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Friday
May 4, 2001

* Not shying away from zoor-gooz

I decided that anyone who spends so much time answering a letter of mine deserves a response ["Molla apologist"].

My father, Ali Sabety, was a member of parliament under Reza Shah and a senator in the first Senate. I apologize for having called him a senator when he was just a member of parliament (vakil-e-majlis). I was not trying to be deliberately misleading.

But in any case, my point would not have changed. He was one of the few outspoken MPs and senators in the Pahlavi majlis. The record of his positions and stances are all public. If you really have so much time on your hands to write such lengthy polemics, you might want to take a trip to the library of the Majlis and see for yourself.

My father was blocked from the Senate and prevented from running for another term largely due to his outspoken contempt for the last Shah's dictatorial rule. I have heard that the Shah turned against him because of a poem that my father had written. But since in those days everyone feared the SAVAK, children were not told these things.

He was not a revolutionary, he just backed off rather than leaving the country or causing more trouble. Many times I questioned him on why he did not leave and avoid living under such a regime. He always answered by saying that he loved Iran too much and was too old to be a revolutionary >>> FULL TEXT

Setareh Sabety

* Treasonous monarchy or vampiric mollas?

I'm absolutely appalled by what has been transpiring between Reza Shah's rhetoric mongers "parroting" irrelevant, deceptive and fallacious arguments ["Molla apologist", "Reza Shah's achievements"] and "gutsy" Ms Sabety ["...No Mossadegh" "Not shying away"].

At any rate, whether her father was a senator or not, you cannot change the historical fact that Iran under Mohammad Reza Shah was a colony of United States run by 37,000 Americans. If anything, for the sake of history, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi should be charged with treason and put on trial postmortem.

By the same token, and after seeing Maryam's heart wrenching picture (one of many victims of drug addiction epidemic in Iran), I am equally appalled by the diabolical mollas who have wrapped themselves around religion to prolong their vampiric reign >>> FULL TEXT

Shideh

* Mollas damaged Iran for a 1,000 years

In response to Peerooz's letter "Hazrat Abolfazl & the Shah", I agree that we should have a civilised discussion, but how can I? when Peerooz twists and changes my words every time?

I never said "70 million idiots" or that "they need a guardian" ["Ignorants brought mollas"]. Remember that I am against the "Velayat e Faqih". He either doesn't read these letters properly before responding or deliberately twists them to his advantage. Either way it is a cheap trick. Just as cheap as it is to accuse the Shah's supporters of being religious fanatics like Khomeini's.

However I did say that there are some idiots and hooligans in Iran. The same ones who have stopped our nation from educating itself for a thousnad years, the mollahs and their fanatic supporters.

The mollas excommunicated Omar Khayyam and Ibn Sina and a lot of other scientists and philosophers. Education to them is only the Quran and Arabic. They were against anything which was new. They had even forbidden mathematics as they called it "infidel's language" ("Zabaan e Koffar"). Need I say more?

Mollas have been very powerful and damaged our country for a thousand years, not just since 1979. The only exception has been the 50 odd years of Pahlavi rule. A lot of nations have educated themselves at the time of dictatorships, this is possible. But it is impossible when the mollas have power.

Babak Babakan

* Misinformed

I am sorry that you are either missinformed or you lack proper knowledge of our history ["Railroad for allies"]. The law to construct the trans Iranian railroad was passed by the Majles in 1307 ( 1929 Circa ). How could anybody possibly be so farsighted to know that World War II will start in twenty years & the Allies would use the railroad? God knows who has put that false idea into your head.

H. Hakimi
Norway

* Other HASR syndrome symptoms

Dear dAyi Hamid,

Enclosed please find my suggestions to your very thoughtful research on various stages of HASR disease. Although your essay is fantastically well documented and presented, the following facts and symptoms have been ignored. These corrections will make your article worthy of many scholastic publications.

The most important syndrome you did not contemplate in your very thought-provoking and profound research was the emergence of expatriate men as "Arefs" and "Sufis", and women as astrologers, New Age experts, and spiritually-enlightened entities.

In this stage both males and females increasingly show signs of inflated ego. They will incarnate into Rumi, Hafez, Fourugh Farokhzad, Shamlou, Sohrab Sepehri, and the likes >>> FULL TEXT

Professor Hamechizdon
University of Southern Khar-dar Chaman
Dept. of Middle Eastern Literature & Cultures of Kharej Keshvaries

* Gays, lesbians must be stoned

It is very surprising that some of the so-called Iranians who are raised out of Iran try to look like Westerners and think like them as well. Gays or lesbians are condemned in any religion and must be stoned to death in any society.

The sympathizers try and say we should be open-minded. That is a fucking Western philosophy like the saying, "life is too short, we want to live it to the fullest." They absolutely have no faith and they do whatever they can to enjoy themselves.

The people who are supportive of the gays (KUNIS) must think a bit deeper. How will they react if they find out that their son is gay? If you found out that the man living nearby picked up your brother or son and had sex with them, would you still be supportive and say it is okay? And we must be openminded!?

How do you feel when a lot of these gays out there try to seduce a lot of youngsters to have sex with them and that later will make their victims gays just like them? Our early experiences in life affect our sexual tendency a lot.

Before you open your mouth think a little bit. You can not be a sympathizer nor a supportive of the people who spread evil on earth. They are just like any other criminals who corrupt the world.

That man who wrote the letter is miles away from most of us but there are thousands of them who live nearby and will try to find new sex partners and invite more people to their cult. And sure none of us, no matter how open-minded we are, would like to see that one of our loved ones has been the victim and unfortunately turned GAY.

Cyrus

* Go to Canada

Dear Kobra Khanom,

This is not an advice question, but I wanted to inform you of a way that one of your advice-seekers may be helped. In response to Farshid's letter, might I suggest a trip to the Canadian Embassy. If both partners are in fact citizens of the United States and the European Union, respectively, they should not have any difficulty relocating to Canada together.

Canada is one of several countries that recognizes same-sex partners in their immigration laws. I do not know the specifics, but Farshid and his partner can also research this further by reading a very good article on the subject in the magazine Advocate from the last year or so. A search on their web site (www.advocate.com) would be a good place to start.

(PS- Again, I'm just offering some suggestions to help out a few people in a difficult situation; I would prefer my comments not to be posted, and I definately don't want my name/email address to be published. Thanks)

* One in ten gay

Golyjoon, I am a straight guy, and I'm not particularly interested in any articles about gay Iranians or whatever, but what you said is pretty ignorant ["Don't need gays"]. If you're 22-years old and you're not "omool" you should realize by now that there are gay people in every culture. In fact, 10% of the male population is gay, if you didn't know.

You said we don't need any gays in our society, but the fact is that they exist, and no matter how modern you think our third-world race is, the truth is that we're not special, and Iranians have a very large gay community, just like everyone else.

This is exactly what's wrong with a lot of Iranian-Americans today. They think that we're somehow different from the rest of the world, that although we are entitled to the same liberties as the rest of the free world, we "don't need gays" or kids who listen to rap or girls who have sex before they are married in our society.

Well, here's a wakeup call. Iran is full of gays, anarchists, sexually active teens, heroin/opium addicts, prostitutes, and just about everything else that we so actively condemn as "Western and corrupt" on this website.

So please, treat Iran as a real country, not a modern society that "doesn't need" gays. I love Iran, but I love it as it is, not as I picture it inside my naive, 22-year-old, non-omool head.

Maziar

* Best photos

Zara Houshmand's 1975 photos ["Neighbors"] are probably the best candids I have seen of Iran for a very long time. Let's have more pictures like that on your site, suitably edited for web viewing.

Unfortunately some recent photos of Abadan ["Oh, sweet home"] submitted by one of your readers a while ago was a bit of a let down as far as webmastering goes!

Reza from UK

* Kooftam shod!

An utterly lovely recipe ["Post-feminist koofteh"]. But I think I'll be too drunk to enjoy my Koofteh. In other words, "Koofteh kooftam shod." :o)

Happy Cooking.

Habib Farahani

* I can sympathize

I read about an Iranian gentleman (Mel), who would like to go back to Iran after living in Denver for 30 years. I have been living in Chicago for about 25 years, I can sympathize with him about missing Iran and his relatives.

In December 1998, after 23 years, I went back to Iran. I enjoyed it very much. I saw my family and some new relatives from my brothers' side. Iran is good just for a visit. I would have a problem living there permanently.

I have no Iranian friends in Chicago area or the rest of America, because I have been busy with work and my family. So, I decided to go to the internet to get connected with Iranian in America.

Abbas

* Get a husband

As one of the pictures in "Musicman" piece showed, "Mean people suck"! Specially a few who started attacking the unknown (to them, at least!) Musicman.

One tried to analyze our friend here, but instead showed that "sex" is subconsciously on the mind of the analyzer. Otherwise, just because a man has more than one female friend, does not mean he is a "womanizer" and "bed hopper".

I think the analyzer should cure this subconscious insecurity when it comes to male and female friendships by finding herself a husband and stop worrying about what goes on in our Musicman's bedroom.

Behnam

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