پرسش و پاسخ

متاسفانه، عشق رو نمی شه دید، خدا رو نمی شه خورد، جوهر رو نمی شه شنید! پس هفتاد و دو ملت، هزار جور افسانه می‌‌سازند و به صد‌ها حیله دام می‌‌گذارند، تا شاید سیمرغ حقیقت رو به بند بکشند! اما، با هر دامی و هر بندی و هر افسانه ای، دایره عشق و محبتشون کوچکتر می‌‌شه، و افق مهر شون محدود تر ... از کلّ اعظم، منفصل تر و مطرود تر. >>>

The wheel

Now there's the buzz
the buzz I've been waiting for.
My feelings ebb and flow
with your measured words
following, on a rope taut
to this vertiginous height
from the old ballroom
>>>

I believe in Dog

Most of us have been taught to stay away from discussing politics and religion, so as not to disturb the dinner guests. Well, as most of you know, I've been covering politics for so long I can barely discuss anything else. And the freedom Time Goes By gives me in writing these little essays compels me to confess that I do not recall when it was that I came out of the closet. That's when I acknowledged that I'm an atheist, that I do not believe there is a God. In fact I don't know why I capitalized the "G." Although it may be blasphemous, I have had a bumper sticker that says, "I believe in Dog...">>>

واکسن کُشنده

آقای خامنه‌ای در سفر قم گفته است که «فتنه ۸۸ ... موجب واكسينه شدن كشور و مردم در مقابل ميكروب‌های سياسی و اجتماعی» شده است. در این که جنبش سبز که او آن را «فتنه» می‌نامد شوک بی‌سابقه‌ای به پیکره نظام حاکم وارد کرده بحثی نیست. ميكروب‌های سياسی و اجتماعی‌ای که او از آن‌ها یاد می‌کند نیز در فرهنگ حاکمیت شناخته شده است. این میکروب‌ها چیزی جز آزادی، دموکراسی، نفی تبعیض، آزاداندیشی، حقوق بشر و مفاهیمی از این قبیل نیستند>>>

از شیلی تا جمکران

عالیجناب رئیس سباستیان پینیـِرا اِکنیکه: مشاهده آن متـّه عظیم شما که صدها گَز سنگ کوه را سوراخ کرده و به صورت چاهی به محل عمله های معدنچی رسید، هیئت دولت منتظرالظهور ما را اجماعاً به به این فکر انداخت که ما نیز با استفاده از این متـّه محیّرالعقول، چاه جمکران را عمیق تر کرده و با رسیدن به آقایمان مهدی (عج) علّت تاٌخیر حضرتشان را جویا شویم>>>

Henning - Taqizadeh Letter

During my visit to Tehran in the summer of 1999, Iraj Afshar showed me a series of letters between the great Iranist, W.B. Henning and the Iranian scholar and statesman S.H. Taqizadeh. He asked me what can be done with these letters and whether they were important enough to be published. After looking through the correspondences I realized that they are important as they shed light on a discipline that I was educated in. While there are many stories circulating about the great Iranists and Orientalists, very little has been done on the history of the discipline and the role of those involved in the progress of Iranian Studies>>>

The Sins of Parenthood

My son is a natural musician. Not like the ones who take instructions and occasionally stop their routine to practice, but the kind who are forced to stop their music so that they may tend to what the rest of us call life. Towards the end of senior year, he was overwhelmed to be admitted to Berklee School of Music in Boston, his dreamland. Following the example of concerned parents, and proud of our left-brain deficiency, we insisted that he earn his BA and major in a mainstream subject, just in case he should ever need a desk job>>>

The Boys of Bushehr

...>>>

eRevolution

Media experts, foreign policy experts, commentators, and academicians have often outlined the benefits of new media technology for consumers and confidently predict that the global information revolution will result in political, economic, and social democratization in the developing and underdeveloped countries around the world. This hopeful outlook, however, requires certain pre-requisites, including education, infrastructures, cultural basis, access to technology, and adherence to the time-tested and successful political, economic, social structures, and diverse media outlets, as evidenced in the developed nations>>>

Contemporary?

It was eerie and unsettling to go through the rooms featuring the painters. I am still not sure why, but it was. There was exactly one piece by each artist. Another oddity was, barring for the artists already dead in the 60s and 70s, every single piece was dated somewhere between 1963 and 1975. And then complete stalemate! It was as if for this museum, where no one new enters and no one leaves, time had stopped in 1975. The irony was that this was a museum of contemporary arts, the key word being contemporary! >>>

پنبه های فشرده از زمان

کف دستم را باز می کنم در لابه لای شیارهای دستم آب جمع می شود به داخل قطار می آورم. به آرامی آب کف دستم را می نوشم. طعمش زبانم را بی حس می کند و روحم را نوازش! دفتر کاغدی ام را باز می کنم. مداد قهوه ای رنگ را از جیب کتم بیرون می آورم. دست چپم را سایه بان چشمانم می کنم تا آفتاب سفیدی کاغذ را نورانی نکند چون می خواهم از تو بنویسم. چون می خواهم از نوشته ام نور تو بتابد نه نور خورشید>>>

مزامیر عشق

سوختم از آتش این اشتیاق
 سوختم از لذت این احتراق

 باز بسوزان همه سر تا سرم
 باد بده مانده خاکسترم
>>>

The Red Persians

Neither Ayatollah Khomeini, nor his disciples Islamized Marxism. Instead, they derived exceptional benefits from it. During the 1960s as a result of the Shah’s systematic suppression of all political opposition, Marxism was pushed into two distinct directions: guerilla fighting and the intellectual sphere. It was in the hands of leftist Islamic intelligentsia, like Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Ali Shariati that Marxism blended with Shiʿism. The amalgam created a formidable revolutionary force in Iran. Shortly after, the militant-Marxists and the Marxist-Islamists in coalition with Khomeini overthrew the monarchy>>>

Marxists for Freedom?

Since when communists are turning to supporters of unconditional freedom of speech and democracy? Is not this notion a betrayal to and or dismay to the principals of CPs – of lost cause of 19th century mentality of dictatorship of one form or another, of “proletariat”? What communists had in practice brought to humanity? Among many atrocities by communist, the Stalinism, Khmer Rouge, to half a century of still Castro and North Korean Kim,… what record they have to be brag ever? In our country, little dictators like Bijan Jazani to Hezbe Toda to Islamic Marxists all are nourished from this communistic idea>>>