iraq’s
oldest blogger: ‘the internet can
shape the country’s future’
niqash | Kholoud Ramzi | Baghdad | 04.04.2012 shape the country’s future’
http://www.niqash.org/articles/?id=3023&lang=en
The internet offers everyone, regardless of gender, age or
ethnicity, an opportunity to help shape Iraq’s future. At least, that is what
one of Iraq’s best known bloggers believes. NIQASH met Ibrahim al-Allaf, web
fan and possibly the country’s oldest blogger.
The man who is, by all accounts, the oldest blogger in Iraq makes
the younger people around him look aged – especially when he starts to talk
about the Internet. Ibrahim al-Allaf is in his 50s, he has white hair and
glasses but his tone is so enthusiastic that his audience feels as though they
are in the presence of a much younger man.
Because al-Allaf believes that the Internet can change Iraq. And as
a result he spends more than 16 hours a day online, reading Facebook and
Twitter and on his blog, where he specialises in writing about culture,
history and politics.
According to the Iraqi Network for Social Media, there are now
around 900 relatively well known and well read bloggers in Iraq but Al-Allaf is
still considered one of the pioneers of blogging of the movement in Iraq. And
he was among around 52 bloggers who attended the country’s first conference for
local bloggers in February. The conference, held in Sulaymaniyah in the
semi-autonomous state of Iraqi Kurdistan, was organised by the Iraqi Network
for Social Media (INSM), a body for networking within social media founded in
April 2011.
Al-Allaf’s online journey began in 2007 in his home city of Mosul.
At that time there was a lot of sectarian violence in Iraq and Mosul was
largely controlled by the Sunni Muslim extremist group, al-Qaeda. Despite
difficult and dangerous conditions, al-Allaf continued to work as a professor
of history at Mosul’s university, where he would always insist that his
students knew their way around the “digital world” as he refers to it.
“A digital education is part of this era and those who do not enter
the digital world will be left behind,” al-Allaf says determinedly. “Many
writers my age prefer to publish their articles in print, in newspapers and
magazines. They prefer to stay away from the digital world because they are not
masters of appropriate online language.”
Al-Allaf did used to be published in print. He wrote for local and
national publications for 40 years before starting to self-publish online.
Before 2003, and the US-led invasion of Iraq that changed the nation
so radically, al-Allaf used dial-up internet. “But the cost was very high,” he
says. “Now that there’s been an improvement in Internet service providers, I’ve
been able to become more passionate about what the web can offer – and that’s
when I finally decided to start blogging.”
According to statistics al-Allaf’s blog is visited by at least 200
people every day and al-Allaf himself also shares the articles via social media
like Facebook and also sends them onward to be published on other well-read
Iraqi websites.
Al-Allaf does know of one particular group that won’t read his work:
his sons and grandchildren, who only use the internet occasionally and who
can’t understand al-Allaf’s passion for it.
His daughter, Hiba, a civil engineer who recently died of cancer,
was one of his only fans related by blood. “She was the one who helped me
whenever I needed to find information on the net and she also assisted me in
the translation of English texts into Arabic,” notes al-Allaf, who has two sons
and two daughters as well as 11 grandchildren.
Al-Allaf has been active in encouraging local civil society
organisations and action. During Iraq’s version of “Arab Spring”
demonstrations, around 70 Iraqi bloggers
were active in initiating meetings – most of them were younger than al-Allaf
but he was one of the most active. Although not all of the demonstrators’
blogs have remained popular or even still exist, al-Allaf thinks that their
replacements – other kinds of blogs dealing with culture, sport, food and other
more specialized topics – are just as important.
“They’ve given young Iraqis a taste for blogging and made them more
involved in other issues, and to take a step away from the never ending
political crisis in this country,” he argues.
During the February blogging conference, one trend al-Allaf
particularly noticed was the emergence of female bloggers – especially women
blogging in the field of civil society, politics and human rights. Out of the
52 bloggers present at the conference, nine were women.
And for al-Allaf, this is exactly why he is so fond of the
opportunities provided by the internet. “The world of blogging is open to
everyone,” he enthuses. “It is not monopolized by men, it is for all people
regardless of age and sex. It encourages the women of Iraq, some of whom
are oppressed and who may not speak their minds in public, to talk
openly, to express their opinions and have them heard. It allows us all to take
part in the shaping of our country’s future
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