JERUSALEM—The last time I saw Hossein Derakhshan, he was wearing an "I Love Teheran" T-shirt as he sat opposite me in a Jerusalem cafe. In that interview eight years ago, the 32-year-old Iranian exile (self-imposed), who is credited with introducing the blogging culture to Iran, described himself as a man with a mission.
"I want to humanize Israel for Iranians and tell them Israel is not like what the Islamic propaganda machine is saying. And I want Israel to see Iranians who don’t look like (then-President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad."
Unfortunately for Derakhshan, when he traveled to Teheran two years later, Ahmadinejad was still in power. Although now a Canadian citizen, the blogger was arrested and, in due course, sentenced to 19 years for insulting Islam and cooperating with hostile powers.
A post from him appeared last week on his Google+ page. "I’m free after six years. I’m so grateful to [Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Khamenei."
Derakhshan had first visited Israel in 2006 and was invited back the next year to participate in a panel discussion at Ben-Gurion University on "Reform and Resistance in the Middle East". For Iran, he told the audience, he favored reform. "The system is democratic enough to permit change through elections," he said. Two years later, the disputed reelection of Ahmadinejad brought millions of protesters into the streets.
It was apparent in our interview that his line of thinking was well outside any mainstream. He opposed Iran’s bid for nuclear power plants on environmental grounds. However, he favored its development of nuclear weapons. "We need it as a deterrent," he said. "Not against Israel, but against the United States."
Although an avowed atheist, he said he favored an Islamic republic in Iran over a secular democracy. "I support any government that attempts to marry democracy and religion." Israel, he said, was an example of a country that had successfully integrated religion into its national fabric.
The son of a rug manufacturer in Teheran, Derakhshan was among the first of his generation in Iran to take up computers. In a column he wrote for a reformist paper, he revealed his method of adapting Persian letters to the internet. This was followed by the sprouting of tens of thousands of blogs, including by clerics and even Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. He became known in Iran as "the Blogfather". He immigrated to Canada in 2000 where he blogged both in Farsi and English.
On his two visits to Israel, he was smitten by the nightlife of Tel Aviv. He had celebrated his birthday a few days before our meeting in what he described as "the coolest bar in Tel Aviv" where he had gotten his hair cut at 10 P.M. in a side room. "It’s a city I could live in," he said. "It’s a mix of Middle East and European values and life style. If Iran opens up a bit more and could have public bars, Teheran would beat Tel Aviv."
He spoke of creating chat rooms in English, where Israelis could correspond with their peers in Iran and of organizing blogs where videos could be shown about each other’s country.
The tone of his blog changed sharply about two years later, becoming critical of Israel and praising Ahmadinejad. The reason became clear shortly afterwards when it was learned that he had returned to Iran—for reasons that are unclear.
It is not known whether he will return to Canada following his release or participate in the increasing social ferment underway in Iran.