Wednesday
June 27, 2001
* Mind & heart
Laleh,
I read your letter in response to Farah's open letter ["Different worlds"].
It doesn't make sense to compare her financial status to yours or the ordinary
people around you. She mentioned "like all the other working women"
in the sense of not having time to spend with their children, not in the
sense of having money to get them a governess or not.
What you and a lot of iranian.com readers don't seem to grasp about Princess
Leila's situation is the idea of mind and heart versus money and the material
world. I respect you and your
articles... didn't expect such logic from you!
By the way, in the world I inhabit, people are not as miserable as you
said! Don't exaggerate. (See reply below)
Parastoo
* Beyond compare
Thank you for commenting on my email as politely as you have ["Mind & heart"]. Some of the emails I have received
have not been as polite as this. Please do accept my response below as
a continuation of a conversation:
First off, I don't so easily separate matters of finances and the ability
to earn a living from "matters of mind and heart" , nor do I give
one priority over the other. In fact, part of my letter pointed to the
very fact that a lot of women actually choose to forsake all signifiers
of financial success only to give personal (loving) care to their children.
Additionally, the world out there has some 3 billion women in it, and
only because you and I (and I include myself firmly among those who don't
toil as much as the most) are fortunate enough not to have to worry about
our daily bread every waking hour of our days, it doesn't mean that the
majority of those other women (in all continents) are living a life of leisure.
If anything, in order to not sensationalize my letter, I understated the
suffering of the great majority of the women who live in our world.
Finally, I am not sure how to take it when you state you didn't "expect"
a critique of material disparities between the well-off and the poor (or
even the moderately well-off) on top of my aversion to a pretense populism
(equating herself with all the rest of the world's working women) on the
part of Farah. Why? Because I have written about longing and exile? But
I guess I haven't been able to show that the rest of humanity experiences
exile diffrentially as well, and on the basis of their access to social,
political, cultural and -- yes -- economic amenities.
Someone like me who can publish an article in the mass media, who can
go back to Iran occasionally, and who works in the academia experiences
exile very differently than the immigrant who works for less than the minimum
wage, has no insurance and is in constant fear of racist attacks on the
one hand, and from a princess who could afford multi-thousand dollar hotel
rooms and yet found no solace, no love, and no companionship in her gilded
cage, on the other hand.
I suspect that while the princess and I have all the time in the world
to worry about loss and longing, the women who cleans the toilets in some
nameless sky-scraper worries about wheather she can even afford to take
a day off to take care of her sick child. I find it offensive that a former
queen compares herself with this latter woman.
I am only too disappointed that what I have written so far could not
better display my interest in these differences.
All the best
Laleh Khalili
* Before or after?
Laleh Khalili's letter was funny ["Different
worlds"]. In the world she inhabits, mothers take their kids to
fields and factories? Is that before or after she was in love in the orange
fields of Cordoba? ["Loving
a farangi"]
Ferdos Karimkhani
* Don't belittle our feelings
I read with interest the letter headed "Nausiating"
relating to the suffering of other people in relation to Leila Pahlavi.
I am surprsied that so many of my fellow Iranians have such a one dimentional
way of thinking.
To grieve for Leila's death does not mean that you don't give a damn
about all the other suffering around us. Sympathy with one does not have
to be at the expence of the other. One feels sorry on different levels and
for different reasons.
I can love more than one person for different reasons. equally therefore
I can feel grief and sorrow for different people for different reasons.
Please stop this nonesense of trying to portray anyone who sympathises
with the Pahlavis as cold hearted people who are unaware of the suffering
of other Iranians. Please don't belittle our feelings because we dare feel
sorry for a Princess who in your minds may be less deserving than someone
else.
Kourosh
England
* First class
It is interesting that the author ["Crown
of lilies"] so explicitly denotes the class of service he uses
on the train. One can not help wondering whether "First Class"
is what he merely buys.
Aref Erfani
* Mossad agent?
After sending a letter to the Iranian last week defending the Pahalvis,
I have been sent a few private emails calling me an Israeli Mossad agent
amongst other things. It is a sad state of affairs where even outside
Iran and after 22 years of living in democaracies in Europe and the US,
there are still those believing in such caricatures.
If I believe in monarchy or speak favourably of the Pahlavis then I
must be a Mossad agent, my father must be a CIA agent, my uncles must have
worked for Savak, my aunt must be a Bahai, my cousin must be a Jew and
needless to say, we must all be multi-millionaires. Right ?!
Hamid
London
* Pseudo-intellectually superficial
I was very surprised when I first read iranian.com's motto ("Nothing
is sacred). I found it disturbing -- and quite pseudo-intellectually superficial.
I appreciate Ali Kazemi's opinion ["Cucumber
is green"], and am grateful for his ability to articulate and share
my thoughts.
Roshan Houshmand
* Hall of fame
What a truly wonderful response ["Absolute
sophist"]. This letter should go in the Iranian.com's Letters Hall
of Fame. Splendid!
Ramin Tabib
* How to show Iranian films
I am the performing arts coordinator at The University of Montana Productions.
I would like very much to organize a week-end of Iranian movies at the end
of September in the University Center's theatre. Could you help me with
that ? Do you have the rights for public projection ?
I am thinking of projecting 5 movies ( 2 Friday, 2 Saturday and one Sunday
) one projection each. Please contact me if you would like to work with
me on this. My coordinates are:
Theodor-Cristian Popescu
Performing Arts Coordinator
UM Productions
UC Suite 104
University of Montana Missoula
Montana 59812
Phone: 406-243-4984
Fax: 406-243-4905
* Filmmaking school
I am writing from Pakistan. I am deeply interested in learning filmmaking.
Can I get some information about the film schools in Iran? how can I apply
to them?
Thank you,
SQ
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