LettersDecember 2005 False projectionsOn Aqzam Nemati's "'I love you' instead of 'ghorboonet beram'": Azam Nemati seems to be projecting all sorts of false things into what I write [see: "Subtle differneces"]. Either she doesn't understand English well, or doesn't want to comprehend what I write. And what does her not being married have anything to do with my stories or essays? She sounds like a very defensive, rude person. If she wants to say something sensible, her rudeness and preachiness only takes away from the point she is hoping to make. When you're really in troubleOn "Sheep dog cries for Imam Reza" in Anyway section: Q: How do you know when you're in really really big trouble? The real question is how will this obvious act of God be "interpreted" by the wonderful (as in full of wonder) religious leadership this time. Let's see, we have a "Heyvooneh Haram va Najess" obviously repentant for his sins as an unclean animal. You could play the angle of the power of the shrine to get even najess animals such as this dog, to desperately want to become clean again. That would work. Or is he possibly a man from the afterlife, sent back to live out his past life sins as a dog, and now wants to be forgiven? But can a "Haram" animal be forgiven according to the qoran, even if it proves itself repentant as this fellow obviously has? Or is he merely another "sag koochehie" who like Wile E. Coyote is just trying to weasel his way in the door to get some water afraid because each time he has tried before, he has been beaten senselessly, and that's the real reason he is crying now? He knows what is about to happen. So many possibilities to consider! Ah the wonder that is God! What a scam! PS: Actually I was thinking just before I send this, that if I was at the shrine, I would probably be weeping too. I guess dogs really are man's best friend, because only a true friend would cry for your plight. B B Win-win situation -- for CanadaOn Brock MacLean's letter, "Canada is incredibly generous to these people": Mr. MacLean: Although I share your sentiments about the fact that many people in the world love to come to Canada to grasp the taste of freedom and better life as well as your disagreement on the faith of the Filipinos, yet I was disappointed that you ended your letter with the same type of characterization that you were criticizing to begin with. You may live among a few Iranians that seemingly do not contribute to what you called “their new home”, but trust me, I can give you a list of Iranians in Canada that are basically indispensable in that country in the area of science, business and social sciences and many other fields. The same goes on in USA where you cannot go a 100 miles in this country without finding at least one very influential, educated and contributor Iranian to the progress of this country. Iranians are among the most highly educated and influential of all minorities both in USA and Canada. Please do not allow your judgment be clouded with a few examples around you. Finally, Canada is simply a vast land with not enough human resources. They are attracting talents just like US did in early 20th century. The great “Brain Drain” that goes on in US, Canada and Australia rubs nations out of their most needed talents. In exchange for offering freedom to highly educated immigrants Canada populates its land with the best genes from the entire world. It’s a win-win situation. If you feel those Iranians around you do not contribute to their new home, please reach them and teach them, they may need guidance, they are homesick and they are adjusting. As a good citizen you will do justice to teach them how to be participants in betterment of their new Homes. Best Regards, Jealous of JewsOn Javid Kahen's "I was just a child": I don't have any religious belief of any kind, though my parents were non practicing Muslims, but I lost my faith in any religion or any god when I saw what happened to one of my Jewish classmates in Shiraz, pretty much similar to what happened to Javid’s story. The only difference was that we were in a private all-girls school and long before “Revloution” and my friend got harassed during the whole school year by a few scarf-headeds. And worst of all, other children or adults would find it normal and “OK” just because she was Jewish. I felt myself as in ghetto for being her friend and trying to protect her as an 8-year-old kid. If you look at the list of the most important inventors and artists and scientists and... the ones who made a difference in history, you can clearly notice the great contribution of Jewish community. And if they are good in finances, I am sure it is also because of their great intelligence and the fact that they have learned to protect themselves from generation to generation. And their suffering has resulted in great art and artists (as a way of expressing their feelings of agony and sorrow.) I think that all hatred and frustration against Jews, comes from pure jealousy and shortage of intellectual strength. I am happy for Javid, to finally being able to live in a society where kids, no matter where they come from, can go to school and feel like everyone else... What a difference 25 years or so can makeOn Israel and Iran: What a difference? 25 or so years ago when Khomeini for the first time in human history revealed the ugly face of Zionism and its EVIL plans, the world had just woken up. As a result of that statement, many Iranians in US or in other western countries were mis-treated. Many Iranians lost their jobs, or at least didn't get the promotion they deserved, because they were Iranians, and nothing else. The world then went up in arms against iran and iranians. Zionists were powerful then. Today, after Iranian President uttered the same words, mainly because most powerful Zionists who were very old at that time are dead now, and for the most part due to the the problems all over the western governments (White House's scandles, weak british government, broke and out of commission Israeli terrorists, etc.) only some articles were written, some "expected" pronouncements were made, and for the most part except for the western media which are still controlled by the Zionists no one really cared. In fact many around the globe support that position. The reason may be that by now the ugly face of Zionism is very well known to the world. Over the last 25 years, most people turning on their TVs and reading newspapers see the destruciton and savage acts of Zionists on a daily basis on the poor Palestinains, whose only crime is that they want their homes, land, and country back. So far, we haven't seen "the other shoe drop" against Iranians. Utter discontentment at showing Iran bashingOn video clip of Anderson Cooper on the David Letterman show talking about being arrested in Iran: I am writing this letter to express my utter discontentment with you for posting a video from "david letterman show" which shows the illiterate mind of a stupid American journalist bashing our country. He said that Iranian women were wearing burqas while playing badminton. He further stipulated that Iran is boring, and uttered some more disrespectful words about our culture/country. We may not be content with the current regime, but we should not condone what an illiterate "red-neck" says about our culture. You have gone one step further by posting it on your website. Our discontnentment with the regime, our hatred for totalitarism should only be discussed amongst ourselves. Thanks, What your poker money can doOn M & M's "High stakes": I wonder if any of these Iranian high stakes poker players would be interested in supporting a human rights documentary about Iran's longest held prisoner of conscience. We have spent more than six years and $50,000 worth of American grants to get it almost done. We can complete the film with another $50,000 and release it. No Iranian ever donated to any of our human rights causes. I wonder why that would not be possible. It is a tax deductible donation that otherwise is lost in one or two hours of a poker game. Ramin Ahmadi MD MPH Canada is incredibly generous to these peopleIn reference to Nakissa Sedaghat's "Polite racism": You said: "The Domestic Scheme, which is still in place today, was effectively a modern form of slavery whereby women (primarily from the Caribbean and Philippines) were imported to work as domestic workers in the homes of well-to-do Canadians, without enjoying the full rights of other legal immigrants, and living under constant threat of deportation." Once bitten, always smittenOn Rama Fayaz's "Chapiye saabegh": Rama, Nothing but a gold diggerOn Mehrnaz Tadjbakhsh's "Googoosh groupie": Dear Mehrnaz: Get a life Mehrnaz jon, and spend your time writing better articles Projecting innocenceOn Ranna Khorram's poem "I am from...": Please tell the poet! I would like to ask her a few questions. Her poem is a lovely snapshot into a certain subculture, but I sense that it is more than that. Without wanting to sound like an authority (because I'm not even much of a songwriter) it seemed to me that the poet was refreshingly matter-of-fact about the personal composition of the character in her poem. I have to suppose it is autobiographical. It projects innocence! That idiot at the GuardianOn nemrous complaints emailed to William Dalrymple, the author of "What goes round..." published in the London Guardian referring o Rumi as "Turkish" in the sub-headline: The author of this article has been inundated with emails from Iranians objecting to the reference that Rumi was Turkish. He has asked me if I could help clarify his position. I sent you an email earlier wherein he stated that it was the editors at the Guardian who created the headline. -- Bahram Author's email to some who complained: Actually I didn't write that! It was the idiot who wrote the headline and standfirst at the Guardian. You will note that such a claim is nowhere made in the text of the article. Khuda hafez, William Dalrymple Saffron loveOn quiz photo of Ahmadinejad and a cleric examining saffron flowers: He loves me, he loves me ... Farhad S My vatan is withinOn Essi's response to Shahrokh Nikfar's "Missing by a foot": Thanks for your email! However, after reading your email, I got the feeling that you think that I am disconnected from my homeland. If so, that is not true! In fact, if you bother to read my other stories or even pay attention to the fact that I have a radio show called The Persian Hour, you would then get a better understanding of where I stand. Interestingly, I have been doing this radio show as a volunteer for 20 months now. My goal has always been to introduce the Iranian culture and all the wonderful things that have come out of Iran. Although, I have a son, a full time job, and serve on different civil rights and human rights boards and commissions, I still manage to spend 10 to 15 hours a week developing this show. And how much do I get paid for all this? Zilch! I am a volunteer and I do it because I am proud of who I am and where I come from and I want to share it with the rest of America, as well as make it easier for my hamvatans in this country. And if anybody deserves to complain, then it should be me. We just had our fund raising week for the radio station (it is a non-profit, commecial free station) and happily, I raised almost $1000 in pledges during my show from my listeners, but sadly, none were Iranians. Lastly, your judgment of my character is also false. I am the sum of all my experiences! In conclusion, if you want to make a change for the better, start within! Think About It! Peace, How a bout thanking your vatan?On Shahrokh Nikfar's "Missing by a foot": Interesting account of your arrival in USA, it would have been nice to have given a mention of thanks to the land which raised you - VATAN - Iran, gave you the character, you are now. A real thanks giving should be credited to your motherland - Iran - which gave you the life you are enjoying. Think about it! [Nikfar's reply here] Essi As American as an Iranian-AmericanOn "lecturing" America about democracy: The effrontery of opinions expressed by Messers Tabib and Maleki can only be the work of those Iranians who are suffering from a serious bout of amnesia. Only members of the Iranian immigrant community, with the experience of such a glorious democratic system in their home country running for so long, should be capable of coming up with such grandiose idea to lecture the non-Iranian-Americans on what American values should be! I enjoyed it, thoroughlyOn the list of nominees for Iranian of the year, 2005: I thoroughly enjoyed Sara Nobari's feature Night Train to Tabriz. I have been fascinated by trains since I was a child. Mrs. Nobati's story was one of the best I have ever read on Iranian.com. It brought me a lot of memories from childhood in Iran, when my parents often traveled by train to satisfy me. (It's a three-hour drive from Tehran to Sari but my parents always acquiesce to the 10-hour trip by train to make me happy.) As I read your story, I just pictured the old days traveling in Iranian trains, before and after this revolution. Thank you very much for the story, Mrs. Nobari. Don't pay any attention to Azam Nemati [See: "Why do you even bother to go to Iran?"]. That letter of hers is just another manifestation of her unstable mind and her bitterness with life in general. Your story never put down Iranians or anyone; it just painted a picture for anyone who arrives to a new place. You did a great job sharing your experience with us. Nemati has never found acceptance in any society and uses this medium for her diatribes to make up for her own shortcomings. Thank you again, Ms. Nobari for the wonderful story. Unfair to GanjiOn the list of nominees for Iranian of the year, 2005: i was going to vote for ganji as the person of the year but then i realized it would be very unfair to ganji to put him in the same category as shirin ebadi or the likes. i think ganji desrves more, maybe the iranian of a decade or... just a thought. behzad Where's me?On the list of nominees for Iranian of the year, 2005: I liked the list you compiled of noteworthy Iranians. I kept reviewing it, trying to see what was bothering me. I finally realized. You forgot to add me to the list. I realize this may be due to the fact that you don't have a picture of me. I'll be happy to send you a picture if it will help with this process. PS Anti-Jewish impulse On Javid Kahen's "I was just a child": A short while ago there was a report on one of Iranian Sattelite TV channels that was exactly the same as Javid's story. It was about the situation of Afghan children in Iran. There was this Afghan child, a first grader, who told the reporter how his teacher has told the other children about his being an afghan and after insulting him had encouraged other children to do so. He explained, with tears running down his eye, that the other kids didn't know he was an Afghan until the teacher told them so. He looked Iranian and spoke farsi. I wonder if those little kids even knew what it meant to be an Afghan. Obviously in Iran today they are teaching children to act on impulses instead of being able to use their mind. this kind of programming has been happening in Iran for many years and I am happy that these brave people made this report. Although they may never show it in Iran. This kind of programming has been happening in Arab and Islamic countries for many years. We live in a time that many Arabs and Moslems are awakening to the kind of brainwashing they have been getting against Israel and Jews. (you can check Nonie Darwish's website: Arabsforisrael.com in which Arabs and Moslems from different countries write about their experiences) so please next time don't say proudly: I'm Persian, not Arab. add: I wish I was one. Another story I remember is watching this guy on a live show on satellite TV, telling how when in Iran, during the early years of Islamic revolution, his younger brother was attacked by a baseej guy and killed. The guy insulted his brother and wanted to arrest him because he was wearing short sleeve shirts. He couldn't take it, fought and was shot on the spot. This guy had this cute Isfahani accent and reminded me of Isfahanis long history of harassing Jews. (even today at least in one girls' school that I heard about, they have separate bathroom for non-Moslems, because they are considered dirty) I called, and waited for my turn to speak. I only wanted to say one thing: How come when the Mollas said Jews were Najes (dirty), you accepted their words like God's and didn't find it wrong to harass them but now that they are teaching your neighbor's kids to harass yours for not being as religious, you hate them? how come they are bad now? I kept waiting and fortunately when the program finished without this guy's answering my call, I felt released. It was too hard for me to blame him for anything while he was talking so sadly about his brother's death. And how did I know he was just like the rest of the people of his city? Then this other report about the family of the man who killed 13 prostitutes in the city of Mashad. He was one of the people who had fought in the war and a real Hizbollahi. One part was very interesting, the reporter went to the house of this man and asked his 12 year old son if he knew how his father had killed the women. The boy showed the reporter, exactly where in the room and with what kind of rope he had killed them. It seemed the father had shown his son how to kill bad people and the boy went on to say that if the government doesn't want to clean the city of bad people, Moslems should do it themselves. Unfortunately, these same programmed children have grown up to become the adults who register in the streets of Iran to become suicide bombers, with fixed political ideas that can hardly be considered logical. They are ready to attack without thinking. Just like the people who killed the poor Journalist, Daniel Pearl, while he unknowingly used the trigger word, I'm Jewish. He probably only wanted to help these people but didn't know they were programmed to attack when they hear certain words. I'm afraid the next trigger words for these kind of brainwashed people will be: I'm a human being. One last thing, about Javid's writing in an answer to someone: They (Jews) think they are better. This is normal that sometimes when people feel totally helpless, they blame themselves and their own people for what is happening to them and get to a point that they believe any anti-Jewish propaganda. I won't blame him but I wish to remind those who believe we Jews think we are better, this is one of the lies made by Neo-Nazis and some Arab governments so that they can justify their racism. Just one of many lies. I don't have to explain it. You can think about it yourself. Educating myself on classical Persian music I am trying to educate myself on classical Persian music (from Abassid dynasty to end of 19th century). I would like to purchase Thank you for your help. Do you speak English?Open e-mail to the Constitutionalist Party of Iran I wanted to know why the site of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran hasn't a section (at least) in English. If you go to the Mojaheddin sites (ncr-iran.org or mojahedin.org), you see they have links in English, in French, in German, in Arab, in Kurdish and in Italian. They even have four sites only in French (17juin.org or iranmanif.org or csdhi.org or iran-resist.org). They give daily news in French and in English (iranfocus.com or iranterror.com). Even the Communists (wpiran.org) have an English, a German, a Swedish and a Turkish sections. The writings of their leader (Mansoor Hekmat) is translated in English, in German, in Swedish, in French, in Russian, in Turkish, in Arab, in Kurdish, in Italian, in Danish, in Catalan, etc. You can see that in m-hekmat.com. I feel really disappointed that you are not even capable of informing the non-Iranians or the English-speaking Iranians of what you want for Iran, your daily actions, etc. You are the only opposition group to have a representation in Israel, it would be interesting to know if it is really useful, if you meet the members of the Knesset. By the way, every week, I see that Maryam Rajavi (despite belonging to a "terrorist" organization and the many problems she is facing in Iraq) is able to speak at the European Parliament or the British Parliament (you can see the videos in ncr-iran.org). I live in Paris and last week they organized a conference on the women's situation in Iran. Why are they more capable than you ? Can't you at least have a site with an English section ? Is the CPI a doomed Party ? >>> December 5 -- December 21 -- December 23 -- >>> All past letters |