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February 27, 2004 Page 2 * Charles today, Washinton tomorrow The best thing that has happened in more than over 25 years is that Prince Charles visited the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a big step. The United Kingdom was one of the few countries who has continuously had a mission in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the dictatorship in Iran was toppled by freedom loving Iranians. I always knew that the Royal Family in the United Kingdom loathed the barbaric acts of the Pahlavi regime. Queen Elizabeth even refused to go to the 2500 anniversary party the Pahlavis had. There will soon be direct ties between the Iranian government and the United States of America. The pro-Shah people have been marginalized so much they are seen as the biggest losers in the world. Maryam Rajavi was handcuffed, her veil was removed in a french court and she was beaten severely. The Mujahedin Khalq ceases to exist as a opponent to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The only thing left is the Islamic Republic of Iran and nothing else. Face it we must accept the obvious. Love her, or leave her, Iran will never change. * Nothing is sacred? How about quality? What was so wrong with Lilly Ghahremani's depiction of the 'bare breast incident' in the February 4, 2004 cover story ("Super Bowl, Iranian style"), that a spanking new article dedicated to Janet Jackson's breast(s) would have to appear two days later? Or perhaps Siamack Baniameri's "The right breast" is really about bad television. Hard to believe that a string of right-stripped breast details versus right and left could help support arguments on the limits of permissible broadcasting, until... I discovered the Iranian.com's editorial policy that "it doesn't matter what you write." Then it all made sense... that it actually doesn't have to make much sense. Now, the one question I itch to submit to the virtual editorial board is, if the policy doesn't warrant editing articles for content, why also ignore format? Typos, at the very least, should be picked up on, don't you think? * You owe a serious apology To the Iranian.com mangement, I was absolutely appalled to see that you feature an essay on Janet Jackson's breast. [The right breast] I used to have a very positive vew of your website as an informative and literary site until I read this purely offensive attempt at satire. You should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing someone to post this garbage on your site with degrading language and such words as "fucker". You owe all of your readers a serious apology, but if it means anything to you, you just lost one. * Decent breast vs. indecent breast Hello Mr. Mazaheri, [Of breasts and bombs] I truly enjoyed reading your February 4th article... until the last paragraph. Your writing style is impeccable with grace and class, so please tell me why you chose to end such a quality article on such a tasteless note, the very thing you were condemning! You wrote so diligently on how crass and sickening it is to see and hear all of the lost moral boundaries in the world, especially in America, yet at the end you say you found the exposed breast on national-international television to be very "decent" compared to other types of media splatter. My talented friend, please reconsider your position publicly on this issue. Consider this perspective: An exposed breast in the form of nursing on a baby commercial=DECENT An exposed breast in a sexually charged action in front of young viewers=INDECENT! The breast in and of itself is decent, but certainly not in the context shown at the superbowl. If you had a young daughter with you and she had seen this, what would you tell her? That it's alright to just rip a woman's clothes off? I am so disappointed with the end of your article, despite your talent. * Whatever happened to the dignified Iranian.com? Dear Iranian.com friends, I myself am rather
young (only 16) and was born in America but I sometimes feel
more Iranian-born than American. I miss Iran terribly
and ,again, was happy when I found Iranian.com and its
richness in culture. Whatever happened to the dignified Iranian I remember? Some of the articles included also contain profanity which shows the weakness of a writer who relies on cuss words to strengthen meaningless words. All of this,
as you can imagine, deteriorates Iranian.com's image to the
public. * IRI takling English Dear Mr. Mohammadi, I liked your article--Talking
English--because in
it you have brought into the open an issue which is not discussed
often enough. However, I'm sorry to say this, but I don't see the situation
in the same light
as you do. * Justifying hatred I thought I had answered your question in an open forum [Irrational fear]. But you are repeating the same stuff again [Talking English]. You quote from one person and seek to define the policy of a whole nation based on that. Well, many Ayatollahs advocate "exporting" the Islamic Revolution to the whole Islamic world. But we know that this is not
true about every
single official of the Islamic Republic. In short,
you are using
the old tactic used by Hitler, Mao, and many others
to justify
hatred. Your theory is no better than the
Administration's
reasoning based on WMD. How about religious holy places that were razed in Iran in 1979? Does Israel desecrate religious minority's cemeteries? How come in the past 25 years, the number of Iranian Zoroastrians, Jews, Christian and Baha'is has steadily gone down? [See reply below] * Ayatullahs no excuse for Israeli aggression In reply to above, Stop trying to hide behing the ayatullahs - the ayatullahs are no excuse for Israeli aggression, ethnic cleansing, fundamentalist racism and murderous theiving lust for other people's lands. Like I said, when your own historians openly espouse ethnic cleansing as "not really bad" then you have no leg to stand on, and are a moral midget. * Zealously anti-Jewish Seeing John Mohammadi shedding crocodile tears over the demise of democracy [Talking English] is akin to watching Adolph Eichmann mourning the Holocaust! Whenever you see an opinion piece by JM, save yourself a lot of time and simply scroll down to the last paragraph as all his ranting can be minimised in a just few lines: "So, this is a Democracy that Mills or Toqueville would recognize and be proud of? I don't think so.", and later in the same paragraph: "That scares me. It would be the end of Democracy as a concept (after just 100 years of practice)..." For someone so zealously anti-Jewish, and so sheepishly admiring the IRI as JM (referring to them as "Johoods"), lecturing us on the merits of democratic thinking - it is simply nauseating. * Constantly indignant I would draw the attention of both these liberal, high-minded gentlemen to the "unedited" article below by Sina. "God bless brave American soldiers in Iraq", he says. Why do you think he would write this? What does it say about the state of mind of people living in Iran, the land you idealise, in contrast to the United States, the target of your constant indignation. You are constantly indignant, John Mohammadi [Talking English]. It takes some audacity to suggest that people around the world have seen and rejected the American model of liberal democracy. How do you know? Have you taken a poll? You are displaying the most illiberal vice of seeing the world through your own Left-wing ideological spectacles, and then telling people what they think: like state and television and radio in a dictatorial state. The same people who are "disgusted" by American policies want to go and live there. They want green cards. Which is stronger do you think: the disgust or the desire to live in the United States? As for Mr. Vossough's uncle [My uncle's declaration], which one of us has not heard preposterous threats and boasts by some Iranian relative or other? Iranian men boast all the time. With all due respect, your uncle will not go back to Iran to fight the Americans, should they invade. He will never abandon the comfort and security of his situation to fight for Iran. Those Iranians who seem to lose their reason for love of their country, should simply pack their bags and return home. If you think it is "their" country, not yours, then go back to Iran, "your" country. See how you get on at the airport for a start. Emigration is a pragmatic and necessary measure, and certainly not an expression of patriotism. If you hate the land wherein ou have lived and worked for 20 years or so, try Tehran for a few years. If you do, you'll be rushing back in horror, like Ms. Shahla Samii, who has an admirable trait called honesty. * Plenty of reasons to oppose Israel I'm writing in reference to H.M. Jalili's ridiculous pro-Israel
propaganda piece [Irrational
fear]]. It is one thing to distort facts and the historical
record in order to favor your constituency (in his case, the State of
Israel). But it is entirely unacceptable to libel Mr. Mohammadi [Talking
English], a long
time Iranian.com columnist, by stating, and this is a direct quotation
here, that he is "just like Hitler." * Israel: nothing to fear Dear Mr. Jalili, [Irrational fear] I have long stopped commenting on John Mohammadi's outbursts [Talking English], since he used abusive language & personal attack towards me. You have very well described the feelings of the majority of Persians towards Jews & the Israeli state. In my opinion not only we Iranians have nothing to fear from the existence of the Jewish state, on the contrary we have to be grateful that it exists & keeps the trouble maker Arabs against us, at bay! But, Mr. Jahanshah Javid, the self-made editor of Iranian.com, has put a perverted task upon himself to publish any slanderous, hateful article that people such as John Mohammadi write. All under the pretext of the American First Amendment, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! As if spreading hatred is also a part of the First Amendment? I enjoyed reading your comments. And thank you for your time & effort. Best wishes & regards, * Beyond leftist interpretations I found this site while looking for information on the Iranian election. A Kurdish man I have talked to might take exception to your analysis [Talking English]. Mistakes in intelligence are not always lies. Your author might find the blogs from Iran informative. You also might want to expand your US experience beyond leftist interpretations. Just try analysis as opposed to adopting a neo conservative reactive response when you find inconsistencies. * IRI safe with Pahlavis and Rajavis Liked your article in iranian.com [Are reformists dead?]. It is well-known that the Democrats and Republicans merely present an appearance of choice but actually limit the range of views presented to American voters. But do you really think that the threat from Pahlavi was such that the IRI had to resort to such measures? I doubt that Pahlavi was really all that threatening to anyone. In fact, as long as the Pahlavis and Rajavis are the alternatives, the IRI is safe and sound. * Mr. Nuclear Iran, sir Dear Mr. Mohammadi, [Breaking eggs] There are many documented acts of Zionist atrocity leading to 1948 (among them the massacre at Deir Yasin, which was a reminiscent of the Israelite invasion of Jericho). One can, however, rest assured that upon Iran becoming a declared nuclear power in the near future (as we already possess the missile technology to target Israel), the Zionist regime and its patrons will refer to our country as 'Mr. Iran, sir'. * There are always peaceful options Hatred breeds hatred [Breaking eggs]. I don't see a solution in John's article, only more justification for more hatred. Why do we need to find justification for more hatred and violence, why can't we look at Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. for inspiration? They were more than justified to preach violence and hatred, but they chose the other option. There are always peaceful options, in our own country after the revolution they justified their anger and hatred by pointing out the Shah's atrocities, but all the killings and all the deaths after the revolution, actually hurt us. Visibly hurt us when the best pilots and military minds were killed before the war with Iraq, and continuously has hurt the Iranian people as the hatred goes on. When there is a physical threat, humanity has historically fought that threat with more physical violence. Do you actually think that Israel would want to take over Iran, and the middle east if it didn't feel threatened by the actions and rhetoric by people such as Mr. Mohammadi? Also, I would think that our country has a more immediate threat that it's people should address instead of an imagined threat by Israel. * Deception and ignorance I found the above article dangerously simplisitic [All Bamed out!]. And were it not for the fact that we're living in a world that is desperately thirsty for more real and complex outlooks on various human histories, I wouldn't have bothered to respond. I belong to a similar category as Ms. Azizi, with a near two decade absence from Iran. The difference however being that my non-Iran based life has been spread between the UK, the US and Italy. Perhaps it is these layers that give me a very different perspective on Iran, on the US and in general, on gloabl history. Who is to argue with the fact that, yes, lying and deception are rife in Iran. Certainly not me. Apart from the fact that they had also been so, to a large extent, prior to the current theocracy - it is Ms. Azizi's contrasting of this nature with the American one, that I'd llike to shed some light upon. The guy in New Hampshire should be commended for his car sticker, for standing up for his rights, for being brave. But, and I agree with Ms. Azizi on this one, if dictatorships fan human deception and darkness, she shouldn't overlook the fact, that the same NH guy's tax dollars, have been the number one contributor to fear inducing dictatorships around the world. Maybe not directly in Iran's case, although setting up Saddam against us was no bed of roses. But the US has been the number one supplier of arms to the same deception fanning dictatorships for the past 50 years. From Chile, to Angola. From Saddam's Iraq to South Africa under Apartheid. In such a context, it is very rich to then talk of braveness. A real brave American's car sticker would say: "What the fuck have we done?" The land mines in Afghanistan will take 2500 years to clear. "Why the fuck has my tax dollar been the prime supporter of this?" I think, to talk of the tragedy of what happens to a populous under dictatorial regimes is commendable. And much of Ms. Azizi's take on this I found to be very eloquently put. Although, as a footnote - I would care to mention that despite the lying and tricking, at least I, personally, have always received much humanity in Iran too. What prompted me to write was to point out that there isn't much that is brave in paying for the world's murderers whilst enjoying liberities at home. And that if the flaw of the Iranians is that they're stuck in their web of deceptions, the flaw of the Americans is that they're stuck in a web of ignorance. We live in a very complex world with many strengths and many flaws. The world would only get to be safer and easier to stomach, if we draw on eachother's strengths and try to overcome our mutual flaws, in this case, that of deception and ignorance. Afsaneh
Mirfendereski * Really nailed it Thank you for an amazingly well written piece [All Bamed out!]. It was a joy reading it. You have really nailed it, speaking from your heart and telling the truth (subjective but I strongly AGREE). I just wish there were more Iranians like you. This was probably the best piece I've ever read here (even though Fereydon Hoveyda's articles are among the best). I gave up Iran and Iranians long time ago. * We CAN fix it I read the article "All Bamed out!" and later read the letters regarding to it as well, I just wanted to point out that this difficult period in our country without a doubt will pass just like all the other difficult times in our history. But the only important thing is to learn the valuable lesson of NEVER AGAIN from it, never again allowing ourselves to be oppressed and stepped on, if we had learned that from Alexander's invasion we would had resisted the arab invasion, had we learnt it from the Arab invasion we would had resisted the mongol's invasion, had we learned that from our history the moment Khomeini's regime made "hejaab" a rule we would had taken them down. The first step of the cure is to realize we have a problem, to realize our culture is NOT perfect and currently it is poisoned and ill, the cure is to learn from it and having the hope, the desire and the will power that we in fact _can_ fix it. More
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