Books

Poets and Pahlevans

I needed to find a ride back to Kerman. There was one taxi in front of the gate. I walked towards it and girded myself for another battle over the fare. The driver was old and disheveled, his mouth a mumble of pale green teeth. "You want to go to Kerman?" he said. "Yes." I was surprised he spoke English. "How much will that cost?" I grit my teeth. He quoted me a price that was suspiciously low, less than what I paid for the five kilometre trip from Shah-e Vali's shrine. "You will bring me all the way to Kerman for that price?">>>

تاوان دادخواهی؟

حمله به کتابفروشی ها و بر پایی کتابسوزان از مشخصه های حکومت اسلامی ست. در آغاز" گروه های فشار" به رهبری هادی غفاری ها و محسن رفیقدوست ها وزهرا خانوم ها و ماشاالله قصاب ها و عباس قراضه ها , با شعار " حزب فقط حزب الله , رهبر فقط روح الله " امر به معروف تخریب کتاب فروشی ها و بر پایی کتابسوزان ها را پیش می بردند. بتدریج گروه های فشار و کشتار درارگان های اداری, امنیتی و نظامی حکومت اسلامی سازمان دهی شدند و اوامر و فتاوی را سازمان یافته تر انجام دادند. >>>

اولیس همچنان دربند

پای حرفهای مردی بافرهنگ و ادیب نشسته ایم، منوچهر بدیعی مترجم اولیسس جویس با دانشی از ادبیات شرق و غرب و اندیشه ای عمیق حرفهایی دارد که بسیار واقعی و در عین حال دردناک است: "ما اينجا با يك مسأله اداري وزارت ارشاد يا يك مسأله حكومتي يا يك مسأله اين جوري روبه‌رو نيستيم. ما با يك مسأله اجتماعي خيلي جدي كه از درون جامعه آمده بيرون روبه‌رو هستيم >>>

قساوت

خمینی در ۱۱ دیماه ۱۳۶۷ پس از مشاهده‌ی دنائت حسینعلی نیری ضمن انتخاب او به ریاست هیئتی دو نفره، ابراهیم رئیسی را که آن موقع به لحاظ رسمی معاون دادستان انقلاب تهران بود، همراه او می‌کند. این دو نفر مأموریت می‌یابند تا «فارغ از پیچ‌ و خم‌های اداری» به سرعت احکام اعدام و قطع دست و پا را به منظور اشاعه‌ی جو سرکوب و اختناق در کشور صادر کنند.>>>

برای نسل های بعد

پیرو تاسیس دفتر هواپیمائی ارتش، دولت درصدد تهیه هواپیما برای نیروی هوائی برآمد. سفیر ایران در امریکا، میرزا عبدالعلی خان صدیق السلطنه، در تاریخ 26 دیماه 1301 (17 ژانویه 1923) به دولت امریکا پشنهاد خرید تعدادی هواپیما و آموزش خلبان و مکانسین مینماید، اما دولت امریکا بدلیل اینکه خود یکی از بنیان گزاران وعضو اصلی کنفرانس خلع سلاح بود این تقاضا را نمیپذیرد و ایران اجبارا خرید هواپیما را با کشور های دیگر دنبال میکند>>>

The real story

Journalist Reese Erlich grew up in Los Angeles just south of UCLA. As a child he used to walk up Westwood Boulevard toward Westwood village, past a stockbroker's office and the Crest movie theater. At the time there was no Tehrangeles. The Westwood legal offices I visited last year to fix my Iranian passport mess used to house the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society. As an aborigine of sorts, Erlich has no grievances against the Iranians who have colonized the Westwood of his childhood. On the contrary, he seems to delight in the cultural upgrade. >>>

Same old story

Comic Book of the 1950’s T-Man #3 "Death Trap in Iran!" highlights Cold War Paranoia I finally managed to find the comic book on ebay and decided to share it with you readers so that you can make up your own opinion. It should be added that this comic book hero which preceded Ian Fleming’s James Bond Franchise or the TV hit Mission Impossible ( which was partly directed by our Talented Iranian compatriot Reza Badiyi did not just operate in Iran, but a little everywhere in the so-called “Communist Infested World” or “Third World Dictatorships” in the views of the Free World public opinion of the Time.>>>

Ultimate saviors

I wanted to poke a bit at Persian history and highlight my belief that many of the personal problems of the men in my book were actually ancient cultural problems that got a bit twisted through the filters of time. From the moment they were given their very DNA, even before they were tagged with their names, that very rich history was going to define their every step. It seems obvious but I think this is very different for many Americans, for instance, who often come from many different places—various European countries mixed with Native American blood, mixed with Black or Hispanic blood, etc.>>>

Political love story

In the midst of winter, suddenly an early spring showed on the horizon. The sun stood at the equinox, the heat woke the nature from her deep sleep, the heap of snow slid down the domes, forming layers of ice over muddy streets which crunched under footsteps, melted and streamed down the brooks. Nature was yawning, stretching, brightening, birds were singing, flower buds rippling, farmers ploughing. All unaware that winter had not yet departed, but waited in the shade of the moon planning his next return. Should he suddenly decide to return, gale-force winds and snowstorms would regain life and an embargo would put the city under an icy siege>>>

Father & son

“MY DAD WAS an ironmonger,” said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Tehran Radio’s studio 4, during a preelection interview. “He worked very hard so I could go to the University of Science and Technology and study civil engineering. But in 1993 Father passed away due to an accident.” A year later Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, helped lower his father’s coffin into the grave. Ahmad Ahmadinejad died in 2006 from heart complications, not in an accident in 1993 as his son had claimed in 2005. No one is quite sure why Ahmadinejad told such a palpable lie so publicly. Perhaps he thought he could shield his family from the public spotlight. Or perhaps he was trying to hide something. >>>

«نه زیستن، نه مرگ»

تازه چشم‌هایم در حال گرم شدن بود که احساس کردم کسی پهلویم دراز کشید. سایه‌اش را دیدم. نمی‌دانم چقدر طول کشید، ولی مطمئناً زیاد نبود. یکباره احساس کردم که زمین زیر پایم به لرزه در آمده است. با هراس از خواب پریدم. بغل‌دستی‌ام دچار تشنج شده بود. سرش به عقب افتاده بود و خر و خر می‌کرد. دست‌پاچه شده بودم. نیم‌خیز شدم. ابتدا فکر کردم که دچار حمله‌ی صرع شده است و خواستم کمکش کنم. نگاه کردم، دیدم پاهایش تا زانو باندپیچی شده و خون‌آلودند. ناگهان به خود آمدم. به سرعت متوجه‌ی اشتباهم شدم. او سیانور خورده بود و حالا مجرای تنفسی‌اش دچار مشکل شده بود. دست و پا می‌زد و جان می‌داد.>>>

Common grounds

As similar as Israelis and Iranians are, recent Iranian immigrants to Israel experience difficulty in overcoming the cultural shock. The contrast between the traditional values of Iranian society and the liberal currents of Israeli society -- defined by the norms and culture of its European immigrants rather than by its Middle Eastern geography--could not be greater. I once had a conversation with an elderly Iranian Jew whom I sat next to during the bus ride from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Ehsaq (Isaac), as he was called, spared no love for the clerics in Tehran, but he liked to reminisce about the country in which he had spent most of his life. >>>