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This photograph of (from left) Paree, Shireen, Lailee and Parveen Bakhtiar was taken in the mid-1930s, probably in Tehran They are the daughters of Abol-Ghassem Bakhtiar (of Boroujen, Bakhtiari) and Helen Jeffreys (of Weiser, Idaho).

There are several reasons why this photograph was chosen:

• It was available: It is a picture of my mother (Shireen) and her sisters.
  
• It's sweet and innocent.
  
• It's a picture of children of mixed culture, whom we see more and more in the Iranian expatriate community.

And -- it wasn't planned this way, but-- much of the content in this issue has been produced by women or is about women. I think Iranian women deserve better and subconsciously, I guess, I have gathered things related to them.

And I think women, in general, are wonderful.

***

My mother used to publish a newsletter for the National Iranian Oil Company in Abadan in the late 60's. But when I was growing up, I never knew what her day-time job was. I knew her as a painter. But somehow she thought I would become a journalist. On the first page of her scrapbook she dedicated it to me, when I was only a child, and wrote something to the effect that I would one day go into journalism.

Well, mom, somehow you were right. I dedicate this issue to you.

Thanks and love, always

Jahanshah

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Covers of back issues

No. 7: Peeshang at grandmother's house in Shiraz, 1989. Photo by J. Javid.

No. 6: Local man at Babolsar beach, Caspian Sea, 1995. Photo by J. Javid.

No. 5: Mahdiyeh Javid at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, 1994. Photo by J. Javid.

No. 4: Race track in Turkaman Sahra, circa 1995. Photo by Ali Rahbar.

No. 3: Samira Sinai, Tehran 1994. Photo by Gizella Varga Sinai.

No. 2: Siyoseh Pol Bridge, Isfahan, circa 1994. Photo by Mahdi Mon'em.

No. 1: Mahdiyeh Javid in Alborz valley northeast of Tehran, circa 1991. Photo by J. Javid