The Iranian Features
December 20-24, 1999 / Azar 29-Dey 3, 1378
Today
* Family: Thinking
of you
Recent
* Culture: Borrowed
ideas
* Fiction: Ravaabet-e
vizheh
* Opinion: Here to stay
* Cover
story: Sipping lattes in diaspora
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Friday
December 24, 1999
Family
Thinking of you
Never got to meet my Amu Hamid and Ameh Nahid
By Roozbeh Shirazi
December 24, 1999
The Iranian
I watch American grandparents beam over their new grandchildren, aunts
and uncles chide their nieces about colleges and boyfriends, and I watch
cousins play chess and chase each other around while uncles get quietly
drunk with nephews in a corner.
I use these images and then desperately try to substitute the faces
of American strangers with Iranian ones -- the grandfathers who I never
got to meet, my Amu Hamid and my Ameh Nahid and Ameh Aghdas and Ameh Pari.
I try to picture me laughing and talking about women with my arms around
my cousins Babak, Arash and Miad -- whose voices I hear once or twice a
year -- instead our awkward Noruz fiber optic family experiences >>>
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Thursday
December 23, 1999
Culture
Borrowed ideas
Persian roots of Christian traditions
By Ramona Shashaani
December 23, 1999
The Iranian
A while ago, I was invited to give a talk at a Christmas party about
the Persian tradition of celebrating the winter solstice on December 21st.
In order to speak intelligently to a spiritually and psychologically keen
audience, I set out to research the subject. I was scrambling to find resource
material when my day was saved by our list co-moderator, Peter Bridge,
who provided me with more references than I had hoped to find in my attempt
to unravel the historical, symbolic and mythic bases behind the Persian
people's celebration of this festive occasion.
What I did not expect to find, however, was a fascinating history of
how Christmas may have its origins in the ancient Persian Mithraic tradition
of worshipping Mithra or Mehr, the sun-god or god of love. With the approaching
winter solstice, I thought it might be appropriate share this history with
you >>>
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Wednesday
December 22, 1999
Fiction
Ravaabet-e vizheh
Shahrnoush Parsipour tackles intimacy
December 22, 1999
The Iranian
Imagine Iran in the late 70s. A bubbly 19-year-old girl falls for a
tired middle-aged man. She's eager to lose her virginity and he's reluctant
and confused. What happens in the privacy of his empty house? In the absence
of an established or accepted tradition of erotica in Persian literature,
how does an author describe their relationship?
These are just some of the dilimmas raised by Shahrnoush Parsipour's
intriguing "new" novel Maajeraa-haaye saadeh va kuchak-e ruh-e
derakht, (Simple Affairs and the Spirit of the Tree) >>>
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Tuesday
December 21, 1999
Opinion
Here to stay
Lamenting our lost roots is unproductive
By Fereydoun Hoveyda
December 21, 1999
The Iranian
While the Iranians of the inside have to find ways to extricate themselves
from the medieval climate around them, those of the diaspora must adapt
to rapidly changing conditions of a society hurling itself into the future.
Fortunately, our new locale, especially here in the U.S., offers us
the elements and tools for surviving in and benefiting from this future-in-development.
Indeed, a world of information is available to us; there is no censorship;
no limit to our curiosity and learning . We know we cannot totally recreate
Iran. We have to make choices among our traditions; we must keep and honor
those which are helpful in our new conditions and put aside those which
would hinder our quest for progress. And in so doing we might be of some
assistance to our countrymen in bringing about change inside Iran >>>
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Monday
December 20, 1999
Cover story
Sipping lattes in diaspora
Poem
By Shafagh Moeel
December 20, 1999
The Iranian
At my third birthday party
I must've felt so sure of my life
Of my place in the world
The apple of my parents' eyes
Family everywhere I turned
Friends over every night for dinner
And children like me
Like me
All around.
Then we turned four and five years old
And our world imploded
Off trampolines we jumped
And ended up in Germany, in Italy
In Sweden, in Holland, in France,
In Canada, and the U.S.A. >>> GO
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