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Thursday * Keeping Persian name Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading your article on Iranian.com today ["Sepehr to Zip"]. It made me laugh and smile. I too, know quite well the challenges of having a very difficult name. You would laugh at the variations that I have experienced! So many people have asked me if I like to be called Pani for short or, God forbid, Panti... Akheh een shod esm?? : - ) With all that being said, I have been very proud in keeping my name just as my parents named me: Panteha. I commend you on keeping your name for your albums. it makes one happy knowing that you are making a "Persian" name for yourselves in this so-called American culture! : - ) Kheyly Mamnoon, * Pride I really don't care about the bad things people say me as an Iranian. These people are stupid and don't have an education. I am just proud of myself as a Iranian person. PRIDE, PRIDE, PRIDE, IIIIIIRRRRRRAAAAANNNNN * Proclivity for martyrdom You mention in your Anyway section of iranian.com yesterday that you do not know why you published Mr. Pakravan's ranting article ["Let us count the crimes"] when it was so opposed to your views. You answer yourself by saying that you did it for the benefit of an "open forum". I would like to tell you that you are too kind. In this case your decision about publishing this piece was clouded by the fact that the gentleman who wrote it was attacking you. Your decision to publish a perfectly horrible, racist and badly argued, badly written article reveal your own peculiarly Iranian proclivity for martyrdom. But this angry ranting article that pretends to be informed but is really just angry venom from someone, who still thinks Khruchev is in power, is so off the mark that I am convinced you would not have subjected your readers to it if he was attacking anyone but yourself. So please spare us next time. We do not want the home of Nooneh and Khorsandi and those beautiful Rumi translations and information-packed island essays to turn into a KKK forum. True that everyone should be able to voice their opinions but there should be some standard of writing and argumentation. Anyone should be able to express their views but not in badly written prose which has no logical rhyme or reason. This article does not pretend to be creative writing. It pretends to be a political tract -- it should therefore be held against at least the most basic rules of logic and argumentation. It does not even attempt to keep a modicum of civility. Even the KKK would be less direct in their contempt. It is bad politics to be so blatantly prejudiced. So next time you decide to post an attack on something your wrote ask yourself, would I publish this if it was not a response to something I wrote? If the answer is no then put the piece in the trenches of the Letters section where it more appropriately belongs. Anyway I do not want to teach a lesson of editing to someone who is so good at it 99% of the time. But please next time you decide to be so benevolent think of us and spare us. * Clear difference G. Motamedi's opinion piece expressing a lack of hostility is itself rather hostile ["Iranian Don Quixote"]! The question isn't "hostility" towards Jews or Judaism in general, which certainly isn't justifiable towards any people or religion, but hostility towards Israel's blatantly illegal and immoral conduct and AIPAC's interference in US-Iran relations, which is not only a justifiable hostility, it is also a duty of any moral human being. People should make a clear difference between anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism, despite the efforts by Israel-supporters who insist on equating the two. Zionism, which espouses killing Palestinians or driving them out of their homes to create a Jewish-only homeland, is wrong and immoral. Shooting children in the street is wrong and immoral. Pointing nuclear weapons at Iran and then lying about Iran's weapons is wrong and immoral. Promoting libels against Iran and Iranians in the media is wrong and immoral. AIPAC's misdeeds are wrong and immoral. Under these circumstances, heeing and hawing about "some aspects of the problem" in the Mideast is nothing more than a cop out. I further remind Mr. Motamedi that he or she doesn't necessarily represent all Iranians either, and whether people choose to write under their real name or not hardly makes a difference to the facts. How do we know that your real name is what you claim it is? * Failed policy Recently, an interesting letter in The Iranian ["Top priority?"] asked why there hasn't been a debate on the utility of U.S. sanctions in promoting human rights and democracy, since, according to the theory mentioned in the letter, by hurting Iranians the sanctions will eventually cause them to overthrow their regime. You would think that the thirty-plus years of U.S. sanctions imposed on Cuba should be more than sufficient to dismiss this theory that "Hurting Iranians will eventually hurt the mollahs." And note that neither Iraq nor Libya are exactly shining beacons of liberty either, despite undergoing many years of sanctions (multilateral ones at that.) However, leaving aside the merits of the theory itself (or lack thereof), the letter asked why there hasn't been a debate about it, which is a separate issue. For that, there are several related answers: For one thing, the real reason why there hasn't been much debate about the use of sanctions to promote human rights or democracy is because the U.S. sanctions on Iran obviously have nothing to do with democracy or human rights. They never did, and they never will. Rather, the sanctions are primarily intended to subjugate Iran to Israel, which is why the three standard U.S. complaints about Iran - support for "terrorism", opposition to the "peace process", manufacture of "weapons of mass destruction" - are all issues which involve opposition to Israel's regional ambitions, and have nothing to do with Iran's democractic or human rights situation. That is also why AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobby groups are so active in promoting the sanctions and work so hard to prevent any U.S.-Iran rapprochement >>> FULL TEXT * No proof Yet another ranting person without any proof whatsoever ["Historical fabriucations"]. What's the point of repeating these false claims over and over again? Your predecessor already did that, and I asked him for proof. He couldn't provide, so there's no use in discussing any imaginations. Obviously you seem to follow his line of claiming things without proof. When you can bring evidence, come back. * Why Iranians were defeated Following my previous letters ["By the sword"] and referring to the letters by Corr Chris ["Where's the evidence?"] and finally the excellent reply by Thunder ["Historical fabriucations"], it seems that the answer to a simple question is not very clear to many people; "Why did a small barefoot Arab army beat the Iranian army?" The answer is very simple; the Arab army was not small, it was huge. During the battle of Qadesieh which took 3 days, Arabs received considerable reinforcements every day, while the Iranians received none. And at the same time other big Arab armies were fighting the Romans in Syria and Egypt. Like most other invading conquerors the Arabs were having a "population explosion" at the time. Arabs had started immigrating to Iran and invading 400 years before Islam, because there was not enough room for them in the Arabian deserts anymore. The first serious trouble occured at the time of Shapour near the beginning of Sassani rule. You can follow their expansion up to the emergence of Islam. Some of their tribes were allied with the Persians and some with the Romans and their power and influence were increasing all the time. An Arab king called Na'aman helped Bahram e Goor to reclaim his father's throne. At the time of Islam, favourable historical conditions due to years of fighting between Persians and Romans allowed the Arabs, who were now united under a new ideology, to conquer all of the Persian Empire and the Asian and African parts of the Roman Empire. Yes, substantial increases in population has caused many great invasions and/or migrations in the history. Similar historical conditions caused the Arian tribes to move from Siberia and conquer the Iranian plateau and Europe, Mongols to start from Mongolia and conquer China, Middle East, Russia and parts of Europe, Turkish invaders from Central Asia to conquer Iran, byzantine and Arab Empires and all of Balkans. If successful invasion is a sign of God's religion, then Changiz Khan must be the greatest Prophet of them all! * Put your foot down Dear Kobra Khanom, I read your reply to Mr. ZA who had a problem with your advices about sex. You replied to him in the best way possible. I just wanted to drop you a couple of lines and let you know that I am one of your admirers and I enjoy reading your column very much. You have a very reformed mind even though it's still very Iranian. A lot of us have this kind of ideology at this point even though there are still lots of strict religous people out there who can't change the ancient ideologies in order to move forward. Thanks for your great column and put your foot down for your philosophies because they're great!:) Have a good day, Parastoo * Grants for Iranian artists in canada I am trying to reach out to Iranian, non-profit organizations in Ontario that engage in arts presentation to let them know about the new grant program called: Arts Presentation Canada. If you have a minute, and are aware of any cultural centres I could contact, please let me know - Thanks Cindy Babyn * Forming Iranian doctors' group in Maryland Dear Baltimore/Maryland Iranian Medical/Surgical Residents Residency has just started this year and alot of the new residents have just moved to the area, some with families some single. I think it would be a great idea to set a time when we can all meet and get to know some new faces in the area make friends, and also network. I know the big concern for all of us is TIME. So please email me if interested and we can discuss plans for bringing this community of Iranian physicians and wives or husbands or families of together. My email is: Payvand2001@hotmail.com Gorbunet S Oskouei
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