Features>>> Archive
"Miti Joon" and two other tracks TRAVELERS
Photo essay: My place back home TRAVELERS
Photo essay: Shiraz and Isfahan
Interview with a former prisoner Kianoosh Sanjari: I was a student at the University of Tehran. The first time [I was arrested] was for being involved in a demonstration. I wasn’t a political activist at the time. I was 17 years old and in my second year of university studying graphic design. I was being charged for supposedly being involved in a demonstration that was against the Iranian government. I was beaten up really badly before being taken to Tehran’s Evin Prison. The officials blindfolded us and threw us into police vans to and from the different destinations. Soon after, we were transferred to a place called Tohid for interrogation. We were taken secretly in and out of facilities blindfolded so we wouldn’t know where we were going. The officials would often play psychological games with us so we would lose our sense of direction >>>
If the unity of Iran can only be achieved through fear, intimidation, force and censorship, then we will never start our path toward a free society Having written articles being critical of a few aspects of the Iranian society I had become used to getting e-mails, insulting me, but also naming me an Israeli (a Jew more specifically) who wants to divide Iran. Then I made it clear that I was not a Jew but an Iranian Turk, then I received e-mails, insulting me, but also naming me a pan-Turkist, and Torke khar (donkey Turk), who wants to divide Iran. I am indeed a Torke khar to a quite large number of those Iranians who are devout believers in what I do not believe. What I do not conceive though is how some articles can divide a country? How some articles can divide a nation? What fragile a country can that be? >>> LATEST LETTERS On Guive Mirfendereski's "Stupid is what stupid does": I like Guive's total disrespect for Iranian hypocrisy. You only need to look at what the regime's Satellite TV output in recent years to realise how important it has been for it to gain respectability among the Iranians Diaspora by getting them to go back for visits. I thought it remarkably restrained of Guive. He forgot to mention all the ladies travelling to Iran to get cheap and excellent plastic surgery with their dual passports. Little do they realise or perhaps wilfully chose to ignore that the expertise and skill learnt by our surgeons was gained during and as a direct result of the damned war with Iraq. It is no good denying that by getting people to go back is seen as legetimizing IRI. You cannot be just a little pregnant no matter how much lie to yourself >>> LATEST LETTERS On Guive Mirfendereski's "Stupid is what stupid does": I like Guive's total disrespect for Iranian hypocrisy. You only need to look at what the regime's Satellite TV output in recent years to realise how important it has been for it to gain respectability among the Iranians Diaspora by getting them to go back for visits. I thought it remarkably restrained of Guive. He forgot to mention all the ladies travelling to Iran to get cheap and excellent plastic surgery with their dual passports. Little do they realise or perhaps wilfully chose to ignore that the expertise and skill learnt by our surgeons was gained during and as a direct result of the damned war with Iraq. It is no good denying that by getting people to go back is seen as legetimizing IRI. You cannot be just a little pregnant no matter how much lie to yourself >>> TRAVELERS
Photo essay: Yemen
Statement on behalf of Kian Tajbakhsh and other Iranian academics The repressive policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards its own citizens has once again targeted innocent academics engaged in sustaining a modicum of normative relationship between Iranians and the outside world. While the unconscionable arrest of Ms. Haleh Esfandiari of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has received a well-deserved and widespread attention in the United States, that of a prominent Iranian social scientist, Kian Tajbaksh, among other Iranian academics, has scarce been noted... The systematic abuse of human and civil rights of Iranian citizens can only exacerbate Iran’s international isolation and play into the hands of warmongers in the United States >>>
God and the devil having a drink
For every soul it is as different as the rain drops that fall from the sky
Regime change
This is a thieves' world
The day I fell in love with you
Following your path
I have no one else to trust except my pain PEOPLE
Photo essay: Scotland's Highland Games
Why has the Freedom Movement been silent towards suppression of women's activists
According to the American press the United States have started a secret destabilization program against Iran. The fact that this program is out in the press however no longer makes it a secret program. In this program they have found a strong partnership with Israel and several Sunni countries. Their aim is to destroy the Iranian regime by attacking their oil industry and increasing tensions between the authorities in Tehran and different ethnical minorities >>>
The Presidency is having its impact on Ahmadinejad's physical posture The short, sudden twitch on his shoulders are becoming more visible and frequent. They usually erupt when he is addressing large crowds. Maybe its because he is excited, or because he is nervous. No one can be sure. Yet, he turns into a completely different person when he is giving TV interviews, especially to foreign reporters. Suddenly, the twitches disappear. It's as if he is in a trance. In such circumstances, he is a postcard picture of a confident Pasdar (Revolutionary Guard). I use to have a teacher like him at school. He too was a Pasdar. Friendly, and at times nervous. But when we used to ask him to recount his war stories, it was as if someone flipped a switch. His eyes would shine, his back would straighten, and his voice would boom with confidence. The same happens to Ahmadinejad >>>
Sktech book
Marjane Satrapi's award at Cannes is a victory for all
Best to steer clear of any moral arguments. Especially ones you can't defend. Here's what Condi ought to do, if she meets with her Iranian counterparts: Shake all of their hands with the cameras rolling. This will establish you as the one with power. Even if they pull away, smile even more broadly and turn to the cameras and joke that you 'don''t bite'. Reach in further and grab their hands in both of yours. If they run away, chase them around the table if you have to. Force them to acknowledge the ridiculousness of their anti-woman proposition. Apologize for the US led overthrow of Mossadegh, and correct the impression the US tried to portray about him at that time. Admit that Mossadegh was not in fact a communist. Declare Mossadegh a genuine hero of the Iranian people. Doing this will take some of the wind out of their sails >>>
Interview with an Iranian transgender Everyone is trying to elucidate/preach that this is not right as it's interfering with God. They will start ranting about how you are making a mistake as you are really a boy. A sick society which made you ill in the first place is now pointing at you and calling you sick. And after that, it will just leave you alone without giving you the help you need. Out of all these pressures that are applied, several consequences might emerge. You might run away from your home and family, which itself will result in to two possibilities. You either have to become a prostitute and the consequences of that are you getting stabbed, raped, becoming infected by Aids or consequences similar to these. The second possibility is that using the money that you get from prostitution, you will be able to get the sex operation sooner. One has a lot of problems being in this dual state >>>
Iranian Rap bringing social change Popular Music is heavily criticised by the Frankfurt School of thought with one of its famous theorists Theodor Adorno regarding it as being produced by monopoly organisations who brainwash individuals into thinking that popular music provides them with pseudo-individualisation. I have selected Iranian Rap music to critique Adorno's theory in relation to the way in which modern contemporary society understands mass and popular culture. The Iranian revolution had its roots in Marxism however in modern society a post modern approach will prevail as Iranian youth bring much needed social change through a progressive revolution. They will use popular music genres such as Rap music to send their messages for change >>>
In Haale's music, the calloused fingers that Jimmy Hendrix planted alongside Farrokhzad's ink-stained hands have sprouted Before Haale Gafori, no singer had made me dig up my collection of Forough Farrokhzad poems to find the verse where the poet plants her ink-stained hands in the garden. Yes, Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Khatereh Parvaneh occasionally send me scampering to the bookshelf for a familiar masnavi or ghazal, but flipping through Forough after a concert is new. Finally, after years of putting up with that stubborn staccatoed synthesizer beat in Persian restaurants, a new kind of Iranian-Western theme has arrived that does not trigger a Pavlovian response to order the koobideh. Haale, the thirty-something Iranian singing talent is from New York, touring California. Her audience, like her music, is developing fast. These days her mystic compositions are making headway with spiritually curious Americans who delight in Eastern exotica >>>
NEW ZEALAND -- Late in 2004 I had the great pleasure of spending a wonderful month in your country. Most of this time was spent down around the cities of Bam and Kerman. What a wonderful place and what fantastic people. I made friends there that I shall miss, maybe for the rest of my life. I was exposed to a part of your country that my peirs can only wonder at when I recall the memories of a time to distant >>> PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo essay: “Movements in Adagio” – 25 years of photography by Naveed Nour At this stage of his artistic career Naveed had found color and his love for Impressionism combined with more than 25 years of photography created a new style that we have never seen before. One of his “paintings” had Degas written all over it while some were just a strong representation of form and color, nevertheless having you wonder about the context of it, and sure enough, just like his earlier black and white photographs, each painting was a telling a story of life >>>
Recent detention of several Iranian-Americans with ties to various think tanks here in the United States by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence comes at a time when the negative publicity has emboldened those pressing for forceful regime change and will undoubtedly strengthen the Western case for passing yet another set of debilitating sanctions against Iran for refusing to give up its legal right to Uranium enrichment at the U.N. Security Council. Whether those detained are guilty of the serious charges leveled against them is beyond the scope of this writing. Latest reports seem to indicate that the arrests were probably unwarranted. But in order to do an objective analysis and make any sense of this latest episode, one has to consider the entire chain of contributing factors >>>
Relations between Islamic Republic and United States Once again talks about negotiation between Islamic government of Iran and American leadership have become a hot topic in both countries. Leaders of Islamic Republic, as always, are issuing all kinds of mixed messages through promises of helping Americans in Iraq and willingness to negotiate and also repeating same old rhetoric on issues like nuclear activities and presence of American troops in Persian Gulf region. From the other side, American policy makers have been tangled in a power struggle since last congressional election which has greatly influenced their ability to deal with non domestic issues. Leaders of Islamic regime in Iran appear to believe that this divide among elements in American leadership is in their interest and openly try to capitalize on that in order to find a support in American government for trouble free extension of their system >>>
Bush & Co. hope to provoke a strong reaction from Iran in an attempt to justify a military attack The relationship between war and resources is nothing new. “One drop of oil,” said Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France in the second half of World War I, “is worth one drop of blood of our soldiers.” Today, the U.S. policy makers seem to think that one drop of oil is worth one drop of blood of soldiers and the slaughter of thousands of Arab and Muslim lives. However, to cover their racist ambitions, they disguise their greed as ‘war on terror’ or ‘democratization’. Knowing that by controlling the world's energy resources in conjunction with the superiority of the U.S. military, the United States would be able to intimidate and coerce the world more effectively, oil policy--wars or covert actions -- have become the overriding determinant of the American foreign policy >>>
Predominance of non-sense
I'm not a fan of the great Persia or believe in Aryan purity and superiority. Therefore I must be a Jew? It has long been a common practice among many countries, nations or peoples, to create divine boundaries, crossing which would constitute alienation, disgrace, humiliation, profanation and so on. The scope of these divinities have usually (but not always) been to protect an unnatural and normally unsustainable ideology or creed feeding and sustaining a well-established and organised clique. Examples are aplenty, especially among religions, but also among various other big-promising ideologies. These ideologies (religions and so on) feed on the ignorance, fear and, of course, the lack of education of the masses. Uneducated and ignorant masses form the best possible political and judiciary protection against outside threats, whatever they may be. Such ideologies need divinities, as mentioned earlier, without which their true faces would surface >>> ART
Digital graphics ART
Photography
I am opposed to dialogue with the regime because I find it unconscionable I have received e-mails some of which expressing their desire for a dialogue with the Iranian regime as a just cause. I am opposed to such dialogue on several grounds. The supporters of dialogue between the US and the regime have never shown, articulated, or even tried to articulate how such dialogue would benefit the Iranian people. Attempts of this kind have been at best limited to vague references to change in countries where the US had diplomatic presence. Moreover, the crimes committed by the regime make any such dialogue unconscionable in my opinion. I am opposed to dialogue with the regime because I find it incapable of addressing the fundamental issues that underlie the Iranian normalcy crisis in the past 28 years >>>
Evolution of a fool
Bunkers around another bitter night
Yek she're khoob baa sedaaye Shamloo kayf meedahad
To aahangi o man taaram
When the queen of seduction challenges the retired womanizer
Akharin lahzeh POSTCARDS
Photo essay: Tehran
Maashine siaah rooye zamin deraaz keshideh bood
Creating a Benazir Bhoutto for the next round of fooling a nation There have been a lot of discussions in recent years about Iranians abroad visiting their homeland. This prompted me to put down a few possible reasons that entice some expatriates to take such trips despite the risks and conditions in Iran. Here are a few thoughts and you might want to add yours to the list at no charge: * To find out if there any small apartments available in northern part of Tehran that would be a good investment, so as soon as the regime changes they flip it and pocket the money. * To search, find and marry a zero-mile-virgin (dokhtareh sefre kilometer) and bring her to USA to do house chores and be a sex slave >>>
Dabashi may very well be Iran’s first truly globally-minded (and celebrated) modern-day philosopher Last night I had the opportunity to sit at a talk by the Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi. The talk was organized by an Iranian community organization in Virginia. Dabashi was in DC to launch his most recent book, Masters and Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema, and had also accepted an invitation by the Iranian-American community to come and give a talk in Persian. The event was in a humble elementary school and there was a good turn out. Dabashi who was there with his family, was cheerful and generous with his time. It was the first time I saw him in person -- having read some of his Op-eds, his Theology of Discontent (a mighty book on the Iranian Revolution of 1979), his work on Iranian cinema and his recent book Iran: A People Interrupted >>>
U.S. imperialist wars of aggression-by-choice continue unabated While traveling around Vietnam, you come across different kinds of western tourists. One staple of such a species is the American ex-military person. They usually display a proprietary disposition toward Vietnam which is inexplicable and shows itself in what they say and how they say it. In cultural studies, one would probably say the attitude is indicative of a not-so-subtle Orientalism mixed with a disturbing cocktail of ignorance-innocence plus a patronizing tone painfully visible to a lesser person, such as myself, from the Third World. One such ex-military person was encountered in a café in Sapa, a northern Vietnamese small town, with beautiful mountainous surroundings and lots of great trekking opportunities, going through spectacular scenes of terrace farming of rice and other farmed goods >>> GIVE AWAY
Photo essay GAZILLION LETTERS On Guive Mirfendereski's "Stupid is what stupid does": As usual , not an ounce of respect was given to your audience. I guess that must be the thrill and joy of writing for iranian.com for you. You must be so proud of the "painful" decision you have made, in fact so consumed by it, that you have totally forgotten, So adamantely, that even though such high profile people should not think of taking such a trip, yet they have to, do i hear you putting your arrogance aside and bother to ask why?, because they have fathers and mothers they have to attend to. DO you have any loved ones in iran? >>> More [Letters -- Part 1 Part 2]
Introduction to "Rostam: Tales of Love & War from Persia's Book of Kings" Rostam is the greatest hero of pre-Islamic Persian legend, and he and his exploits dominate the first half of our principal source for such material, the Shahnameh, the magnificent compendium of verse narratives concerned with pre-Islamic Iran that was written down by the poet Ferdowsi at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries c.e. As befits an ancient hero he is a larger-than-life figure: he lives for over five hundred years, he undergoes seven trials of strength, cunning, and endurance that put him in the same company as Hercules and his labors, he defeats and kills not only innumerable human enemies but also dragons and demons, he serves as the pre-eminent champion of no less than five Persian monarchs and lives through much of the reigns of two more >>>
I love Seer Torshi or Pickled Garlic. I have mentioned it before, it's because it reminds me of Shomal. Recently, I decided to look up how to make my very own jar of Seer Torshi. Excitedly, I opened my new Persian cookbook, New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij, to page 259 where the recipe for Seer Torshi is. I reviewed the list of simple magic ingredients, and of course, given the gourmet nature of the recipes, I noticed an added ingredient: my very own favorite little barberries or zereshk, which are supposed to be placed in the middle of a garlic clove. Wow, can you believe the combination of garlic and zereshk? She is a genius >>>
Cherishing our lives in America, while on many occasions successfully managing to hold on to our Iranian heritage, language, culture, and all I was born in Amirieh neighborhood of Tehran. Before my first birthday, my parents moved us into a huge villa style house in suburban Tehran. I grew up in that suburb of Tehran, attended schools nearby and eventually went to Kharazmi High School from which I graduated. I was a typical Tehrani girl who knew the city like the back of her hand, and was nimble in moving from one point to another, claiming the big, beautiful, ugly Tehran as her hometown. My parents had come to Tehran from Hamadan in the 1930’s when they had been very young, and had later married and given birth to all my brothers and sisters in Tehran. Our contact with Hamadan had been very limited and infrequent, limited for the most part to some relatives of my father’s visits to Tehran >>>
Statement by scholars of Iran and the Middle East protesting detention of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari by the Iranian government The arbitrary detention and confinement of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, a prominent Iranian-American scholar and the director of the Middle East program at the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., is the latest distressing episode in an ongoing crackdown by the Islamic Republic against those who, directly or indirectly, strive to bolster the foundations of civil society and promote human rights in Iran. Over the past year-and-a-half, this onslaught has targeted prominent women's rights activists, leaders of non-governmental organizations, student and teacher associations, and labor unions. In recent weeks, scores of women's rights activists have been harassed, physically attacked and detained for no greater a crime than peaceful demonstrations and circulating petitions calling for the elimination of discriminatory laws and practices >>>
San Francisco Bay Area Iranians take great pride in once again seeing a distinguished and well qualified individual being appointed to an important position within the city government. In March 2006, Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Iranian born Dr. Fred (Fariborz) Abadi as his new Director of Public Works for the city of San Francisco, making him the first Iranian ever holding this position. Dr. Abadi has over 20 years of experience in public works administration. Prior to his position in San Francisco he was the Deputy Director of Public Works in Minneapolis >>>
Paintings
Many years ago, in the early 1990s, the perennial flaring up of the hemorrhoids in Iran-UAE relations provided me with an opportunity to visit Iran after decades of being away. As proposed by the Iranian Mission at United Nations, I should have gone to Iran and participated in a conference about the status of the Tonbs and Abu Musa islands, a subject about which I knew a thing or two. As one watermelon too many were being placed under my arm, to puff me up and make me feel important, I came very close to accepting the IRI’s invitation to return to post-revolutionary Iran. I did not for the simple reason that this lot who rule the country cannot be trusted with one’s personal circumstance >>>
For the brave Iranian police
The Chinese barber
True, non-fictional, accounts of the lives of two women living in Iran Act I: R. was born in Khuzestaan, and then moved to Karaj when she was twelve. When she was in high-school, she took an IQ test on which she did so brilliantly that the school principal personally contacted the family to tell them about the exceptional potential of the by now 14 year old R. She went to college to study physics. This is when her family started pressuring her to get married. She fell in love with a poet/philosopher. The guy went to her house to ask for her hand in marriage. She agreed, and her parents were out of their skins. By now she was a sophomore in college. As soon as they got married, she was pressured by her husband’s family to have a child. The husband was on his family’s side. She gives in >>>
I realized that the tree died just about a month before Dad did When I visited the house couple of years ago, there was a huge persimmon tree in the middle of the yard, Dad's pride and joy. Along with this tree there were numerous other trees, couple of apple trees, a pear tree, grape tree, and a few hundred plants and flower bushes. I felt like Tarzan every time I entered the yard. But the persimmon tree overshadowed everything else. It was huge. I went home again this past September. My father passed away. As much as I hated going to the house in the country, I did. He was buried in that village and we all went to the house after the funeral. House looked silent and empty despite the fact that there were hundreds of people there. I walked towards the middle of the yard and as I felt the void of my father, I noticed that the persimmon tree is gone >>>
The concept of "other" and democracy
I would like to join Human Rights Watch, the Middle East Studies Association, and the International Society for Iranian Studies in strenuously condemning the persecution and now imprisonment of Haleh Esfandiari. These actions are deplorable in themselves, and also are a gift to Western hardliners who are trying to organize support for military action against Iran. Now is a time for diplomacy, negotiations, and relaxation of tensions, in accordance with the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans and Iranians, as recent polls reveal. The intolerable treatment of this highly respected scholar and human rights activist severely undermines the efforts of those who are seeking peace, justice, and freedom in the region and the world. EXHIBITION
Photo essay: "Walls of Martyrdom" symposium in Cambridge
How to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis By suppressing its critics and the independent media in Iran, the IRI has succeeded in identifying its nuclear project with Iranian national pride and interest. For the most part, it mobilized the people to rally behind the government. The IRI did not find anything else as popular as the nuclear project to inspire the support of the people. However, this mood is changing as people become disillusioned about Ahmadinejad’s campaign promises to improve the lot of the poor promises, but enlarging the tension with the West. These facts also have widened the gap between the ruling factions. Thus it is up to the West to win the people’s hearts and minds in Iran >>>
Introduction to new book on Iranian cinema You must be the most persistent little rebel roaming the streets of Tehran, planting seeds of fear in the hearts of all the reigning and potential tyrants of our homeland! I must tell you, I find myself in something of a quandary. We see each other once in a blue moon somewhere on this planet, and as soon as our conversations begin to build momentum, we must depart and travel in two opposite directions; usually you fly east and I west -- except of course the time I flew to Tehran after an absence of twenty years. You were born a year after the Iranian revolution of 1979. You are the walking embodiment of all its hopes and aspirations, the fragile target of all its terrors and tribulations. You are not just a young Iranian. To me, you are the embodiment of an era, the symbol of a nation in defiance and despair >>>
Ebrahim Golestan's talk at Stanford University
Part 3: "Look, it's not like I do hardcore drugs, I only smoke the pot." "Let dem in Roya. Stop squeezing dat von's cheeks and let her go so she can come and give her grandmother some love too." Shrieked my grandmother again from down the hall. She just shrieks when she talks. I think it's a reaction to my grandfather's declining hearing ability. This time though, her voice was followed by her body and she was moving at a swift pace. "Yes, Mamani." Roya Said as she linked her arm under Rob's. "Come on Rob. I'll show you to your room so you can wash up." She said all fidgety >>>
Since they found "Babak" and "Solmaz" too difficult to pronounce, they suggested that they should change their name to something more "American" Being a regular reader of Iranian.com and having a wide circle of Iranian friends from all corners of our world of diaspora, I've come to a conclusion about at least half of Iranian-Americans; they are embarrassed about being Iranian (this is a hereditary disease we have in making up statistics on the spot when we try and emphasis a point, e.g. "In Iran 80% of the people wish to flee to the West", we're all guilty of it, including you "Bobby" (Babak) and "Sally" (Solmaz). Bobby and Sally are the typical Eye-Ranian Americans from Orange County who love to invite the Johnsons next door to celebrate Thanksgiving >>> |
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