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Tuesday * NOT refugees The saying goes .. you don't kick a gift horse in the mouth! It is very unfair to blame the unfortunate case of Shayan on the Australian government. We seem to get our fact wrong here... 1) Australia didn't invite Shayan or his family, 2) They "illegally" entered Australia, bypassing official channels devised for refugees, 3) They were given food and accomodation at reasonable standards, 4) Their case for being refugees was reviewed twice and rejected so they are NOT refugees. It is very regrettable that they have had to endure so much hardship but let's not forget who's responsible for this. It's Shayan's family. You might say they had to leave Iran, they had no choice, etc ... then it's the Iran's government's fault... NOT Australia! Keeping with this logic, you have potentially another 60 million Iranians who have a hard life and have anti-establishment beliefs ... so can claim "refugee" status, hey let's get them all out of Iran and let them in Australia! Hey... let's drop the finger pointing and take responsibility for our actions.. 20 years ago, we stuffed up our own wonderful country and now were eating its wood!! if you know what I mean... Peace, * I'm Iruni, dammit! When I was growing up, I too struggled trying to speak Farsi just like the children of our family friends ["Competing with cousins"]. Both my parents are Iranian, but I guess it had to do with my mother's adamant opinion that English would do me more good in America than my knowledge of Farsi would. Her explanation took a long time to sink into my thoughts. I've heard both sides of the coin. When I first started speaking Farsi, our Iruni neighbor remarked (in front of me) that I spoke like I was Afghan. I'm Iruni, dammit! So I practiced with more passion. "Mamman, how do I say this.... Mamman esmesh beh farsi chee hast?" So slowly I learned enough to speak Farsi and carry a conversation well. My Mom was right. Her idea was that if I learned Farsi enough to carry a conversation and be able to communicate with my Iranian friends, and more importantly family in Iran, then the communication barrier would be broken. It's a hell of a lot harder for all of my cousins in Iran to learn English than it is for me to learn Farsi. When I last spoke to my cousin she told me that she wanted to get her doctorate in English, and she's sending me letters in English. Just yesterday I saw a young guy (about 16) working in a store. He had a little accent when he spoke, I could barely hear it. Nonetheless, I asked him where he was from. "Iran," was his response. When I asked "Haleh shoma chetoreh?" he looked floored. During our short conversation he asked me how I learned to speak Farsi so well. I believe the answer to that question is one word. Persistence. * We are a new breed This is in response to an article by a Persian woman who feels like she can't claim a home ["Am I homeless?"]. Although all of us Persians that have been raised in the US are anything but a hundred percent Iranian, we all feel something very inherently inside of us, a connection with every Iranian we meet, whether they be the BMW- driving, Tehrangeles Persian or an old man in Shiraz, there is sense of identification and connection felt between two people from the same land. However, I don't believe that most of us will feel our homeland in Iran. Those of us, like myself, who have never even seen the country, cannot help but realize that walking on Iranian soil will fall short of giving us all the answers. I do believe that being in an area where everyone and everything speak the language and culture of our mothers will contribute to a sense of belonging that has never been known. However, an isolation that can cut through the heart will also exist for us Persian-Americans who visit Iran. The isolation is born by being surrounded in an environment free of the beliefs and cornerstones that have been embedded in our personalities. Freedoms of speech, equality, and capitalism have all influenced us as Americans. These points are generally accepted among the Iranians in the US. So if these premises exist, then where is our home? I have thought about the "home" notion for quite some time. Visiting Barcelona, Spain, and I initially felt more at home than I had in the US. This fascinated me, and the only conclusion derived was that it was a passionate culture and thus I related. However, it still did not feel completely "right". I have plainly rejected the pursuant of a "home country" because I have realized that we are bicultural, and correspondingly, there is no country that is clearly homogeneous in its biculturalism. The truth is, we are a new breed: the Iranian-American breed. The challenge before us is the constant effort towards understanding this and reconciling the dichotomy. We are made up of two cultures that are on opposite sides of the spectrum. One of the most important moments in my life was the day I decided to love the Iranian side of me: the irrational, passionate, poetic, and expressive side. We are at an advantage, we have opposing qualities that create amazing, well-rounded people. So in labeling a country or place as a home, perhaps we can never do that, but maybe that disposes us to be more receptive to the world. * Hard not to sympathize After reading Pejman's plea ["PERRRRRSIAN"], it is hard not to sympathize with him and not to echo his voice. For those of you who are not familiar with, or even to refresh your memory , please read ["Sharhe-Hal"] and ["Everything"?] again. It is about the life time services of the most valuble living Persian to our culture, language and literature. Dr.Ehsan Yarshater has been crusading for years to use Persia and Persian in English correctly , instead of Iran and Farsi. He is the most eligible authority to render an opinion on this subject and yet his voice has not been heard. Is there any wonder then, if our Gulf is called Arabian and our country sounds like and often mistaken for Iraq, when we do not listen to our learned elders? * It requires goodwill I am an Egyptian person, and I cannot agree with you more that peace in the Middle East is the best solution for all the parties involved including Iran. However, peace does not mean stopping periodically the fights between Israelis and Palestinians or the Arabs. It requires goodwill to radically solve problems that initiate wars. Israel refuses to give the Palestinians the rights to live as a nation, and then asks them to remain quite and not even to protest or... I think Iran and Middle Eastern countries in particular should make the U.S. -- as the only super power now in the world -- see where problems come from, so that a just settlement could be achieved. * Pretending to be a hero I don't understand what Moji Agha is trying to achieve with his tasteless unilateral argument with a journalist, insulting him each time, calling himself a Persian, a Sufi, a self-assigned defendant of other nations?! ["Think wider"] Am I understanding correctly, that he is talking about the Islamic regime in Iran when saying "Have you seen the young yet genuine democracy that your government is trying to sabotage"! What is he talking about?! Comparing this regime to Mossadegh's? If that's what he means then fine, I will not bother responding to him. I have been and seen many of the victims of that "democracy". (Even the regime itself doesn't pretend to be democratic, they hate the term!) I guess the Israeli journalist is a gentleman who is trying not to be ignorant by responding to this abusive person but he shouldn't. "If you want to debate, let's do it"?! Just ignore him sir. No one is obliged to get engaged in a conversation with anyone else especially such a person -- don't. There is no use to that. Mr Agha is calling the man "deeply racist journalist", what is the evidence for that? The quote he had the other day from him, didn't show us any such evidence. He is pretending to be a hero who is not scared of being assassinated! I am sorry but who the hell are you to be worth such a hassle! I am serious, is Mr Agha trying to get credit from the regime? Who are these people? Are we from two different countries or planets?! Let me stop here, this must be another agent provocateur of a dictatorship who has the worst record itself. I am almost suffocating with frustration with our "haalo rooz" on one hand and such fellow countrymen on the other hand. I am looking for a little common sense "Az divo dad maloolam". Your faithfully, * Israel took iranian.com I have come to conclusions that Israel is monitoring "our" communications at least on this site. There are more than one or two reasons and I know what Zionists are capable of; therefore I am not in a position to put myself at a risk. I put OUR in quotations because this site used to belong to Iranians. Unfortunately, not any more. I hardly ever come to this site any more This used to be my favorite site. I used to get all of my information about my country, Iran, from this site. But Israel took this one from us also. Believe it or not the Israeli Embassy is watching you. * IT IS NOT HATRED This is in response to, "Why so much hate?" You are wrong, in fact very very wrong if you believe that most of the Iranians who have expressed their views on this site about the policies of Israel are hateful of Jews. In fact, it is Jews who in their efforts to silence any comment or criticism on the policies of Israel claim anti-Semitism each time. The majority of decent people do not have any prejudice against Jews or anybody else. Let me inform you that some of the most vocal and eloquent defenders of Palestinians are Israeli Jews.Yes, Israeli Jews, who have come to realize the enormity of the injustice inflicted on these defenseless people. Consider this for a moment: we as Iranians or as Muslim, allow ourselves to comment on anything, our regimes, our religion, even some of our customs, particularly concerning women's rights, and rightly so. The inability of the majority of the people of Jewish faith to comprehend and react to the injustices being inflicted on the Palestinians in their name, is the cause of the criticism, IT IS NOT HATRED, certainly they claim it to be hatred because it allows them to bury their heads in the ground and DENY, DENY, DENY. And, as for your Jewish friends, obviously they have done a good job of explaining to you the situation on ground zero from their prospective, have you done any research of yourself on this matter? And please don't look for news concerning this part of the world on CNN, New York Times and Washington Post, maybe The Guardian and The Independent (London) would be a good places to start. How many Palestinian friends do you have? Ah, but we Iranians share the Israeli view, about Arabs, them with their backward culture and religion, our enemies and... * Excusing Israeli atrocities I do NOT remember the last time I read such an inane piece of trash that masqueraded as political commentary ["Understanding outrage"]. Oh wait, yes I do... yesterday's edition of The New York Times. But that's another story. How utterly OFFENSIVE and reprehensible can one be to suggest that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an equal conflict with both sides on equal footing and on equal moral ground-like two siblings fighting with each other. That's what the author of this article seems to imply-'yes both sides have grievances', 'yes both sides are equally to blame', bla bla bla bla bla. To formulate the conflict in these terms is to forgive and excuse Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. In fact at one point he even says that punishing Israeli atrocities would only lead to further violence. Boy that's a great line of logic, Mr. Amir. Let me ask you something: would you go to an Armenian who's great-grandparents were murdered by the Turks in the Armenian genocide and say, "Well both sides suffered heavy losses" and "both sides were to blame for the conflict"?? I dare you to go to an Armenian and say such a thing. They'll floor you faster than Jackie Chan in fast forward. You should be ASHAMED of yourself for trying to gloss over and dilute Israel's daily atrocities against the Palestinian population. To even suggest that the Israelis and Palestinians are on equal moral footing is wrong and unacceptable. * Forcible conversion Corr Chris "Where's the evidence?" is stating the well fabricated history as written by Muslim fanatics. If he reads any books written on Iranian history by "independent sources", for example from Russian or English books, he will note the Arab atrocities and forcible conversions in Iran and other places. What he says about Jazieh and minority rights in Islamic Iran is a sick joke. Jazieh was so high that a lot of Iranians had to convert to Islam because they simply could not afford to pay the infidel's tax. However, later on the Arab rulers who were not happy with the loss of income because of these new conversions insisted on payment from newly converted non-Arab Muslims. "Conversion" under financial pressure is forcible conversion too. Iranains rebelled against Arab occupiers many times. Babak, Maziar, Ostaadsis and many others who were defeated and killed together with all their followers. All because they did not want to convert. In one incident the Arab ruler of Rey wanted to see blood stream from Iranian blood, but the blood was not streaming no matter how many people they killed. So they had to add water to satisfy this good Muslim's thirst for blood. Even the Arab people of Mecca were forcibly converted after the prophet entered the city with his army. Islam has been propagated by the sword and kept by force. Only recently the Taliban in Afganestan have arrested some aid workers for "propagating Christianity" because they had a copy of the Bible. This kind of behaviour has been the norm in the past 1,400 years throughout the Islamic world. Finally, I am very well aware of what the Persian emperors did. However, first they did not do it in the name of Allah! And second, who said that they were perfect?! But third, Iranians were much better off under their own emperors than under the Arab emperors. * Persian KHARS Dear Ham Vatan, Farid, ["Racist remarks"] Thank you for your comment about Persians being KHAR that they did not see what a good life they had & opted for Khomeini & the so-called REVOLUTION. I admire your courage to call the bunch of them KHAR. That is exactly what they were & some still are. Best regards, Hashem Hakimi * Sad spectacle Response to Azam's letter "An Iranian can never be khar": It is truly shocking to get a letter from someone who preaches everyone that an Iranian can never be khar and then makes such disgusting racist remarks about someone's wife. You just put that label (khar) on yourself, lady. That was a sad spectacle. In Iran we call this "Bijanbegi" (not having the slightest sense of humor), and "Bihormati" (not having an ounce of dignity or respect). If you are such a red-blooded Iranian, the first thing you should know is that insulting someone's wife in our culture is a big NO-NO, whomever they might be. And what business is it of yours why he married an Indian? I have read all of Mr. Salari's featured articles to this day. I find his anecdotes to be very sincere, very humble, and very entertaining. For what it looks like, he is a very successful man and obviously a very intelligent one. Atleast, he is sincere enough to share his family pictures and stories with the rest of us. What makes his articles so readable is because they are not stuffy. He makes more fun of himself than anything else when he elaborates on his everyday-life comic adventures, which are a breath of fresh air. And, for the record, Azam khanoom, we are not all in the habit of putting down other nations just because we think they don't add-up to our level. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you're suppose to be the typical Iranian woman (which I am sure you're not), that explains why some of our guys chose to take an alternative route. * IRIB Greetings from Spain. I am very interested in knowing the program schedule of the IRIB 2 but after several hours of looking for it I have not been able to find it. Can you help how to find the program schedule? Where I can see the program, type of program and the language they broadcast. This is an information for an international satellite magazine and for me is very important to find out it because to find the job I have to give them this information correctly.
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