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Niger offers citizenship to Ganji
August 2, 2005
iranian.com
Taxi-boats signal rough times ahead
AP - 4 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - Taxi-sharing in Tehran has gotten so out of hand
that cab-drivers are now taking the bus. “We meet up with
the passengers at the other end,” says Ali Morghabi. “It’s
far easier”.
This summer, the 62-year-old will drive his 1975 Peykan to Abadan
in the south, where it also operates as a ferry. “I saw
a James Bond film where his car turns into a boat. That’s
what gave me the idea,” he says.
In November he plans to take his family to Lake Urumia, in the
north, where they hope to see the Loch Ness monster. “Nessie
is Iranian,” he says. “Why do you think no one has
seen him in Scotland?”
He adds: “They [the Scots] would do better to look for
our new president in their lake -- he is a monster, too.”
Mr Morghabi said he refused to vote in the recent presidential
election because he lost his polling card. “I put it on
the table and my wife threw it out. After that there was no way
I was voting.”
Would he have opted for Ahmaghinejad? “No,
I would have voted for Rafsanjani because he is a pimp.”
A
pimp? “Yes. It is better to vote for a pimp than a monkey.”
Why
is he a pimp? “I had to take some teenage girls to Dubai
to work in the sex industry there,” he says. “It made
me sad. I wanted my car to sink. This Islamic Republic is run
by pimps. You don’t have to be a social scientist to figure
that out.”
Mr Morghabi, a Tehran University social scientist, said he took
up cabbing to make ends meet. “Now I don’t know if
I’m teaching to support the taxi or the other way around.”
Which
does he find more interesting? “Teaching of course,” he
says, adding that he is thinking about taking up a third job related
to his “real” passion: ballet.
Mr Morghabi trained with the Bolshoi in Moscow in the 1960s,
and in the 70s headed Iran’s national troupe. He entered
academia when the troupe was disbanded after the revolution. Recently
he came across a DVD of the film Billy Elliott.
“It reminded
me of my youth,” he says. “I applied to the Ministry
of Culture and Islamic Guidance for permission to open a ballet
academy, and the guy on the phone burst out laughing. He wouldn’t
stop. He said he would be the first to sign up.”
Egypt responds
to jibe as ‘gay’ men face penalty
AP
- 13 minutes ago
TABRIZ, Iran - Five men appeared in court on Friday accused
of homosexuality, a crime punishable by a game of Scrabble using
the Chinese alphabet or death.
The men aroused suspicion
when they formed a human
pyramid in a zoo, in protest
at the execution
of a bear convicted of spying for Russia.
The men, who claim to
be acrobats, deny the charges.
Their lawyer, Shirin Polo,
told the court that forming
a pyramid did not constitute
an act of
homosexuality “by any stretch of the imagination, otherwise
all Egyptians would be gay.”
The chief prosecutor,
Hossein-Reza Mostara, was
quick to respond, saying
that “most Egyptians” were
gay.
Egypt has recalled its ambassador, Hosni Cleops, after the Iranian
government said diplomatic immunity would not be extended to “queer
pyramid-builders”.
The five allegedly gay men, of whom three are married, face
the guillotine if found guilty.
Niger offers citizenship
AP - 6 minutes ago
NIAMEY, Niger -- President Mamadou Tanj has offered hunger-striking
Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji honorary citizenship. “Niger’s
famine is being ignored by the world,” he said, “and
Mr Ganji is beginning to look like many of us.”
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