The Iranian Features
November 15-19, 1999 / Aban 24-28, 1378
Today
* Fiction: The dragon
kite
Recent
* Culture: The search
* Shiraz: The best
* Literature: The return
* Cover
story: Let's not talk about sex
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Friday
November 19, 1999
Fiction
The dragon kite
Short story
By Reza Ordoubadian
November 20, 1999
The Iranian
No, there was no hope, and he must have that kite. Imagine letting the
string slowly roll from your hand and the wind lift the kite up; faster
and faster the string will roll, and the kite will rise near the sun, glittering.
He knew exactly how to tug and pull to get the kite higher and higher;
there will be music in the air, the kite playing against the wind, and
all the angels in heaven will gather to hear the music and see the kite;
they will all ask who was flying that beautiful dragon kite so high in
the sky, and he will hide behind the huge stones and grape vines. Nobody
will see him, but they will know someone who really can fly a kite was
mastering the string. His older sister might tell on him, but she could
be bribed with a couple of multicolored rooster candies.
"Are you still thinking about it?" the old man asked, smiling.
"I will buy it all right," he replied, fire inside his eyes
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Thursday
November 18, 1999
Culture
The search
We are reexamining notions of what it means to be whatever
By Roozbeh Shirazi
November 18, 1999
The Iranian
Let me give you a vague introduction to who we have turned out to be:
We like A Tribe Called Quest and ghormeh sabzi, we smoke pot (but don´t
tell our parents) and we are bad at taarof but still understand it. We
feel uncomortably American around Iranians, and defiantly Iranian around
foreigners...
Are we Iranian? American? American-Iranian or vice versa blah blah blah
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Wednesday
November 17, 1999
Shiraz
The best
In Shiraz you are painless
By Hamid Rafi
November 17, 1999
The Iranian
Shirazis are the best. Have you ever been to Shiraz? I was born in Tehran,
but I consider myself a Shirazi. My mother is from Shiraz and that's enough
for me to brag about it at parties, reunions and introductions. It gives
me a good feeling. I am a Shirazi and I am proud of it.
I remember this girl I met once in Los Angeles and she was introducing
herself to her American friend. "Hi I am Niloo. I come from Shiraz."
So her friend assumed Shiraz is a newly independent state in the old Soviet
Union or a city in France since she emphasized the "r " with
a French accent ... GO
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Tuesday
November 16, 1999
Literature
The return
The sun beats down on a rocky plot of land bare of tokens
of love and remembrance
November 16, 1999
The Iranian
From "Saffrom Sky: A Life Between Iran and America" by
Gelareh Asayesh (Beacon Press, November 1999). Asayesh grew up in Tehran.
Her family moved to the United States in 1977, shortly before the Islamic
Revolution transformed Iran. In 1990, after fourteen years of absence,
she returned to Iran for a visit. Since then, she has returned almost every
year, most recently for three months this past spring and summer. "Saffron
Sky" chronicles both her trips and the emotional landscape of the
immigrant, describing her struggle to bridge two irreconcilable worlds
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Monday
November 15, 1999
Cover story
Let's not talk about sex
Zakani's ribald satire: what's wrong with the act of love?
November 15, 1999
The Iranian
Bibliotheca Persica Press in New York, under the supervision of Ehsan
Yarshater, has published Obayd Zakani: Collected Works. Edited by
the late Mohammad-Ja'far Mahjoub, this must be considered the definitive
collection of Zakani's brilliant works of satire and social criticism ...
QUESTIONS
Let's assume Zakani's writings about sex are tactless and crude. But
how many works of Persian literature can be named where the physical expression
of love is beautifully described? Has Iranian society ever had the tolerance
for it (before and after the revolution, or before and after Islam)? Why
not? ... GO
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