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Rumi
Khuzestan
Palm groves survive
From Ahvaz to Khorramshahr and Abadan
By Laleh Khalili
June 18, 1999
The Iranian
[Khorramshahr] bears the mark of incompletion, and you don't know whether
it's because everything has been disassembled or because it is being reconstructed.
The city looks and feels poor, but is alive, stubbornly so. There are children
playing football in the streets, there are peddlers selling their ware,
shops selling spare parts, kababis selling their ubiquitous food. Life
seems to go on relentlessly bolstered by a willed forgetfulness, a need
for survival disturbed only by nightmares or visits to the cemetery...
Abadan was never under Iraqi occupation, but sitting so close to the
border (one can see the Iraqi land across the wide muddy and calm Arvand
River or Shatt-al-Arab), it was the target of relentless bullets, mortars
and missiles... The corrugated metal walls surrounding the National Iranian
Oil Company's refinery are all a puzzle-work of holes with burnt edges,
forceful reminder of wars that never end ... GO
TO FEATURE
Outlook
Shamlu needs rest - son
June 17, (BBC Persian Service) - Poet Ahmad Shamlu needs rest to recover
his health, according to his son Siavash who spoke to the BBC.
Meanwhile Shahrokh Golestan interviews Bahman Maqsudlu, the producer
of a documentary about Shamlu ... LISTEN
HERE
Anyway
Paul? Paul McCartney?
The daily Neshat ran a full feature on ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to mark
his birthday, which is today ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
Always funteresting: Harper's
Index
More Letters
* Sa'di & the Internet
Hi Don,
Mahvash shahegh writes:
I read your
letter to The Iranian. You wondered what we would react to an
email from so far away. I think you have missed the point. What you are
wondering is the whole beauty of the Internet.
The World Wide Web has turned the world into a village. It has eroded
distances, and as one of our famous poets (Sa'di) said almost a thousand
years ago, reshaped the human race into a single body.
* I come from ...
Dear Don,
Ali Pourshariati writes:
My name is Ali but friends call me Farhad and I come from the land of Allah,
that is ayatollahs or (Iran). It's very nice
to hear from someone in Whangarie (New Zealand), that ever wonderful
place with nice people, climate and beaches and the magical scenery....
Compared to the Majestic Whangarie, Iran's northern Caspian region is
a favorite of mine. It's like a combination of your Tikipunga and Whangarei.
To the south of Iran there is also the Persian Gulf, full of warships of
all kind. It is hot and dry. During rush hour this particular waterway
reminds me of the streets of Manhattan (very crazy). For example, you can
be flying in the sky on board a passenger plane one minute and be blasted
to the smithereens the next! ... FULL
TEXT
* Play: Bayzaie's play in Berkeley,
this weekend
Written By: Bahram Bayzaie
Translated By: Bella Warda and Zara Houshmand
Directed By: Jim Cave
Location: South Berkeley Community Church, Berkeley, California
A joint production by Darvag and Shotgun Players (also based in Berkeley
California). ... DETAILS
HERE
Book of the Week
Iranian Nationality and the Persian Language
By Shahrokh Meskoo
Foreword by Ali Banuazizi
Translated by Michael Hillmann
In this insightful study of Iranian cultural history and national identity,
Shahrokh Meskoob, one of Iran's leading intellectuals, reviews the roles
of three social classes, the courtiers and bureaucratic officials (ahl-e
divan), the religious scholars (ulama), and the Muslim Gnostics (Sufi poets
and writers), in the development and refinement of the Persian language
during the past one thousand years and gives the reader a fresh perspective
on Iranian cultural heritage and the struggle to forge a distinct national
identity. Dr. Ali Banuazizi's foreword and interview with the author sets
the stage for a fuller appreciation of this invaluable and wide-ranging
contribution to Iranian intellectual history ... GO TO BOOK
Recent
featured books
THE IRANIAN
Bookstore
Copyright © Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.
May not be duplicated or distributed in any form
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More
news
Jannati says Jews spied, deserve to hang
TEHRAN, June 18 (Reuters) - An influential Iranian cleric said
on Friday that 13 Jews arrested on spying charges passed secrets to Israel
through third countries including Turkey and deserved to hang. Ayatollah
Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the powerful Guardian Council, said: ``They
(Westerners) think...they can force us into a compromise. But we cannot
deal in things like getting a concession and letting them go. Spies deserve
to be hanged.'' ... FULL TEXT
Iran tells UAE not to worry over Saudi
ties
BEIT EDDINE, Lebanon, June 18 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharrazi on Friday told the United Arab Emirates not to worry about
his country's improving ties with Saudi Arabia and not to interfere in them.
Kharrazi, on a two-day visit to Lebanon, said UAE officials could visit
Tehran if they wanted talks on a territorial dispute over Gulf islands --
the issue the UAE fears regional kingpin Saudi Arabia will abandon in its
rapprochement with Iran ... FULL TEXT
Iran calls for quick Israeli pullout from
Lebanon
BEIRUT, June 18 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi
said on Friday Israel must pull its troops out of south Lebanon immediately
and unconditionally. ``Israel must pull out immediately and unconditionally
its aggressive army from Lebanese territory in an implementation of U.N.
Security Council resolution 425,'' Kharrazi told an audience at the Faculty
of Law at the University of Lebanon ... FULL TEXT
Tehran street gets new mural of Sadat assassin
TEHRAN, June 18 (Reuters) - Hardliners on Friday unveiled a mural
in honour of the assassin of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, in
an open challenge to moves by Tehran to improve ties with the big Moslem
Arab country ... FULL TEXT
Iranians protest against G8 ``appeasement
policy''
COLOGNE, Germany, June 18 (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians opposed
to the current administration in Tehran demonstrated at the World Economic
Summit on Friday against what they called the West's policy of appeasement
towards Iran ... FULL TEXT
Lawmakers urge Clinton to speed Iran grain
sales
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers
on Friday urged the Clinton administration to agree quickly on rules that
would allow the sale of food and medicine to Iran and other countries facing
economic sanctions ... FULL TEXT
Bestsellers
Tehran,
(Iran daily) - Bestselling books of the week according to a survey of bookstores
in Tehran ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN
Composer dead
Tehran, (Iran daily) - Composer and music expert Mahmoud Tajbaksh
has died. He was 75 ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN
Archaeological hill preserved
Tehran,
(Iran daily) - "Aq Tapeh", an archaeological hill near Karaj dating
to 4,000 years B.C., has been registered as national heritage site ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
Omid eliminated
Tehran, (Iran daily) - Iran's under-23 soccer team will not qualify
for the 2000 Olympics. It was eliminated after Bahrain's defeat of Lebanon
... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN
Zooming down Mount Damavand on skis
(Sportestan) - Dusan Golubic and Matjaz Roter, both members of
the Alpine Department of Kozjak in Maribor, Slovenia, were the first skiers
over thirty years to tour Mount Damavand in Iran. Based on Sportestan research,
there has been a downhill ski from Mount Damavand by Iranians in the 1960's
... FULL TEXT
BBC
Persian Service
$ Rate
Updated June 17
The
dollar now offered at 850-875 tomans in the U.S. and 880 tomans in Iran
Source: Sehaty Exchange (U.S.) Tel: 602-595-0777
Business
news
The Web
Iran
Made in Iran
"The most comprehensive directory of Iranian goods,
products and services on the Net."
Beyond Iran
Harpers Magazine
Still the best magazine in the world.
More
web sites
Quote Unquote
Black blood
Whereas the road to Khorramshahr runs parallel to the railway, the road
from Abadan has the oil and gas pipelines as its constant companion, the
black blood surging through unabated, indifferent to its own quality as
the instigator of wars, as the very instrument of death, destruction and
corruption.
Laleh Khalili
"Palm
groves survive"
The Iranian
June 18, 1999
Photo of the Day
"Purse
snatchers" busted
Music
Musician of the Week
Vigen
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* Gisooy-e kootaah
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