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Monday * Selection not election Regarding Dr. Hamid Zangeneh's enlightening piece ["Uncivil society"], while I value his thought process & his reverence for the nomenclature of "vote" and "election", I get the perception (wrongfully so - I hope) that he equates the June 8th "selection" with the democratic process of "election". That eye-opening "s" might have been inadvertently or intentionally omitted in his analysis of the events, which will take place in a few weeks on 18th of Khordad. I am certainly not an economist, nor do I claim to be an expert in the field of politics (finally an Iranian without a prefix), however (and again I might be wrong on this), the conditions and universally accepted principles necessary to use the term "election" in Iran are not present. The students - the forerunners of the Iranian intellectual movement - are jailed & more than 40 newspapers and publications are shut down. If this were the case in a municipal "election" in Chester Pennsylvania, Dr. Zangeneh would be the only proponent of voting under such dire, despotic atmosphere. (At least I hope so!) >>> FULL TEXT * Khariat I would like to say a word about Mr Goudarz Eghtedari article on the treatment inflected to Mr Panahi at JFK airport ["What would Terry say?". As any Iranian I was shocked by what happened to Mr Panahi, not only because he is a great film producer but also because I had to go through the racist treatment reserved to national Iranians coming to the U.S.: Fingerprinting, photographing, interviewing... they could also stick a finger in my ass to see if I had a bomb or a gun. Who would blame them? It would be to protect democracy I m a student living in France and each time I want to go to the U.S. to see my family I never fly with American airlines but only French airlines because I'm treated as a normal traveler like anyone else. Instead of just stating the mistreatment, we should also try to understand why this law has been put into place four years ago. Because of many reason. 1st: During from 1979 and for much of the 80s, Iranians brought huge amounts of capital into America. Why treat them badly? 2nd : After 1993 and the signing of the first peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians (Oslo Agreement) and the efforts in the region to restore peace, Iran was accused of trying to destroy the peace process by helping Islamic fundamentalist groups in Palestine, Lebanon and Muslim countries. At this period some Jewish lobby groups accused Iran of everything. Indeed, Iran by being an enemy of Israel, doesn't help to be understood anyway. The U.S. State Department and Israel have accused Iran of developing weapons of mass destruction. Do you think the Iranian army could threaten anyone in the region even if they wanted?! The example of Iraq shows us that we have to put everything into perspective. Do you think the new Iranian "Shahab" missile could threaten the Israeli atomic bomb?! No, of course not, but the new "anti-terrorism" policy has a wider aspect. The U.S. has the most powerful security and intelligence service in the world but what use are they if they can't differentiate between an 80-year-old Iranian woman and an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist?! My mathematics teacher used to say: the most widespread characteristic among human beings is "KHARIAT". * American democracy Having read your article on Jafar Panahi ["What would Terry say?"], and numerous other reports including the director's own account of the events, I am pleading to my countrymen who reside in the U.S. o kindly describe the American concept of democracy for me as I fear I may have understood it wrongly all these years. I thought that in a democratic society, all men had equal rights and innocent till proven guilty. Although I have always been aware that America is the worst example of a democratic society, even I didn't expect to read about the thirld world treatment handed down to an innocent individual. I live in the UK and and previously lived in other European countries. Never have I ever encountered such inhuman treatment of individuals as that given to citizens of Iran, Libya and handful of other nationals. Travelling throughout Europe with my Iranian passport, I have never been treated with contempt and suspicion. Certainly in the UK, there would have a been a national scandal had anyone been treated as Mr. Panahi. I know that Americans have a very lobsided and rather funny idea of democracy (just look at their ridiculous election procedure, where the richer you are the likelier you gain office), but surely this time it's just too much. SOMEONE IN AMERICA, PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR NOTION OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY. * Cro-Magnon It is utterly tragic that our beloved editor is so fascinated by this bed-hopping Cro-Magnon ["Musicman"] whom after such a disgraceful longevity has not discovered what love is and -- by the looks of it -- he never will. The pictures spoke volumes. A hollow ghost in the shell of a man.... sobbing! * Womanizer I just went through the "bedoon-e sharh" pictures that you titled "Musicman". A better title occurred to me: Womanizer! What do you think? Dar zemn, aslan een majmu'e tasaavir cheh rabti daasht?! * A saint compared to Ataturk In Response to Peerooz's ["Self-government"] and Ms Sabety's ["Reza Shah was no Mossadegh"] letters about my view on Reza Shah ["Reza Shah's achievements"]; the main point of my letter was that in politics nobody is perfect and that in my opinion Reza shah did a lot more good than bad. I never compared Reza shah to Dr. Mossadegh. In my opinion Reza Shah was a much greater man than Mossadegh. I only said; just because I like Reza shah, it doesn't mean that I hate Mossadegh. Both these men are dead now and we can look at this a bit more objectively. Please print this sentence from Ms Sabety before I make my point; "Some may think the North-South railroad was worth having this kind of bully in power, but many of us don't. Of course when you have a rubber stamping parliament and an obedient army you can make a lot of changes." Dr. Mossadegh was a member of the "rubber stamping" parliament which was discussing the North-South railroad and he was one of the very few who was against it. He was arguing that a "poor nation" does not need a railway and that an East-West railway was much better. (refer to life and political struggles of Dr. Mossadegh, Published by National Front). Well, he and Ms Sabety are both wrong on both accounts. First that any nation who wanted to progress needed a railway and the North-South railway was the better route. And anyway Reza Shah would have built the East-West railway as well, had he not been deposed by the foreign powers. I personally prefer the man who has the will to build railways. I don't know how these people claim that Reza Shah was illiterate and admired Hitler and Mussolini. And I don't want to judge the morality of taking land from Qajari princes and big landlords >>> FULL TEXT * Beyond the law I greatly enjoyed Peerooz's letter ["Self-government"] in response to Babak's regrading Reza shah ["Reza Shah's achievements"]. The fact is that many dictators and despots like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hossein etc, have done services to their countries and some of them were not even thieves and did not make all the nation's wealth their own. But as Peerooz has already mentioned, all that good still does not count because they went beyond the law and so did their family and relatives, etc. In every system, once an individual becomes exempt of the rules to that system, all the dependents of that individual are automatically exempt and this is exactly where corruption starts to develop. We should not forget that the people in every nation are the final and best judges. So one should not be upset about the fact that the majority of the nation in a country hate a despot. This is not stupidity. This is just a lesson for anyone who believes they have a formula for people's lives which works the best and no one else can ever make any other suggestion. (Supposing that this formula is not just a scam to deceive and exploit the nation.) * Persia, New York In the late 70s-early 80s, I lived in western New York state. Before the 1979 hostage-taking in Tehran, there actually was a town in western New York called Persia. It was Persia, New York. I never visited but some friends of mine did. According to them, the town was actually named by someone from Persia who had immigrated to U.S. in the 19th century. He also had served as the town's first sheriff and mayor combined until his death. After 1979 the hostages issues, they renamed the town. I do not know what it is called now. But after reading your article ["Found it"], I thought I should check back and find out what the town is called now. Maybe when I go to western New York, I will visit the town, send photos and a narrative to go with them. Maybe we can persuade the town to change its name to its original. REPLY: According to Yahoo maps, it's still called Persia, NY. * Support Mehranhiz Kar I am a Tongan national living, working and studying in Australia. I am writing to acknowledge and give support to Mehrangiz Kar's efforts to achieve a level of rights to women in her country. Her efforts to achieve her goals within the context of the culture and social norms of her country would be difficult but not impossible. What is critical at this point in time is that the momentum she has created in this area of change for women should be maintained and supported, not just by other women, but by dominant males in key positions in governments and in the community. The seeds that is planted today will one day be the rays of light guiding Iranians towards the next century as world leaders in social justice among the world community. * I remember Yes, I remember this movie ["Qesaas"]. It's about a girl living with her father who is a musician and performs at parties. Googoosh was supposed to dance for the guests. I don't remember the relationship of the bad guy (Sarkoob) with the family, but he loved her and usually harassed her. She marries Nasser Malek Moteie and when he goes on a trip, Sarkoob comes to their place and ... I was only 11 when I watched this movie, so this is all I remember. Poori Banayi was the bad guy's wife. Bahareh Djavadi
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