The Iranian Features
March 15-19, 1999 / Esfand 24-28,1377
Today
* Noruz:
- Fire with fire
- A smile, at last
Recent
* Noruz:
NajvAye shAdi
* Cover
story: Solitude
* Media:
Radio days
* Rights:
160 degress
* Rights:
Molla or not
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday
| Thursday | Friday
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Wednesday
March 17, 1999
Noruz
Fire with fire
Tehranis hold their ground and celebrate charshanbeh suri
By Laleh Khalili
There was a fire burning in every street, there were home made fireworks
flying all about, in the darker side streets, there were even completely
unveiled women jumping over the fires and passing out pastries. The occasion
calls for boldness and for joy, and both were in high supply... The air
smelled the delicious smell of wood smoke, and I saw more bliss in one
street in a couple of hours than I have in one and half months in all of
Iran ... GO
TO FEATUTE
Noruz
A smile, at last
The Komiteh joins the charshanbeh suri festivities
Photo by Siamak Namazi
These photographs were the taken during charshanbeh suri celebrations
at the Behjatabat complex. The Komiteh "moral police" was actually
fun to have around this year. (For the first time since the revolution
they announced the celebration is not banned -- though it was carried out
every year anyway). I even had the Komiteh guy below pose for me with a
sparkler ... GO
TO FEATUTE
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Tuesday
March 16, 1999
Noruz
NajvAye shAdi
Noruz music a pleasant distraction in college
By xAle
Each year near Noruz, as I get ready to send cards or clean my house,
I can't help but think of that one Noruz in Iran while I was in college.
Mashhad University's college of literature was on a tree-lined street
named KhyAbAn e AsrAr. Both sides of the street had beautiful and old AghaghiA
trees.
One afternoon I was standing in the school courtyard with a few other
friends enjoying Esfand's mid-afternoon sun when JavAd started a verse
and before we knew what was going on, we were reciting these words ...
GO TO
FEATUTE
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Monday
March 15, 1999
Cover story
Solitude
Electronic drawings by Sadaf Abbassian
 "This collection is the result of my daily work with
the computer; I'm a graphic artist," says Sadaf Abbassian, whose electronic
drawings below were on exhibit at Gallery Golestan in Tehran last month.
"Instead of a pencil, I have have used the computer mouse, thus the
slight vibrations in the lines which add special energy to the drawings,
I think."
***
I can just see them, each one of them, in their stylish homes and apartments
in upper Tehran. Modern, above middle class, even rich. They are not religious
in the traditional sense, but they are intrigued by sufism. They listen
to Beethoven and Shajarian. They travel to remote areas of Iran, something
they would never have done 25 years ago. They have casual relationships
amongst themselves. The carry on with life at a slow, steady pace. They
are not easily shocked. They often read and try to write poetry. They read
Hemingway, in English. They prefer Europe to the U.S. Yet they are deeply
Iranian ... GO
TO FEATUTE
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Friday,
March 12, 1999
Media
Radio days
Serving the "Finglishy" community in Virginia and on
the Net
By Babak Yektafar
It started slowly as a one-hour, once-a-week show about three years
ago. The first few shows where truly fun. I had no idea what I was doing,
but I didn't care because I had no listeners. Aside from producing the
content and performing, I had to run the audio mixing board as well. I
was going to be irreverent and wild. I would speak perfect Finglish (Farsi-English)
since this was to be a program for the Finglishy generation. I would play
cool, on-the-edge music of the world. I would talk about Morad Barghi,
Live Aid, Motel Ghoo, Lesbian Dial-A-Date, Chattanooga, Planet Hollywood,
Gol Gov Zaboon and Chai Latte. I would be the Iranian (albeit less controversial)
Howard Stern. Little did I know ... GO
TO FEATURE
Thursday
March 11, 1999
Rights
160 degrees
A reversal of sorts in attitudes towards human rights
The pivotal themes of the ongoing debates ... are civil society and
the rule of law. Both these themes are used by their proponents as instruments
to discredit violence - the latter being a hallmark of the revolutionary
power since the foundation of the Islamic Republic. And the remarkable
thing is that they seem to be actually winning the argument. Today, even
the most hard-line elements inside the regime are trying to forward their
positions by resorting to the principle of the rule of law, and rejecting
violence in words - though not in deeds.
This in itself is a major achievement: the language of violence is being
discredited under the Islamic Republic. Today, not only the reformists,
commonly known as the "2nd of Khordad Front", condemn violence
and lawlessness but also their opponents are increasingly trying to distance
themselves from any act of violence ... GO
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Rights
Molla or not
Concern over Mohsen Kadivar's arrest, even though he's a clergyman
By Emami
Could [the] lack of sensitivity [towards Kadivar's arrest] be attributed
to the penchant for the dead and the martyrs which is so engrained in our
psyches that even after many years of living in the west one would still
react to injustice and brutality when someone is actually killed? Or is
it, perhaps, the anti-religious, modernist outlook of so many of us that
militates against defending a molla and getting unduly involved in some
"in-fighting" that is going on out there? ... GO
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