. Just as the nastiest way of solving any international dispute is war. But when a society closes all its doors to change, the worst will happen.

RanginKamaan on Hypocrisy- April 22, 2003 - http://ranginkamaan.persianblog.com

The patrol cars that put fear in the hearts of our youth… The Militia forces that are there to safeguard national morality… The effect has been the total opposite and today our youth hold nothing sacred… For 24 years our youth have lived dual lives… the way they have to behave in schools and official places in stark contrast to their home life… private lives are the total antithesis of the dictates of the ruling clergy…

In a system where the leaders do not have the people's backing and keep power by force… these leaders are terrified of the smallest things… We are painfully aware of the manifestations of this totalitarian system… its absolute need to influence every aspect of the life of its individual subjects, and to produce people of uniform thoughts, while opposing free thought and democracy…

Blogger Sina Motellebi was arrested and charged with jeopardizing national security! You have to pity a regime whose national security can be jeopardized by the writings of a blogger! Or perhaps laugh… Jeopardizing national security by writing about art and literature!