Letters
April 26-April 28, 1999 / Ordibehesht 6-8 1378
Today
* Relationships:
- Immature and insecure
- Beyond the curtain
Previous
* Pahlavis:
- Salavat!
* Kosovo:
- Christian Holy War
* Prejudice:
- Iranian slave tarde
- Idealizing Blacks
- I had three black girlfriends
* Scammers:
- Damesh garm
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Wednesday
April 28, 1999
* Immature and insecure
The author ["Real
Iranian girls?"] makes gross generalizations, which may or may
not be true in the experience of other people. His across-the-board labelling
and stereotyping makes one think he is mentally no more than half of his
expressed 28 years of age.
He askes: WHAT MAKES ANY IRANIAN GIRL IN THE WEST BETTER AS A WIFE THAN
A REAL WESTERNER OR A REAL IRANIAN GIRL IN IRAN?
Nothing makes any Iranian girl in the West or in Iran or a Western girl
better or worse than the others, as a wife or otherwise. It is the individual
that makes a difference. And with each individual comes a background and
a set of life experiences which have served to form that person and makes
them unique in their own way.
Maybe one is more appropriately suited for the author than the other,
considering his seemingly lacking sense of security and self-esteem as
a man. Maybe he needs a virgin so as not to be reminded of his, shall
we say, subpar performance?
Aref Erfani
Gita Elmi
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* Beyond the curtain
I felt so sad for Mr. Cyrus Raafat when I read his article ["Real
Iranian girls?"]. I felt bad for his parents, as they have failed
to raise a decent, reasonable, and open-minded human being.
It appears that this young man does not understand the concept of a
healthy, loving, equal relationship with the opposite sex. He lacks the
maturity of a real man, values a woman solely on her virginity (a piece
of cake?!!!! a piece of meat?), and has no respect for women whatsoever
(in Iran or abroad, Iranian or not).
If Mr. Raafat had only a little experience in love and relationships
(which I doubt) he would understand that if you love and honor a person
(a woman in his case), if you trust and truly know her, if you are planning
to share a life together, virginity aside, nothing else could make her
be less in your eyes.
Mr. Raafat should stop being so arrogant and understand that he needs
to grow up (hopefully a lot), to re-evaluate his prehistoric thinking and
ideas, to see beyond the pardeyeh bekaarat if he is going to share the
rest of his life with a woman. Virginity can be faked, but love and understanding
cannot.
Gita Elmi
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Tuesday
April 20, 1999
* Iranian slave tarde
So true, and so unfortunate ["Siaah
Sookhteh"]. You are very very right, and I hope for the same things
as you. You wrote what I had in my heart for a long time. Just some detailes:
I don't believe America was built on the ideas of democracy. Democracy
is NOT the same as capitalism, although the social system of America seems
to lead people to belive so.
Iranian ideas of supremecy does not start from their immigration to
America. Although we are fortunate enough to not have racial ideas against
our fellow Iranians and consider ourselves the same, we have had the attitude
of racism against foreign races for ages before America even existed.
Note the terms "Siyaah Zangi" and "Kaakaa Siaah"
which start from Iran's era of overseas travels and the import of slaves
from Zanzibar.
The reason Iranians now feel that the White European race is the "right"
one has root in the nationalist movement of the mid 19th century Europe.
These ideas were imported to Iran by "Iranologists" such as Brown,
Hertzfeld, Meyer, Girshman, and many others, as well as European educated
Iranians who saw the European nationalism as a way to distinguish Iran
from the rest of the Middle East and somehow wipe out the "shame"
of the defeat in to the Muslim Arabs at Ghadesiyeh.
Khodadad Rezakhani
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* Idealizing Blacks
I am not sure what Ms. Nadjmi is pointing out here, the subtitle reads
"Prejudice towards Blacks and other non-Europeans" - but the
force of the article is pointed at Iranians adopting Western aesthetic
standards ["Siaah
Sookhteh"].
Though her protest against Euro-centrism is valid, she seems to glorify
African feautures - "the ebony almond eyes, gentle flat nose, and
voluptuous red lips".
Perhaps she should not be one to judge those who glorify adoption of
another racial groups; indeed her entire article sounds like a justification
of a racial fetish. In this woman's case it happens to be people of the
African race.
The only difference between her idealizing Blacks and those idealizing
Europeans is superficial - the objectivization and fetishization of "the
other" is a common psychosocial phenomena.
I also notice Ms. Nadjmi works for the U.S. government, and we all know
familiarity builds attraction, and the government by and large is very
Black.
Babak
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Monday
April 26, 1999
* Damesh garm
Ashkan joon, daasham, das vardar ["Aaberoo
reezi"]! aaberoomoon raft yani chee?! damesh garm eshghee! saf-e
Welfare kojaast!? yeh eeroonee oomadeh America haalaa daareh pooleh naftesho
pas meegeereh!
Zendeh baad eerooneeyeh moftkhor!
Kambiz Mursal-Abadi
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* Salavat!
On behalf of all Iranians with reasonable taste, I would like to express
my utmost gratitude to His Royal Highness Ali
Reza Pahlavi for shaving off his mustache. (Salavat befreseen mosalmoona:
Allahoma sale alla ... :)
For god's sake what was he thinking?! Those who have browsed through
the pictures in the Iranian Lovers home page at "www.irani.org"
know exactly what I'm talking about.
Who knows, maybe now that His Royal Highness looks normal the Pahlavi
dynasty will once again have a chance of regaining power on the world stage!
(Salavatt: Allahoma sale...)
Concerned Iranian Constitutionalist ("mashrooteh-khah" a.k.a.
"Taghootee")
Kamyar Yaghoobee
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Friday,
April 23. 1999
NONE
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Thursday
April 22, 1999
* Christian Holy War
I read Mr. Tehranian's comments about the genocidal war of extermination
being carried out by the Serbs ["Why
Kosovo?"]. His ability to meticulously manuever around the facts
about the horrendous atrocities being carried out against Muslim women
and children is a disgusting, yet masterful, example of obfuscation. Bravo!
... FULL TEXT
Ali Sadri
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* I had three black girlfriends
This is a response from a siaah-ookhteh-e-vatani: from what I know,
nobody got lynch-mobbed because of the color of their complexion in Iran
["Siaah
Sookhteh"]. So please don't compare the Iranian 'battered' sense
of pride with the European Supremacy ideology.
In different stages of my life I had three black girlfriends and even
to this date my Iranian friends talk about them with envy, so lets not
over-dramatize & confuse the issues. As with any other race, it's hard
& in some cases futile to change the elders' conservative views. But
it's always good to know that your granddad wasn't the Grand Wizard in
the local KKK.
Esphandyar Rohrabi
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