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Millennium
Still an optimist
Despite a general lack of faith in the future
By Fereydoun Hoveyda
August 9, 2000
The Iranian
Year 2000 is especially fascinating for us children of the 1930's. We
were told by to our elders that the new millnnium would reopen the gates
to the Garden of Eden. We eagerly listened to our teachers' optimistic
descriptions of the future and devoured the anticipatory stories of Jules
Verne and H.G. Wells. The shimmering colors of a bright future sparkled
in our heads and the incipient and rapidly expanding movie industry excited
our dreams on the silver screen.
There was Einstein with his uncombed hair, Gandhi with his goat, Roosevelt
with his cigarette-holder, Agha Khan with his beautiful Begum, Stalin with
his pipe, Hitler with his rebel forelock, Mussolini with his bouncing tummy,
mingled with Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Mickey-Mouse, Felix-the-Cat, Shirley
Temple, Tom Mix, Greta Garbo, Boris Karloff, the three Barrymores and a
cluster of other rising stars >>>
GO TO FEATURE
Travel
By Mohandes
August 9, 2000
The Iranian
>>>
GO TO FEATURE
Outlook
Reform: What now?
BBC Persian Service
The reformist movement has come under serious attacks this week with
the closure of another of its newspaers and the limitations imposed on
the country's pro-reform parliament. In this report, Behrouz Parsa reviews
the promises of the movement and evaluates its success in fulfilling them
>>>
LISTEN HERE
Conservatives eye presidential elections in media crackdown
TEHRAN, Aug 9 (AFP) - Relentless pressure by the conservatives on their
reformist rivals, using their control of the courts notably to silence
pro-reform newspapers, is aimed at winning next year's presidential elections,
in the view of analysts here >>>
FULL TEXT
Ayatollah approves move for closer Iran-U.S. ties
By Ben Barber
The Washington Times
August 9, 2000
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme religious leader has quietly approved a diplomatic
initiative to contact members of the U.S. Congress with a view to improving
relations, a senior Iranian official said yesterday >>>
FULL TEXT
Montazeri's response
Text of Ayatollah Monatzeri's criticism of Ayatollah Khamenei's interference
in the work of the Majlis >>>
FULL PERSIAN TEXT
Thanks to Ali A.
Crossfire
Hamshahri
Two scholars exchange hasrsh accusations over a book about the famous
Cyrus Cylinder (in Persian) >>> ACCUSATION
>>> COUNTER-ACCUSATION
Iranian prostitution in sheikhdoms?
August 8, 2000, Teheran (dpa) - The number of Iranian women involved
in prostitution in the Gulf Arab sheikhdoms is increasing drastically,
the Teheran daily Jomhuri Islami reported Tuesday. Persian
text here
English news
More Letters
* Traveling in time
Sara Atrvash writes:
If anyone was to ask me to describe Googoosh's concert in Toronoto
I would have to refer them to Louis Armstrong's "One of Those Things".
We all experienced her in our own way. But the one common experience
(one that perhaps Googoosh shared as well) was traveling in time. We went
back 20 years to the days we associate with comfort and home, but we also
went ahead twenty years with a dosage of hope and optimism >>>
FULL TEXT
* American mind, Iranian heart
Mehdy writes:
Our peaple never experienced leaving their homeland to find another land
to settle down. At least not during the last four or five centuries.
Propably the last mass migration was during the bloody invasion of Mongols.
After that most migrations were sporadic and for political reasons (members
of Toudeh Party during and after the 1953 coup) and other political activists
during the Pahlavi government.
Our generation is now experiencing migration with all the bittersweet
complications, such as nostalgic thoughts and homesickness. Crying for
Googoosh and Shamlou are symptoms.
Let's be honest: we have AMERICAN brains but our heart is still IRANIAN.
We love our culture; our real artists.God bless us and keep our minds sharp
and our hearts pure.
* REAL Iranian culture
Babak writes:
In response to Al-Amin's
response "Get a grip, yourself", it is so ironic in this
day and age, when the Iranian people are struggling so hard to achieve
true democracy, to find people with perceptions such as yours!
Does REAL IRANIAN CULTURE mean to put women down and taking their rights
away from them? Doesn't REAL IRANIAN CULTURE support mail chauvinism? Does
it pay any attention at all to the issues of women?
Why can't we take the good parts of our culture and throw away the old
fashioned and backward parts? What's wrong with being progressive thinkers?
What's wrong with changing the angle that you perceive life, so perhaps
you can comprehend at a deeper level?
And as for the West, even if it does have cultural problems, it treats
women the same as men and doesn't deprive them of their civil and sexual
rights.
Events: Iranian-Am art exhibit, Washington
DC
Evolving Perceptions will open their 4th annual exhibition of Iranian
American artists in Washington DC on Saturday, September 9, 2000 from 6
-9 p.m. The central focus of the exhibition is PEACE. We asked artists
to address, explore, question and define the concept of peace in their
works of art, both on a personal and more general level >>>
DETAILS HERE
Books
THE IRANIAN
Bookstore
Music store
Translation of today's poem by Zara
Houshmand:
If you walk with your eyes closed, for sure you're lost,
But count on sight and you invite damnation.
Don't look within the monastery or mosque
To find a place that isn't a location.
-- Rumi
Previous
translations
Copyright © Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.
May not be duplicated or distributed in any form
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More
news
Shamsolvaezin sentence confirmed, Behnoud
summoned
TEHRAN,
Aug 9 (AFP) - Iran's supreme court approved a two and a half-year prison
term Wednesday for reformist journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a judicial
official said. Meanwhile the press court issued a warrant for Masud Behnud,
a liberal writer close to President Mohammad Khatami, saying he would be
arrested if he does not appear in court by Saturday >>> FULL TEXT
Judge meets relatives of jailed Jews
TEHRAN,
Aug 8 (Reuters) - Families of 10 Iranian Jews jailed for spying for Israel
met a senior judicial official on Tuesday to demand better conditions for
the prisoners. Relatives told reporters they had tabled a list of demands
in talks with Hossein-Ali Amiri, local judiciary chief in the southern city
of Shiraz >>> FULL TEXT
Report: Israel admitted Iranian Jews were
spies
LONDON, August 9, (Jersusalem Post) - Israel has privately admitted
to Iran that the 10 Jews convicted of espionage by a court in Shiraz last
month were spying for Israel, diplomatic sources told the London-based monthly
newsletter Ad-Diplomasi. The admission was reportedly made during secret
meetings between Israeli and Iranian officials at a Cairo hotel on July
31 and August 1, in the presence of US Ambassador to Egypt Daniel Kurtzer
and Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel. A Foreign Ministry spokesman
said last night that the report was "nonsense." >>> FULL
TEXT
Arafat to ask Khatami for OIC meeting
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will ask Iran's
president Thursday to convene a meeting of Islamic states to back him on
the issue of Jerusalem, the official Iranian news agency reported. Arafat's
visit to Tehran is his next stop on a rapid tour of Middle Eastern states
designed to garner support for the Palestinian claim of sovereignty over
east Jerusalem >>> FULL TEXT
Iran tells U.S. to mind own business
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran warned the United States on Tuesday against
meddling in its internal affairs after Washington voiced concern over the
latest setback to press freedom in the Islamic Republic. The State Department
said Monday that an intervention in a parliamentary debate by supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was cause for serious concern and that the United
States expected Iran to respect freedom of expression >>> FULL
TEXT
Iran to release "last remaining"
Iraqi POWs this week
TEHRAN,
Aug 9 (AFP) - Iran Wednesday announced it will release the last remaining
Iraqi POWs held prisoner since the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war this week despite
Baghdad's claim that thousands more are still being held here. The official
IRNA news agency stressed that the 728 Iraqis scheduled to be released Thursday
and Friday are the "last remaining Iraqi POWs" in Iran, some 12
years after the war ende >>> FULL TEXT
Egypt Rejects Iranian Offer to Buy State
Ban, Paper
Cairo,
Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt rejected a bid by the Iranian government to
buy 80 percent of Misr Iran Development Bank because the $96 million it
offered was not enough, Al-Alam Al-Yom newspaper said, citing an unnamed
Ministry of Economy official. The share is being sold by the Bank of Alexandria
and Misr Insurance Co., both owned by the Egyptian government. The Iranian
government already owns 20 percent of the bank >>> FULL TEXT
Video piracy
Tehran
(Cinema) -- Detailed report on the impact of video piracy on the Iranian
movie industry >>> FULL PERSIAN TEXT
Qaderi's latest film
Tehran
(Cinema) -- Iraj Qaderi will soon start shooting his latest film, "Sam
and Belqeys", a love story about three boys and a girl >>>
FULL PERSIAN TEXT
Music: Obstacles
Tehran
(Iran daily) -- Kambiz Roshanravan is one of the most active composers in
Iran. He discusses problems facing the music industry >>> FULL
PERSIAN TEXT
Baqeri signs 6-month deal
Tehran
(Iran Varzeshi) -- Karim Baqeri will sign a six-month deal with England's
Charlton FC for a repored 500,000 pounds >>> FULL PERSIAN TEXT
Parvin: Wassup?
Tehran
(Iran Varzeshi) -- A chat wiuth Ali Parvin about the status of Persepolis,
on and off the field >>> FULL PERSIAN TEXT
Minavand's Sturm defeat Feyenoord
VIENNA, August 8 (Iran Sports Press) -- Sturm beat Feyenoord Rotterdam
2-1 at home on Tuesday. The match was the first leg of the third round of
Champions League qualification. Player of the day was Sturm's midfielder
Schopp with two converted penalties. Iranian national Mehrdad Minavand played
the full 90 minutes >>> FULL TEXT
BBC
Iranian-Armenian journey
In this series Lara Petrossian an Iranian-Armenian
travels to Armenia for the first time in her life. She visits historical
sites and museums and talks to people about their social and economic problems.
She also meets with Iranians who are living in Yerevan. This is her observation.
(Part 1) >>>
LISTEN HERE
BBC Persian
Service
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Man-made
There is a very good saying that if triangles invented
a God, they would make him three-sided.
-- Montesquieu
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