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Monday * Tragic Minou's article about Shayan only tells one part of the tragic story about asylum seekers in Australia. At the moment a Norwegian freighter is moored just outside the Australian territorial waters off Christmas Island. Yesterday it saved over 400 asylum seekers, mostly Afghanis. The Australian government has refused to allow the ship to moor at Christmas Island. Quite ironic really. Australians become outraged over the treatment of two of it's own aid workers being detained by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. At the same time over 400 refugees are fleeing the same oppressive regime, but are left to float at sea -- treated with contempt and inhumanely. The nationality of these people is irrelevant. It could have been a boat full of Iranians. What is important is the way that they are currently being treated. It is an indictment on the current federal government's policies and actions towards asylum seekers. Minou cited an story produced on 4 Corners about the treatment of asylum seekers during their time in detention. It is also worth visitng a previous story about the fate of asylum seekers once they leave detention. It is equally depressing and inhumane: //www.abc.net.au/4corners/archives/2000b_Monday16October2000.htm * Precise and interesting Nagmeh Sohrabi's article is one of the most interesting I have read on Iranian cinema in general ["A very good thing"]. I had heard about Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film but never had the oppurtunity to see it. I very much liked his "Noon va Gol" ("Moment of Innocence"), as well as "Gabbeh". Makhmalbaf is certainly one of the best Iranian filmakers of his generation. I very much liked Nagmeh Sohrabi's analysis. It was extremely precise and interesting. I truly hope to see more of her critics in this section. Regards, * Racist remarks Let me say this: Iranians can be khar the same way that Indians can be Gandhi ["An Iranian can never be khar"]. How else would you explain the Iranian revolution? A bunch of khars got together and destroyed something good. They did not know how good it was because they were khar. There are good and bad people everywhere. It really gets on my nerves when I hear racist remarks from an Iranian who leaves out side of Iran. After all that we had to put up with, you would think that we would have a better understanding of the whole situation. As for the guy who wrote the original article ["Crouching chap"], I found him to be a well-balanced person who was trying his luck with satire. As for the person who wrote the response to his article, I think that you are the one who needs to get a life or even maybe a good man. From your comments, it seemed that you were more upset about this guy being married to a non-Iranian than anything else. A very typical Iranian Woman's response. * Closed-minded I can´t believe that you call yourself an intelligent woman and write such a rude letter about the author of "Crouching chap". Are you jealos that you are not married to him? If you read his stories you can see that he is obviously an intelligent man and so is his pretty wife. The problem with you and a lot of Iranians, in general, are their closed-minded attitude towards other cultures and their constant readiness for criticism. * Why so much hate? I remember as a school kid every day I stepped over the American, Soviet and Israeli flags painted on the stairs of my school, I remember reading sad stories about Palestinians being driven out of their houses and killed by Zionists in my "Farsi" book in fourth grade. It is very easy to understand the hate towards Israel among the people in Iran, it is like many other things feeded to you from the first grade. What I do not understand is the hate I see among people in the debates on this site. Maybe it is one of our properties as Shi'ites with all these imams, Ali, Hossein and others who supposedly stood up for the weak and foguht and died for the right of the weak (super hero mentality long time before Superman and Batman). Many of you are saying because Israel thinks of Iran as its enemy then Israel is our enemy. Well I don't think so. Israel is against Iran for helping Hezbollah in Lebanon and some other (armed) Palestinian groups but other than that, Iran is no threat to Israel. Some things really changed my attitued towards Israel in the years since I left Iran. I have two very good Jewish friends, one of them is my best friend I could say. Both are West-European Jews. Their story is really similar to many other European Jews. During World War II many of their relatives were killed. What could they do after the war? How could they stay in a country where their neighbours killed them? Some moved to other European countries, other parts of the worl, or Israel. Many of us Iranians left Iran because we could not accept how the society was, we couldn't fit, well this is how I think many jews in Europe felt when they moved to Israel. Again I am not defending Israel for what they have done to Palestinians, I just want you to instead of hating someone or something trying to understand and relate to them, then we can make peace. It is easy to be judgmental and hateful, but it won't solve any problems, just adds to it. * Iran & Pakistan This is in response to the two letters "Preconditions" and "No thanks". In the first one, the author has unwittingly pointed out an error in my article. In my last sentence, I should have written, "The only recourse for Iran is to foster a closer relationship with Pakistan." Iran and Pakistan have shared an extremely close relationship in the past. However, it has been marred by the Taliban predicament. Naturally the solution to Taliban's status and consequently the agreement on Afghanistan's role in future Central Asian geopolitics is the key to any long lasting alliance between Pakistan and Iran. All nations involved in Afghanistan are resigned to the fact that the Pakistani-backed Pathan-dominated Taliban are going to be an impermeable feature in that country. Even though the Taleban are radical Sunnis, they pose no significant threat to Iranian interests and can be nullified if Iran were to ally with Pakistan. When Mussharaf went to Tehran, he assured the end to the killing of Iranians within Pakistan by militant Sunnis and he seems to have been acting on his promise. Since the usurpation of the democratic government, a couple of years ago by General Mussharaf, Pakistan has undeniably become more stable. Within Iran, despite the constant struggle between the reform and conservative elements within the government, it is highly improbable that there will be any counter-revolution or a transformation of the underlying configuration of the theocratic state. There is no reason why there has to be a common and specific enemy shared by Iran and Pakistan. After all Pakistan is interesting in offsetting Indian influence in Central Asia while Iran competes with Turkey for a closer relationship with the Turkic states throughout the region. Iran and Pakistan have the same objectives, which are to become regional powers. In this modern era a strategic relationship is not formed out of a need to discourage or overwhelm enemies but is created to mutually assist one another in pursuing common aspirations. In the second letter, Mr Peeroz is correct in asserting that Iran is an ancient neighbour of Turkey however Anatolia and the Iranian plateau have historically been rivals. The Byzantines and the Sassanians, the Ottomans and the Safavids, secular Turkey and theocratic Iran. Turkey is diametrically opposite to what the Iranian government espouses and it is inevitable that they would be competitors in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Even if Iran were to ally with Turkey and Israel not only would it incur the wrath of the Arab states in the Middle East and isolate Pakistan but it would present a profound contradiction within the present Iranian regime. On the contrast by forming a closer relationship with Pakistan and acting in concord on foreign policy issues, it would strengthen the position of both these nations and allow them to exert a greater leverage on other nations in the region. While Uzbekistan and the other Central Asian states are wary of Pakistan because of its support for the Taleban, a united Iranian-Pakistani front nonetheless will compel these nations to seek stronger ties with this formidable alliance. I am Pakistani, with a Pakistani father and an Iranian mother; nevertheless the aesthetic, ethno-linguistic, literary and historic ties that exist between these two nations are a revelation to me at times. Pakistan has a considerable Shi'ite population (varying for 20% to as much as 30% of the population) and also within its borders are many Iranian ethno-linguistic minorities (notably the Baluchis and the Pathans). Persian culture was admired by the Muslims of the Subcontinent and reached it pinnacle during the Moghul epoch. Our national poet, Allama Iqbal wrote his first book on "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia and frequently wrote in Persian. Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, utilizes the Persian script and there is a discernable Persian influence on the vocabulary. Contrast this to Turkey where the Latin script is in use, the Shi'ite population is non-existent and the Kurds, who are of Iranian stock and speak a West Iranian language related to Persian, are denied many of their basic rights. * Islamic Republic of Goliath This is an update to my e-mail exchange with Amotz Asa-El, Editor-in-Chief of The International Jerusalem Post -- apparently the "Kayhan" of Jerusalem, as reported in my recent article in the Iranian ["Think wider"]. As you see at the bottom of the article, I had asked him whether or not he had ever been to Iran. I was surprised to get a response. The entirety of his last response was:
From this short and irrelevant response, I speculate that he perhaps wants to communicate but for some reason he does not. Or, perhaps he enjoys reading my responses or he wants to get me to talk (in search of an imaginary "terrorist?") in order to report all this to the notorious Mossad. Will I be "secretly" assassinated soon? I hope not -- I am a U.S. citizen, so my life is not as cheap as those of the Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza concentration camps, although my car's breaks can "accidentally" fail or I could die mysteriously from "slow food poisoning," you know?! At any rate, I was tired of this mostly one-way "conversation" with this apparently deeply racist "journalist." I thought if I challenged him to an actual debate, either he would actually respond to my comments or he will stop sending me short and dismissive "responses." So I wrote:
This last e-mail exchange happened on the 18th of August. As of today (Sunday August 26, 2001) I have not received any more responses from Mr. Asa-El. I am not holding my breath. * Very subtle Concerning the Persian Gulf, Gulf or Arabian Gulf ["British support of the Arabs"], As pointed out there has been a confusion which has not ceased to rise since I'd the Gulf War in 1990. The main reason as you mention in your article is that major oil companies since the 1979 revolution were hesitant not to hurt the sensitivities of their Arab neighbours. It was done in a very subtle way through diplomatic vocabulary, and passed on by the international press in general. President Bush (the father) used to refer to the Persian Gulf War. However the European press boiled it down to the Gulf War in general. If you remember in 1990, French President François Mitterands while participating to the war refused to allow american military aircrafts to land on French soil. The reason invocated was France's independance towards it's allies. Eversince President Chirac came to power, France reintegrated NATO. However during the "Gulf War", or should I say the Second "Persian Gulf" conflict to be precise, (if we have to take into consideration the first conflict which opposed Iraq to Iran as opposed to the conflict that opposed Iraq to the West after Sadaam invaded Kuwait), the French media indirectly accused American allies for trying to bypass the United Nations resolution in order to act quickly. Many French professors with Arab sympathies concluded on the fact that the term to be used is the Arabian-Persian Gulf. This terminology was taken for granted by the French press and government of the time, since France has a long history for its ties with Arab countries and because of its colonial past. Jean-Jacques Servan Shreiber, French intellectual, was one of the first to have used the term "Golf Arabo-Persique", during the first conflict when (France sold arms to both Iran and Iraq). I often wondered why then the English Channel which the French call "La Manche" was never called the Franco-English channel. However that is another debate. According to the laws of the sea, however, I believe Iran can justify the appelation of the "Persian Gulf" for historical reasons that go back to Iran's ancient history, and that can be seen on ancient maps, including Greek ones which go back to the time of Alexander, but also appeal to the international laws concerning the sea, I believe that their is a law that insures the fact that based on complex ocean measures- for which I am not an expert- which exist that Iran can claim that the name Persian Gulf is the appropriate title. I must add that the late Shah of Iran had managed to impose the Red Lion, for Iran's participation at the Red Cross. So even today the Sheer o Khorshid prevails over the Red Crescent as far as Iran and Islamic country is concerned, even if the Islamic government in power does not use it for the reasons we all know. The Sheer o Khorshid or Red Lion, is the official international emblem of Iranian humanitarian medical support -- something the present regime has refused to take into account. I am confident that not only the name Persian Gulf will be reinstated, but also the Iranian flag. However being of a mixed culture myself, regarding the miserable state in which the Middle East peace process has turned into, I believe it is important to keep xenophobic attributions regarding Judaism aside, even though few writers attacked the Jewish community. Extremism and scars are very deep on both sides. It is easy to judge from as an outsider, but this conflict can only come to an end if both parties accept to negotiate again, based on the Oslo aggreement. Regards, * PERRRRRSIAN Please do not use the word FARSI in place of PERSIAN for the main language spoken in Persian society. Our language and literature has been known and respected around the world as Persian language and literature not Farsi. Farsi is like a new language for Western people. Also as you know, Iran's ancient civilization and culture has been known externally as PERSIA. The name Persia from 6th century until a few decades age was the historical and international name of Iran but the then government of Persia change it officially to the internal name Iran for some political reasons, despite the cultural documents of our country had been recorded around the word with the name Persia not Iran (that is a new name in the West and very similar to Iraq !)... Neverdeles after more than 65 years from this change some Persians and non-Persians still use the traditional terms Persia and Persian in place of Iran and Iranian. Also they are active to correct of any use of the word Farsi in place of Persian for language and to protest against the use of THE GULF or ARABIAN GULF in place of PERSIAN GULF. Please help us! thank you so much for your attention. Very truly yours; Pejman Akbarzadeh * Boring? How could anyone call the The Alchemist ["Lake Rumi"] boring? ["THE most boring book"] The novel is so short and quick there is not time for one to get bored. I received that book as a gift and I read it pretty quickly.I understand that most of the Paulo Coelho's books are similar to The Alchemist, but one has to try one of his works at least. Overall, I believe in mixing up and reading different novels. I recommend the House of Sand and Fog and The Persian Bride. Both are about the experiences of Iranians. The Persian Bride, by James Buchan, is set in Iran in the mid 1970'a in Esfehan and it tells the story of the love affaire between a young British man name John Pitt and Shirin, the daughter of a colonel in the Iranian Air Force. The Language is convoluted and confusing, but the story is touching and memorable. As for House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Debus III, it is the story of a conflict between an Iranian colonel and an American woman over a house. It deals with the difficulties Iranian immigrants go through in America. * Behesht va Jahanam In response to "Can't walk away": ROOHAM RA FERESTAADAM BE AMERICA' KE BEENAD AAQEBAT CHE KHAHAD BOOD; BA'D AZ MODATI ROOHAM BARGASHT VA GOFT, MAN KHODAM BEHESHT VA JAHANNAM AST. * More power to you I look forward to reading your column ["Kobra Khanom"] every day and enjoy your wisdom and wit immensely. I particularly enjoyed your response to the neanderthal reader who thought sex outside of marriage is a sin ["Don't set new rules"]. More power to you, dear lady. There are a lot of open-minded, sane Iranian women out there that think like you do and thank you for raising your voice to the fanatics as you do. Regards, Mehrak * Iranians in Reno? My name is Miriam. I recently moved here to Reno Nevada, and I feel very alone in the community. I know Persians are here, (some even own the Atlantis casino), but in my daily activities it has been nearly impossible to meet other Persians. Can you help me find any local groups in Reno where I can meet others? Thank you.
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