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The Iranian Features
Sept 8-11, 1998 / Shahrivar 17-20, 1377

Today

* Afghanistan: No war - survey

Previous

* Afghanistan: We don't need this
* Fiction: Open Air
* Cover Story: Out of the blue
* Women: Missing the point?


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Friday,
Sept 11, 1998

    Afghanistan

    Afghan survey: No to war

    September 11, 1998
    The Iranian

    Iran should not take military action against Afghanistan's Taleban forces, the majority of those who responded to a survey on the current conflict between Iran and Afghanistan said.

    Initial results from the majority of respondents so far show 62 percent of believe Iran should not go to war to revenge the killing of its diplomats by the Taleban forces, rather it should "begin diplomatic initiatives to ensure the killers are punished and gain the release of Iranians held prisoner."

    But nearly 26 percent said Iran should carry out limited miliatry action. Less than 9 percent said Iran should go to war.

    Also nearly 60 percent of the respondents believe Iran should increase its support to Afghan forces opposing the Taleban and 52 percent believe Iran should "intervene to protect Afghan civilians belonging to the Shi'ite minority in Afghanistan if the Taleban forces carry out further massacres."

    The survey was sent to more than 8,900 members of The Iranian Times mailing list. These results are based on 151 responses... see more survey stats

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Thursday
Sept 10, 1998

    Afghanistan

    We don't need this
    Polemic on a seemingly impending war with Afghanistan

    By Laleh Khalili

    I don't want another war, no matter what the excuse. I don't want us to march on Herat or further afield. No reason that has been stated by the Iranian government is good enough basis for an invasion of Afghanistan. I was devastated when I read the Amnesty International report stating that the 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif were killed after the fall of the city. The image of the bodies left in the Consulate for two days without burial shattered me. I thought of the rubble, I thought of the sound of artillery in the background and of rivers of blood. But even this atrocity and the humiliation attendant to it is not a reason good enough for a war. Nor is the Iranian government's crying foul of the brand of Islam practiced by the Taleban. It is NONE of their business.

    Iran has finally arrived at a place where it seemes it can step out of the dark damp caverns of isolation. Speech can now be heard in Tehran even in dissent. Voices are now a cacophony of ideas, rather than the monotonous drone of a monolithic state apparatus. Investments seemed to be pouring in. Iran seems to even have lain to rest old grudges with its Arab neighbors. And a war shall lay waste to all that. Saudi Arabia and UAE are sure to support the Afghans. The precarious rapprochement between Iran and the West (read U.S.) will collapse. Accusations of sedition and propaganda of unity will be used as a vise-grip to clamp down on the expansion of free speech... go to feature

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Wednesday
Sept 9, 1998

    Fiction

    Open Air

    By Jasmine Darznik

    With time, he starts spending the night--just a few days of the week at first, but eventually most all nights. You are enraptured by the novelty and strangeness of the situation and find yourself more than a little thrilled by your own daring. With him you will shed your shy self and learn to laugh with the same youthful abandon as the American girls who surround you. Or so you believe. You follow him everywhere. You make no other friends. You mistake the anticipation of love for love itself. Your double-life begins.

    You call your father every Saturday morning after your boyfriend leaves to go for a run. Sometimes, though, he will sleep in and you'll have to stretch the telephone chord all the way to the bathroom, lock the door, run the water full blast, and call home from there.

    "Yes, everything's fine. . .I'm fine. . ."

    Your father says, "You must not shame me, Leily. You are not like the American girls. I did not raise you that way."

    You keep the phone calls a secret from your boyfriend, and you keep your boyfriend a secret from your father. After these furtive exchanges you step under a stream of water so hot it nearly scalds your skin. You wish you could deafen your ears to your father's voice and then, maybe then, strip your body clean of its shame and even the memory of shame... go to feature

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Tuesday
Sept 8, 1998

    Cover Story

    Out of the blue
    Discovering paintings by Manoucher Yektai

    A few weeks ago I was at an Iranian street festival in New York. It was the first ever held there, and it showed. Thousands showed up , but there weren't many booths offering any services.

    As I was looking through the books on a table, I came across a thin booklet, Manoucher Yektai; Paintings 1951-1997 ( 1998 Guild Hall Museum, New York).

    I had never heard of Yektai's name and certainly knew nothing about his art. I glanced through the selected paintings and was immediately struck by their richness and maturity. I had no doubt in my mind that Yektai is not just an excellent Iranian artist, but among the very best in the world... go to feature

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Monday
August 31, 1998

Cover Story

Iran's American martyr
Howard Baskerville was killed by royalists nearly 90 years ago

By Robert D. Burgener

Iranians are great storytellers. As an American storyteller trying to stay focused on collecting anecdotes about the Allied involvement in Iran during the World War II, the other stories about this ancient land were a fascinating temptation. When I would ask Iranians about what contacts their country had with Americans before 1940, two names always came up: Morgan Shuster, an advisor to Reza Shah in the 1910's, and Howard Baskerville, a missionary killed in Tabriz in 1909.

Based on the stories both older and younger Iranians told me about "the American missionary" -- most couldn't remember his name -- this guy was going to be much more interesting. First, because as with most stories coming out of Iran, there is an element of conspiracy. The American had been shot by a sniper - but which side was the sniper on? Was he a "Royalist" supporting the despot Shah in Tehran who had abolished the Iranian constitution or was this sniper on the side of Sattar Khan and the "Constitutionalists" who were trying to gain advantage through intervention of European powers by creating a martyr? ... go to feature

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 Cover Story

Out of the blue


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