Imamreza.tv54 was the first private and independent website run by Astan Quds Razavi (introduced in the previous chapter) and was initially designed to support online pilgrimage for Muslims by providing access to live video feeds from cameras installed both inside and outside of the shrine. The platform was designed to be used by both
54 This website was decommissioned and replaced with another on March 2012. The work of this section
English speaking and Farsi speaking Muslims, supporting both languages on some sections. The website was established around December 2005.55 It was a webpage with a background showing a photo of a blue, clear sky with some clouds in the top center of the photo, with rays of sun beaming out of the left corner of the cloud (Figure 5.1). Based on the fact that in Islam Imam's faces and heads are represented as a circle of light to indicate their holiness, this use of light may have been a way a way to emphasize the holiness of this site. In the foreground, there is a window with four sections, each with a separate tab. Depending on which tab is selected, the main window will show video feeds from that section of the shrine. These include Rozeh (shown in Figure 5.1), which shows the male entrance to the tomb chamber, as well as a part of the tomb chamber itself.
Figure 5.1 Male entrance to the tomb chamber (source: Imamreza.tv accessed April 2012)
The other views are of Jomhuri, showing the shrine dome and minaret from the outside; Enghelab, which shows the shrine from the Enghelab courtyard; and finally, Marasem (Figure 5.2), which refers to religious ceremonies. This section was intended to broadcast videos of sermons and religious ceremonies that were held in parts of the shrine. These area names are written in English and there is no Persian equivalent of them on the website, suggesting that perhaps this was a feature intended as an invitation to non-Iranian Muslims or English-speaking Muslims.
Figure 5.2 Religious ceremony (Marasem) (source Imamreza.tv accessed November 2015) Pilgrims could double click on the video and zoom in, so they could get a closer look of each area, for example the tomb chamber (Figure 5.3).
Figure 5.3. A close-up view of the tomb chamber (source: Imamreza.tv accessed April 2012)
On the very top right corner of the main window there is the local time in English, followed by Mashad in Farsi letters. On the right side there is a menu which reads ‘comments form,’ which links to a section for submitting comments and suggestions, then ‘Your Words’, which allows you to view all comments, then a Holy Shrine Map (indicated as ‘coming soon’), Photo Gallery (‘coming soon’), Shia Calendar (‘coming soon’) and, lastly, events inside the shrine. Except for the last item (events in the shrine), the rest of the titles are written in both English and Farsi with a forward slash to separate the two languages. Below this menu is an audio tool which occasionally plays sermons, or a recital of religious prayers. At the very bottom a line reads the date along with the forthcoming events inside the shrine.
Since this platform supported English, it enabled a visibility into the community of Shiite Muslims who were away from the shrine and were using this platform on a daily basis. Helland (2007) notes that the development of the internet and the applications and tools
that are made available through it has brought members of the diasporic religions together. A glance at one of the pages of the comment section reveals that not only Iranian Shiite Muslims inside Iran would utilize this platform for pilgrimage practice, but also Iranian pilgrims from across the world. Figure 5.4 shows prayers from Iranians inside Iran, but also from Canada, Germany, India, Korea, Canada, United States, and Poland.
Figure 5.4 Prayers from Iranians (Source Imamreza.tv accessed in November 2015)
From ‘can you make the videos bigger?’ to ‘greetings Imam Reza, help me’!
This online platform was built for the purpose of connecting pilgrims to the shrine of Imam Reza with the aid of live videos, but like many websites, it contained a section for
comments. The English title for this section was ‘comment form’ and the Farsi translation was ‘sending suggestions’, and as the titles suggest the designers of this platform created this option as a way to communicate with the visitors and pilgrims who used the platform. The titles ‘sending suggestions’ and ‘comment form’ indicate a place where users can post their requests and suggestions and share issues that they may encounter in relation to the website. In the first months that the platform was up, most comments that were posted were targeted towards the website administrators; that is, they were posted and publicly shared in this section. Later on, however, the comment section was filled with not only suggestions but also pilgrimage prayers that addressed the Imam. In order to leave a comment, users/pilgrims should provide an email, a name, and the country where they were writing the comment from, followed by their comment or pilgrimage prayer. The comments were mostly suggestions for better delivery of this service, such as adding more cameras, or reporting technical issues such as the poor quality of the videos. Mojtaba’s post from Afghanistan says:
In the capital of Afghanistan (Kabul) the audio (of this site) is great, but the video has issues [...] (Source Imamreza.tv posted on 2006 August).
or Bahram, a pilgrim, writes:
Hi, please give us a view from inside the zarih, the current cameras are not installed in the right locations (Source Imamreza.tv posted on 2007 January).
Pilgrims felt not only an absence of views from inside the shrine, but also a lack of enough cameras to allow them to view more spaces around the shrine. This points to the fact that absences are not things that exist in themselves but are made to exist through relations that give these absences significance. They come to matter through
the interaction between the pilgrims and the online platform, in this case expressed in the form of comments.
In contrast, one comment in this section expressed appreciation for this tool and thanked the administers for making this connection between pilgrims and the Imam possible. Abbas from France wrote:
This is great, thanks for this great work, it enables us to perform pilgrimage to the holy shrine from afar (source Imamreza.tv posted on 2006 August).
The website administrator would at times reply to these comments under the name ‘website manager’, usually writing his/her reply below the comment and separating it with some dots (Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.5 Replies from the website manager (source Imamreza.tv accessed in November 2015)
[...] is there a chance for taking videos from inside the shrine? [...] website manager: greetings to you dear pilgrim from afar[...] when we have certain ceremonies and religious events taking place inside the shrine we will broadcast it live on this site […] (Soudeh October 2006).
It becomes evident that website managers are essential agents in the remediation, as technical people who are responsible for running, designing and managing the platform. Their replies on the platform include as well giving assistance and information with regards to online pilgrimage. For example, Leyla asks ‘[...] why is the video image blurry and not clear?’ and the website manager replies’ [...] the quality of the videos depend upon your internet speed and bandwidth’ (Figure 5.6).
Figure 5.6 Website manager’s response (Source Imamreza.tv accessed in November 2015)
Pilgrims as well are actively taking part in shaping the tool to enhance the pilgrimage experience. Mohammad Mehdi, an Iranian who lives in Europe writes:
[...] I suggest, if it is possible to make the videos bigger [...] also, if possible to add more cameras inside the shrine [...] for now this (tool) is great, thank you so much, it is useful for all, especially for us who are abroad and in Europe [...] (Source Imamreza.tv accessed in November 2015).
Many pilgrims, besides reporting issues and suggesting new features, began to post their pilgrimage prayers in the comment section addressing Imam Reza directly. Sadate Razavi, from the United Kingdom, wrote:
Greetings Imam Reza, help me, after God I don’t have anyone else to rely on, save me dear sir, [...] help me to be with you all the time [...] (Source Imamreza.tv accessed in November 2015).
The presence of more and more pilgrimage prayers posted in the comment section marked the absence of a section of the platform which was explicitly dedicated to pilgrim’s prayers. The website managers subsequently renamed this section, reconfiguring its purpose.