GREAT

Two thousand five hundred years old

Undeniable value of Parviz Natel Khanlari’s services

03-Jan-2008 (13 comments)
The last time I saw Dr. Khanlari was in 1987 when he told me that studying literature belonged to another time. “It is a different world now,” he said. At the time I was a graduate student in literature and his advice to me was to start on a different path while I was still young. Parviz Natel Khanlari was a great man—so great, in fact, that a mere listing of his accomplishments does him no justice. People still argue whether his most important contribution was his journal Sokhan (unparalleled to this day in the talent and rigor it fostered), his country-wide literacy projects (leading to a considerable hike in literacy rates), his role in standardizing and producing text books (the accessibility and quality of which we all took for granted)...>>>

SCREAM

Who cares?

I am angry! At me, the girl who stares back at me in the mirror

03-Jan-2008 (6 comments)
“I AM ANGRY?” Is it even important how I feel? What I want? What I write about? Does my anger even matter when Britney Spears’ 16-year-old sister is pregnant? Could I possibly have something provoking to say when Paris Hilton just lost all of her inheritance to charity? Can I possibly have something more enraging to be angry about when so and so just got engaged and the other couple from last year's wedding filed for a divorce? I mean who cares what I have to say? Everyone has so much to worry about already. JC Penny's “16-hour post holiday sale” is ticking down and Macy's has that “two days only end of the year, new year special” going on right now so why would anyone in their right mind be reading this instead?>>>

STORY

لفط الله

آن سال حسابی چشم و گوشم باز شد

03-Jan-2008 (5 comments)
مش جواد را دیدم با نان سنگک بلند بالای دو آتشه ای که نوکش را گرفته بود تا همسایه ها بهتر بتوانند آن را ببینند، جلو رفتم و برای اینکه قد و بالا و صورتش را خوب بررسی کنم سلام کنان، نان را از دستش گرفتم و به دنبالش راه افتادم، و تا توی اتاقشان رفتم. انصافن فس فسی در او ندیدم. فکر کردم که حتمن عصمت خانم انتظارهای دیگری از او دارد. دلم می خواست نه از او، اما از عصمت خانم بپرسم، مردی به این سر حالی چرا " فس فس " می کند. ضمن اینکه درست نمی دانستم منظور از فس فس چیست.>>>
Jahanshah Javid
03-Jan-2008 (69 comments)
Having a beer in a hostel in Berlin>>>
Saead Soltanpour
03-Jan-2008 (8 comments)
The propaganda for the migration of Jews is a failed attempt.>>>
Sahar Tahvili
03-Jan-2008 (3 comments)
سحر تحویلی ، دبیر گفتگو با اهل نظر در ادبیات و فرهنگ>>>
alimostofi
03-Jan-2008
No US funds for Seyyeds' friends>>>
IranNegah
03-Jan-2008 (28 comments)
An online video library about Iranian Politics and Society!!! >>>

TRAVELER

Day trip to La Jolla

Day trip to La Jolla

Photo essay: Southern California

by Sara Zahabiyoun
03-Jan-2008 (10 comments)

>>>

BENAZIR

Pahlavan Syndrome

Lessons from the Bhutto assassination

02-Jan-2008 (10 comments)
Recent events in Pakestan have raised awareness of the all too commonly obvious pitfalls of putting too much hope in one person, rather than allowing a simple self regulating system to run a social order of a people. The cowardly assassination of Benazir Bhutto is the vilest example of man's continuing inhumanity to man. Regardless of now re-surfacing claims of the corruption of the Bhutto family and their political infamy, the bottom line is that, in 2007 with the existence of writ of habeas corpus, the right to accuse someone and their right to defend themselves against that accusation, no one deserves to die like this. It is simply uncivilized>>>

AMIR

Unfinished story

A different work from California's Persian Pop music scene

02-Jan-2008 (3 comments)
Some time ago I saw an advertisement for a new album, of a new singer, on one of the Persian television channels in Los Angeles. Strangely, this time, there was neither any mention of 6/8 rhythms, nor was there a pick-up truck full of dancing girls behind the singer! As the singer sang calmly on the video, images of Persia and its people followed one another beautifully. The title of the album was "Neverending Story", better said "Unfinished Story" (Ghesse-ye Naatamaam), sung by Amir. This is his first album with cooperation of two significant figures in Persian pop music: Andranik and Shahyar Ghanbari. I became curious to hear the rest of the album but just as I had guessed, there was no sign of the CD in the Persian stores of Amsterdam.>>>

LIFE

Hallucinations

They did not come

02-Jan-2008 (one comment)
- Like always you have forgotten to cook rice for dinner, no?
- Who cares? Don’t stress me out. I still have time.
It is nighttime. It is cold. All day I have wandered around the house. I counted all the pieces of furniture in the house: the brown coaches, our dining table, the Piano, our carpets, our phones, all those paintings and books, my desk, my bed, my parents’ bed, our lights…
- Are you crying?
- No, but I wish I could cry for hours. Have you ever been invaded by the flood of memories?>>>

LIFE

نیاوران، فرمانیه و مادام ساعی

یادش بخیر روزهای پر از رنگ های نارنجی و آبی

02-Jan-2008 (5 comments)
عاشق رانندگی در اتوبانهای شلوغ تهران بودم .ساعت یازده ی هر روز صبح دوباره به مادام ساعی زنگ می زدم تا از تو خبر بگیرم و تو همیشه به پای تلفن می آمدی و با صدای معصومت می گفتی هنوز ساعت دو نشده که تو بیایی ؟ این عقربه های ساعت هر روز دیر تکان می خورد و من در تب و تاب آمدن برای در آغوش کشیدنت پر و بال می زدم . >>>

POLITICS

Constitutional clash

The constitution has placed a ban on all reforms deemed to be “un-Islamic”

02-Jan-2008 (60 comments)
The trigger of violence was officially pulled in Iran when it became clear that the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini’s vision of an Islamic society was to take precedence over all other visions and interpretations after the revolution of 1979. There was disagreement from the start among the various political forces over the definition of the revolution itself. The left and secularists wanted the term „Democratic Republic”, while a spectrum of Muslims preferred “Islamic Democratic”, but Khomeini opted for “Islamic Republic”.>>>

POETRY

چه بی نظیر بود

ریش سفیدان نفس راحتی کشیدند

02-Jan-2008 (7 comments)
بی نظیر بودی تو در خاکِ پاک خویش
گناه تو بی نظیر بودن بود
زنِ لبخند به لبِ دمکراسی خواهِ امیدوار
در کشوری مسلمان
در کشور کودتا در کودتا
با کوههایی مأمن القاعده >>>