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Baba Taher
Cover story
The education of Mahdiyeh
From bubblegum to Bahais
By J. Javid
A few weeks ago I was talking to my daughter Mahdiyeh on the phone.
She lives with her mother in Tehran and I'm in Washington, DC. I said,
"Mahdiyeh...?" and before I asked my question, she said, "Jaanam..."
I paused for a moment.
She used an expression that's usually heard between adults. Generally
the English equivalent would be, "Yes dear," or "Yes love."
More often adults say it to children as a show of affection. Or when they
grow up, children say it to their parents when their name is called out.
Mahdiyeh will turn 16 next month. And I guess she has grown quite a
bit since I last saw her three years ago. Just recently she told me she
had cut her hair.
- "How short?"
- "Very short."
- "How very short? Like Sinead O'Connor?"
- "Who's Sinead O'Connor? I barely have any hair left. I sort of
look like Maddonna when she had short hair." ... GO TO FEATURE
* The Post-Khomeini Generation
By Elaine Sciolino
The New York Times
November 1, 1998
In February, Iran's revolution will turn 20 years old. And among the
country's many problems, what troubles Iran's clerical leaders the most
is that they are losing -- or have already lost -- the generation that
has come of age since then.
Sixty-five percent of Iran's population is under the age of 25. Many
of them have no particular love or hatred for the late Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlevi or even for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the cleric who led the
revolution. Universities are so crowded that only 1 in 10 applicants get
in. With jobs scarce, young people must defer marriage because they cannot
afford a proper wedding and a place to live. Despite episodic easing of
some restrictions, socializing with members of the opposite sex, holding
hands in public, listening to certain kinds of music, watching foreign
television and of course, drinking alcohol, are forbidden.
''The younger generation has no attachment, no feeling for the revolution,''
says Sadeq Ziba-Kalam, a political scientist who was imprisoned by the
Shah's regime. ''When I teach the revolution, many of my students just
look out the window and watch the clock. They say: 'What about us? You
had your revolution and your war. What's in it for us?' And I can't tell
them the answer.'' ... FULL TEXT
Anyway
Hallelujah
"Nejat Productions
is an independent Farsi Christian Music Production organization. We are
a small group of Iranian musicians who have decided to serve The Lord in
a new way. Our mission is to produce the kind of music that would speak
the love of God into the heart of every Iranian. And would bring joy, hope
and Jesus Christ power into the life of every Believer. NEJAT means "salvation",
and we are making it happen - The Rock & Roll way! -- Hallelujah."
I wonder if there's bandari gospel music?
History
Revolution: 1979-1999
More Letters
* Good amount of shamelessness
"Aroosi Khooban" writes in reply to Ali Khalili's "Farewell
cherry tree": The reason why you don't see any trace of things
similar to what you have written in your article throughout the internet
is probably because it takes a good amount of shamelessness to talk about
the pain you and people like you went through, once one remembers the pain
of a nation who was sacrificing its best children, while you fled from
the country to save your lives.
I find it quite oxymoronic when you mention patriotism among the reasons
why you were unhappy when leaving Iran; please make sure to look up the
word "patriot" in your dictionary. Nobody had forced you to leave;
you left to save your life, which happens to be not a bit worthier than
the lives of true patriots who died for saving their country.
* Poetry: Lecture on Malek-o Shoara
Bahar, Berkeley
"Center for Dialogue" presents: "Malek-o Shoara Bahar
and the Issue of Modernity", a lecture by Professor Abbas Milani,
Chair of Political Science Dept., College of Notre Dame.
Milani is the author of Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir (Kodansha
1997) and Encounters with Modernity: Fragments of the Iranian Experience
(Baztab Verlag 1994), among others.
Time: Friday October 30, at 7:30
Place: 2060 Valley Life Science Building
University of California, Berkeley
Lecture in Persian
Book of the Week
Scent of Saffron:
Three Generations of an Iranian Family
By Rouhi Shafii
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news
Islamist students offer olive branch to
U.S.
TEHRAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iran's biggest student movement, heirs
to the activists who seized the U.S. embassy 19 years ago, marked the takeover
on Monday with an unprecedented show of conciliation towards the ``Great
Satan.'' ``In the heat of revolutionary fervour things happen that cannot
be fully contained,'' read one banner -- tantalisingly close to an apology
to a country still routinely denounced as the Great Satan... FULL TEXT
Khatami to visit France - newspaper
PARIS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami plans to visit France in February, his first visit to a
European country since being elected in 1997, the newspaper Le Monde said
on Monday. The daily said it was told of Khatami's plans by Iran's new ambassador
to France Ali Reza Moayeri, who retains his status as a special presidential
adviser despite his posting abroad. The Iranian embassy was not immediately
available for comment on the report ... FULL TEXT
Iran hits mock enemy to end Afghan border
war games
TEHRAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Some 200,000 Iranian
troops staged a final attack against a mock enemy on Monday at the end of
war games near the tense Afghan border, Iran's state media reported. Iranian
television showed infantry forces and tanks advancing after air force bombers
and an artillery and missile barrage softened up ``enemy'' positions...
FULL TEXT
Iran's Kharrazi to visit Saudi this week
- envoy
DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharrazi is to visit Saudi Arabia this week, the latest of several
visits between the countries as relations have warmed. Iran's ambassador
to Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Reza Nouri, said on Monday that Kharrazi would
arrive in Jeddah on Thursday from where he would make a pilgrimage before
going to Riyadh two days later to meet King Fahd and other senior officials
... FULL TEXT
Iran says best route for Caspian oil
CAPE TOWN, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday
renewed its claim to be the best export route for Caspian oil and gas, saying
sanctions were delaying regional energy development by promoting unviable
pipeline routes. ``All sanctions on crude oil swaps, investments and political
considerations on pipelines should be cleared so that the region could realise
all its potentials,'' said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh ... FULL
TEXT
Youth win Asian karate title
Tehran, (HAMSHAHRI) - Iran's youth karate team win
top Asian title with four gold, one silver and one bronze medals... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
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Quote Unquote
Looking ahead
"Regarding relations with America, we must look to the future and
not to the past."
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh
A leader of militart students who took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran
19 years ago, speaking at a rally in front of the former embassy.
Reuters,
Nov 2, 1998
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Five more tunes from the hugely successful "World Cafe"
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