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Afghanistan Afghan survey: No to war September 11, 1998 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
Afghanistan We don't need this 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
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
Cover Story Out of the blue 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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