Letters
February March 13-17, 2000 / Esfand 23-27, 1378
Today
* Iran:
- Yaar dar khaaneh
Previous
* Elections:
- Final destination: Democracy!
* Iran:
- Cheraa roozegaar eentoree kard?
- Nothing has changed
- C U soon
- Have some mercy
- Reply: Not the right time
* Women:
- Sikh
* Language:
- Passion
- Missing the point
email us
Friday,
March 17, 2000
* Yaar dar khaaneh
In reply to Gold-Boy:
Naameye ziba va saraasar ehsaase to ra be Iranian khaandam va baraaye
tamami e ensanhaye paak va sadeghi ke az zendegi yek donya entezaar va
hezaarha aarezoo daarand geristam....
Man ham paj saale pish dorost baa hamaan afkar va ehsaasate to az Iran
khaarej shodam va mikham kami az tajrobiate khodam baraat begam. Man injaa
baa iraanihaye ziadi barkhord kardam va be jor-at meetoonam begam ke hichkodaam
az aanha ehsaase khoshbakhti nemikonnand. Aadam vaghti ke hanooz tooye
Irane hameye moshkelaate khodesh ro be vaziate jaame-e nesbat mide, amma
vaghti ke vaarede donyaye be-estelaah AZAD mishe taaze halish mishe ke
ei baaba faghat ghesmati az oon moshkelaat marboot be ouzae-ejtemaaii boodeh.
To migi tafrih nadaari. Fekr mikoni injaa tafrihe javoona chie? Unhayee
ke saalem hastand tafriheshoon Cinema, koohnavardi, safar va injoor chizast
ke dar Iran ham gheire momken nist, amma ba kamaale ta-asof bayad begam
ke tafrihe kheiliha gozarandane shab taa sobh dar disco, mast kardan va
baalaa avordaneh >>>
FULL TEXT
Neda X
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Thursday
March 16, 2000
* Final destination: Democracy!
In an eye-scatching demonstration, on 18 February, the people of Iran
elected a new reformist parliament and set aside most of the conservative
heavy weights. More than 300 international journalists reported this event
which brought recognition from world politicians, including those at the
White House.
This fantastic transition to a near-total civilian rule is largely the
outcome of President Khatami's policies. He respects oppositions; always
reciting "long live my opponents". Unlike the Shah and his puppets
who believed in the total eradication of opponents, Khatami encourages
criticism but needs support at the same time; after all "Rome was
not built in one day". He is steering Iran, in a very charismatic
and diplomatic way, towards democracy and is pulling the support of the
masses and intellectuals...
Before his triumphant return to Iran Ayatollah Khomeini was pictured
in Paris waving to his followers. Time magazine printed this on
its front cover with the caption "The hand that shakes the throne".
Now Khatami, as a true follower of Khomeini, is leading the same people
to their final destination - DEMOCRACY! >>>
FULL TEXT
Abdy Hashemi
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* Cheraa roozegaar eentoree kard?
man yeh javoon-e Irani hastam. chand kalameh harf daashtam. meekhaam
begam keh cheraa roozegaar eentoree kard baa maa? cheraa tafreeh nadaareem?
cheraa maa hameh khasteh shodeem? cheraa hamash hamin chizaaee hast keh
too TV neshoon meedan? ["Breaking
the rules"]
aahaay kasee keh een email ro meekhooneh: een harfaa dard-e del-e tamaam-e
javoonaast. hamamoon yaad gerefteem sobh paasheem bereem sar-e kaar, berim
daaneshgaah, nemidooneem chee meekhaaeem. aslan cheh kaar baayad bekoneem?
faqat taa cheshm baaz kardeem joz badbakhtee cheez-e degehee nadeedeem.
baabaab maa ham aarezoo daareem beh khodaa. aarezoom een hast keh yeh
rooz az Iran beram valee cheh kaar konam? nemeetoonam. chon poolesh ro
nadaaram.
omidvaaram keh yeh rooz Iran az shar-e een aakhoondaa raahat sheh.
Gold Boy
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Wednesday
March 15, 2000
* Nothing has changed
Like many concerned Iranians in the United States, I have been paying
close attention to developments in Iran for years now. This is partially
why I do not find the recent parliamentary elections to be a surprise.
Everyone from CNN's Christianne Amanpour to the fellow expatriate next
door have heralded this election as the dawn of a "new" Iran
["High
hopes"].
I suggest Mrs. Amanpour and Iranians in general (especially Iranian-Americans)
wake up. The political system set up 20 years ago has not changed at all.
Many critics of the Islamic Revolution (or any revolution in Iran) have
always stressed on the shortcomings of the promises of the revolution.
It is ironic how quickly we all forget the fact that Iran was in a war
for eight years during which the nation's very integrity was threatened.
This does not leave much time for social introspection or many "domestic"
issues when you have Mr. Hussein attempting to annex Khuzistan.
In addition to the Iraqi-Imposed War, Iran has suffered from the economic
aftermath of the war (that we are still witnessing) and the rapid inflation
and destruction of the infastructure of the economy.
Khatami was elected under the system set up after the Islamic Revolution.
The new parliament has also been elected under that same system. Nothing
has changed in Iran.
When the country is no longer at war and is now recovering from the
economic impact of that war, the Iranian people can concentrate on reforms.
This includes the purging of opportunists in a democratic government (ex.
Mr. Rafsanjani).
I have always had faith in democracy, Islam, and the Iranian people
and know that, eventually, the major problems that are present in the country
will be solved through the existing democratic Islamic government.
Arya Abedin
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* C U soon
"Dialogue
among ourselves", a letter to President Khatami, from Roozbeh
Shirazi was traslated into Farsi and published in "Mosharekat"
newspaper (Thursday, 19th of Esfand. Page 6 : "Javaan" page),
one of the most important Iranian dailies.
C U here in Iran, soon. =)
nEgAr Mortazavi
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Tuesday
March 14, 2000
* Have some mercy
In the editorial intro to "Breaking
the rules" you wrote: "Yesterday's assassination attempt
against Saeed Hajjarian, a pro-Khatami newspaper publisher, was a shocking
reminder that Iran's conservative hardliners will resort to any means to
try to stop the movement toward a more open and liberal society. But, as
this feature clearly shows, Iranian society is going through fundamental
changes, regardless of what the extremists expect the Islamic Republic
to be."
I think all regular readers of the forum you publish (=The Iranian)
are already quite familiar with the domain of concerns of Ms. Fassihian
through her lengthy articles ["Breaking
the rules"]. I myself were once tempted (you can read "fooled")
and took time and responded to one of her early articles, although I later
realized that it probably wasn't worth the effort. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm getting used to the very narrow sense of the word "freedom"
that she and other people like her advertise and advocate, either out of
ignorance or deliberately pursuing some purposes. (Take CNN's Christianne
Amanpour's so-called "Revolutionary Journey", for example.)
What bothers me, however, is how you could be so ... [Forgive me, but
I yet have to find the right word to fill in there. "Cruel",
maybe? or "narrow-minded"? I'll let you know as soon as I come
up with something fit.] to connect the sad assassination of Hajjarian to
the content of "Breaking
the rules".
It reminds me of Amanpour's recent (purposely?) misleading report where
they show student rallies right after whinings of some soosool losers about
how hard it is to party there, as if the students were beaten by police
just because they were not allowed to party. Oh please!
Honestly, isn't that because you needed to rationalize publishing such
an article at a time when the "local Iranians" (as Ms Fassihian
uses the word) are concerned about those who are fighting for the true
meaning of the (much abused) word "freedom", and thus paying
such high prices? Please open your eyes, and have some mercy for those
who fought for you.
Ataollah Togha
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* Reply: Not the right time
In reply to Ataollah Togha:
I also expressed to the editor that I didn't think it was the right
time to publish "Breaking
the rules" because of the tragic incident regarding Mr. Hajjarian.
So I appreciate this particular concern. It was the editor's decision,
with my hesitation, to publish it with a section on top about Hajjarian.
This article was a simple piece on how young Iranians in Iran spend
their free time and where to dine in Tehran. And so the remainder of your
criticisms are irrelevant, vague and unintelligible.
Sorry, but just because you have chosen to not appreciate a group's
point of view - -in this case the majority of Iranian youth -- does not
invalidate their beliefs and feelings. It seems you are the one who is
narrow-minded and intolerant, not to mention highly disrespectful.
Dokhi Fassihian
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Monday
March 13, 2000
* Sikh
Thanks for the pictures of the women's protests ["Right
to choose"]... "mu beh taneh aadam sikh misheh".
Zahra Mahloudji
Go to tp
* Passion
Just read a note on "Shoor-e
Zendegi". A reader's opinion, yours and someone else's that you
had asked.
"Shoor" under the context used (shoor-e zendegi) would be
more appropriate to be translated as "passion": Passion for/of
life. Don't know the intent for this issue that you discussed with that
reader, but if it's for something of importance/ to be shown, I would give
more thought and would possibly go for the word "passion".
Kaveh
Go to tp
* Missing the point
You are missing the point. The "shoor" in SHOOR-E
ZENDEGI is not felt by taste-buds. Here it means, as Neda
X wrote, fervor and enthusiasm - a completely different meaning for
the same word. A third (and somehow related to the second meaning) is the
name for one of the Persian classical musical dastgah.
Hossein Bagher Zadeh
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