Persian bloggers : exile, nostalgia and diasporic nationalism

Exiled Iranian bloggers employ the cyber sphere to create an imaginary national community to remain connected to the homeland and to encourage a sense of belonging to a nation they were forced to leave behind. This constructed cyber community carries the nostalgic impulse of the exiled bloggers. The imaginary virtual Iranian community enables them to share past memories and their anticipation of a future return to Iran. This nostalgia is also located in the engagement in activism as they express nationalism while living in the diaspora. What tends to be absent when bloggers are engaging in a diasporic nationalism and the nostalgic impulse is an engagement of their diasporic experience, because they assume their exile is a temporary state. As a result of detachment from the diasporic experience in the blogs and a total disengagement from life in the diaspora, their integration into the new country is kept at bay.