POINT

To Snuggle or to Struggle

Disparaging Islam and the Iranian-American identity

by Sasan Seifikar
19-Sep-2009 (17 comments)
I want to argue that Iranian-Americans are mainly distancing themselves from Islam and in many cases leaving it as a coping strategy for dealing with the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Middle East sentiments in the United States. Iranian-Americans are dissociating themselves from Islam as a repositioning strategy to deal with the prejudices and suspicions which have been directed at them since 9/11. Feeling vulnerable and helpless, many Iranian-Americans have often unconsciously absorbed the fears and the sensibilities of their ordinary fellow Americans and the mainstream media about Islam and Moslems>>>

UPRISING

خیزشِ وقار

ایران هرگز به روزهای پیش از خرداد بازنخواهد گشت

by Peyman Vahabzadeh
19-Sep-2009 (5 comments)
شورشِ مردم ایران از روزهای خرداد تا امروز، خیزشِ مردمی است که از رفتار خودسرانه و بالادستانه‌ی دولتمردانِ خود زخمی و خسته هستند و اکنون سال‌هاست که کاسه‌ی صبرشان لبریز است. این مردم برخاسته‌اند تا آوای خویش را به گوش خودشیفتگانِ قدرت‌پرست برسانند که: «دیگر بس است!» شورش مردم ایران که جوانان جلودار آنند، همانا خیزشِ وقار است، خیزشِ کرامت انسانی است بر علیه آنان که احترام به انسان و تکریمِ فرد را نیاموخته‌اند، چون خود هماره از آن بی‌بهره بوده‌اند. خیزشِ احترام به خویشتنِ خویشِ یک ملت است در برابر آنان که از مردمی فروتن و سختکوش و صلح‌دوست و آزادیخواه در دنیا تصویری هیولائی و ترسناک ساخته‌اند >>>

VIEW

Velvet Revolution First

Dealing with Quds Day protests in Iran take precedence over nuclear negotiations

by Mehdi Khalaji
17-Sep-2009 (4 comments)
While the United States is concentrating on the G-20 summit and the October 1 meeting with the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iranian attention has been focused on the potentially destabilizing protests planned for September 18, Quds Day. This critical difference of agenda -- with Iran focused more on its domestic turmoil than on simmering international issues -- will be a major complicating factor in negotiations between the international community and Iran in the coming weeks>>>

MONTAZERI

نامه به آقای منتظری

با صدور فتوی از سربازان و نیروهای انتظامی بخواهید که ازین پس وظیفه ­شان دفاع از مردم است نه سرکوب آنان

by Reza Hiwa
16-Sep-2009 (14 comments)
در خاکی که امروز بیش از هرچیز دیگری به فرهنگ آزادمنشی ،تحمل دگر اندیشی و مردم سالاری نیاز دارد، کردار شما آقای منتظری، به مراتب سنگین­تر و زیباتر از هر سخنرانی، به برپایی چینن فرهنگی یاری داده و می‌دهد. روز از نو روزی از نو. این بار کودتاگران ۲۲ خرداد روی ساواک را سفید کردند، و شما بار دیگر چراغ بدست به میدانی باز آمدید که هرگز ترکش نکرده بودید. شما حتی در حبس خانگی چند ساله­تان بر علیه استبداد سخن می‌گفتید. خط مشترک و متحد کننده‌ی تمامی آزادی خواهان امروز بر کناری این رژیم استبدادی و قرون وسطایی و بر سر کارآوردن نظامی­ست که از سر تا پایش بر رأی آزادانه‌ی مردم بر قرار باشد>>>

NAMES

Persia is Iran

Iran is Persia, Iran is not Iraq, and Persia is not Bosnia

by davinci
16-Sep-2009 (18 comments)
I've always considered Reza Shah Pahlavi's 1935 decree requesting that the country formerly known as Persia be referred to as "Iran" by foreign governments with which it had diplomatic relations to be a mistake. Naturally, once governments began to refer to the country as Iran, their citizens followed suit. This change at once led to a severing in the Western consciousness of Iran from the Persian culture of classical antiquity, and also created a situation in which the name of the country can easily become confounded with that of its neighbour and recurrent rival, Iraq, a name which entered the mainstream vocabulary of Western languages only in 1932 with the founding of the Kingdom of Iraq in that year>>>

BOMB

Standing with Israel

A necessary alliance to ensure that Iran reaches democracy

by mansours
14-Sep-2009 (87 comments)
Now is the time to explain exactly why the Iranian-American community should ally itself with AIPAC, instead of treating American Jews as embarrassing cousins from the dahat who we don’t want to associate with, even though it’s their power and influence that we need to liberate Iran. Now is the time to discuss the number of people that will get killed over decades if the regime survives vs the number of people who will get killed in a few moments if we or the Israelis bomb Iran. Now is the time to discuss why it is so dangerous if Ahmadinejad gets the bomb>>>

IRANIANS

There is another Iran

There is an Iran who seeks freedom and justice, one who is caring and compassionate

by Setareh Sabety
12-Sep-2009 (7 comments)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is slated to make his annual visit to New York to address the UN on Sept. 23, 2009. If there ever were a time for us Iranian-Americans to come together to demonstrate to the world our outrage and contempt for his government, it is surely now. It is important that we do this especially because the movement to protest election fraud and civil rights abuse in Iran has been brutally suppressed. The reform movement in Iran is in shackles and behind bars. Armed with the Sepah, Basij and plain-clothes forces the Ahmadinejad government has arrested our leaders, intellectuals, activists and students. Many have been killed, tortured and raped>>>

RIGHTS

A way of life

Advocacy for a Culture of Human Rights and Responsibilities

by Majid Baradar
12-Sep-2009
Historical evidence shows that the cultural principle of human rights, which in a general sense is the right to pursue life-sustaining goals, interests, and beliefs freely and responsibly, transcends the boundaries of the East and the West. Around the world, however, different cultures have placed either greater or lesser emphasis on the individual or collective aspect of human rights. Some Eastern cultures embrace the concept that it is the individual who has a responsibility to contribute to the rights of the collective whole, and in so doing, an individual realizes his or her human potential>>>

SOROUSH

جشن زوال استبداد دینی

نامه ی عبدالکریم سروش به خامنه ای

by Abdolkarim Soroush
10-Sep-2009 (66 comments)
آقای خامنه ای، می خواهم به شما بگویم دفتر ایام ورق خورده است و بخت از نظام برگشته است ، آبرویش به یغما رفته است و طشت رسوائیش از بام تاریخ افتاده است. کشف عورت شده است. خدا هم از شما رو گردان شده و ستاریت خود را باز گرفته است. آن دلیری ها که در کنج خلوت و در پرده تزویر می کردید فاش شده است. آه جگرسوختگان و جان باختگان و دهان دوختگان کارگر افتاده است و دامان و گریبان شما را سوخته است. خائفم که بگویم باب توبه هم به روی شما بسته شده است. شریعت هم از شما شفاعت نخواهد کرد که مشروعیت از شما گریخته است. ایران سبز از این پس دیگر آن ایران سیاه و ویران نیست>>>

IRANIANS

Poseurs or Revolutionaries?

The worse thing that has happened these thirty years is that Iranians have become callous

by Setareh Sabety
30-Aug-2009 (88 comments)
One middle aged man, came back recently from Iran, I saw him at the July 25th protest here in our town where less people showed up than at my friend’s birthday party. Like many others that day he was wearing a cap, big sunglasses and scarf to hide his face, he stood way back and did not repeat any chants or slogans, he boasted to me of chasing plain clothes men on motorbikes during the recent protests in Iran. I thought to myself: how can this guy, who worked for the foreign ministry under the Shah, who covers himself so much here in the safety of Place Massena, have had the courage to go chasing motor-biker bassijis in Tehran?>>>

TRIAL

Release Kian Tajbakhsh!

Those who love him are pained to see him used as a pawn in a power struggle

by Niloofar Mina
26-Aug-2009 (9 comments)
Pictures and video footage of Tuesday’s show trials in Tehran show Kian Tajbakhsh among a group of defendants associated with Iran’s reformist movement and accused of conspiracy to foment a “velvet revolution” in Iran. The pictures show Kian seated directly behind Said Hajjarian, a reformist ideologue and a principal defendant in Tuesday’s trial. The coupling of Kian, a secular Iranian-American academic, with the leaders of the Islamist reform movement of Iran is alarming. Dressed in blue prison pajamas and brown plastic slippers Kian looks thin and depressed>>>

COUP

Who is Sadeq Larijani?

Militarization of the Iranian Judiciary

by Mehdi Khalaji
25-Aug-2009 (22 comments)
Sadeq Larijani, a young and inexperienced cleric with close ties to Iran's military and intelligence agencies, has replaced Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as head of the Iranian judiciary. This appointment is particularly significant, since the judiciary in Iran wields considerable power -- albeit through the approval of Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and has a great deal of latitude to make decisions without reference to law or Islamic concepts, especially when "safeguarding the interests of the regime" is deemed necessary. Larijani is the son of Grand Ayatollah Hashem Amoli and the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani, currently one of the most widely followed marjas>>>

VIEW

How Ahmadinejad Stole an Election

And how he can fix It

by Mehdi Khalaki & Robert Pastor
22-Aug-2009 (22 comments)
The single most important step is to transfer election responsibilities from the Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council to a nonpartisan and independent national election commission. Iran should also create a nonpartisan elections court, composed of judges and lawyers. All the major political parties should have a veto on nominees so as to ensure that the judges are acceptable to all the parties. Second, the Election Commission should certify the candidates according to clear and fair criteria, and they should prevent any intimidation, and guarantee access to the entire electoral process by domestic and international election observers>>>

LEGTIMACY

از هیچ جای هیچ رهبری نمی‌روید

مشروعیت سیاسی موسوی، کروبی، گنجی، مخملباف و سایر نمایندگان جنبش سبز باید در چارچوب رفتارهای فردی آنان سنجیده شود

by naanaam
22-Aug-2009 (54 comments)
رهبر جنبش سبز، آقای موسوی، هشت سال نخست‌وزیر ایران بود. در طول آن سال‌ها هزاران زندانی سیاسی شکنجه و اعدام شدند. دوره دوره‌ای ایدئولوژیک بود. مردم ایدئولوژیک بودند و ایشان هم. همه بودیم. می‌پذیریم. بسیاری از آنانی که اعدام شدند دست کمی از آقای موسوی آن دوره نداشتند و اگر به قدرت رسیده بودند هزاران موسوی و امثال وی را به جوخه‌های اعدام سپرده بودند. قصد من اینجا دفاع از یکی و محکوم کردن دیگری نیست. قصدم پرداختن به شخصیت سیاسی آقای موسوی‌ست. می‌پذیریم که او فرق کرده و "اصلاح" شده است. می‌پذیریم که دیگر آن فرد گذشته نیست. اما آیا این کافی‌ست؟>>>

GANJI

سبزپوش قلابی

پاسخی به آقای اکبر گنجی

by Sohrab_Ferdows
14-Aug-2009 (33 comments)
اخیرا وبسایت روز آنلاین از قول آقای گنجی مطلبی درج کرده (دموکراسی و دیکتاتوری پرچم) که نشان میدهد ظاهرا صدای آنچه که از دید ایشان "دیکتاتوری پرچم" خوانده میشود بگوش ایشان هم رسیده! آقای گنجی در این تحلیل خود به روشنی میگوید که به پرچم سه رنگ شیر و خورشید نشان ایران اعتقادی ندارد و از طرف دیگر هم اعلام میکند که پرچم ملی ایران را مردم انتخاب میکنند! ایشان در بخشی از مطالبشان میفرمایند به همان دلیل که مثلا حزب دموکرات آمریکا اجازه نخواهد داد یک جمهوریخواه در کنوانسیون آنها پرچم حزب جمهوریخواه را بالا ببرد بدون اینکه کسی بتواند آنها را متهم به دیکتاتوری کند، پس حرکت ایشان هم نمیتواند به دیکتاتوری تعبیر شود! قبل از اینکه دور شویم از این قسمت عین نوشته را در اینجا نقل میکنم>>>
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