HOLY
Photo essay: Pilgrimage site of Zoroastrians
by
msabaye >>>
IRANIANS
The worse thing that has happened these thirty years is that Iranians have become callous
One middle aged man, came back recently from Iran, I saw him at the July 25th protest here in our town where less people showed up than at my friend’s birthday party. Like many others that day he was wearing a cap, big sunglasses and scarf to hide his face, he stood way back and did not repeat any chants or slogans, he boasted to me of chasing plain clothes men on motorbikes during the recent protests in Iran. I thought to myself: how can this guy, who worked for the foreign ministry under the Shah, who covers himself so much here in the safety of Place Massena, have had the courage to go chasing motor-biker bassijis in Tehran?
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زندگی سیاسی و اجتماعی ما، چه این اعتراضات ادامه بیابد یا به زیرزمین کشیده شود، بدون فیس بوک، یوتیوب و تویتر قابل تصور نیست
با اینکه فیس بوک هیچ گاه شمار اعضایش را در یک کشور اعلام نمی کند اما دو قرینه نشان می دهدکه این سایت در طول بهار 88 محبوب ترین سایت ایرانیان در داخل کشور بوده است، نخست انتشار گزارشی از تعاملات جهانی در شبکه فیس بوک که در مقایسه با فصل مشابه در سال قبل نشان دهنده رشد شگفت انگیز استقبال از فیس بوک در ایران بود... اما این سوال که چرا ناگهان مسئولان سانسور در ایران که در همان حال حتی از فیلتر کردن وبلاگ هایی که کمترین نشانه اعتراض در آن موجود بود نیز نمی گذشتند، سایتهایی چون فیس بوک و یوتیوب را آزاد کردند؟ برای پاسخ به این سوال ابتدا نشانه هایی از استفاده عوامل اطلاعاتی حکومت برای ردیابی، رصد و مانیتورینگ نیروهای شاخص مخالف یا روزنامه نگاران یافت شد
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Bozo, my dog has always been an arch enemy of my cat Billo. But there have been subtle changes in his attitude recently
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Wish to see justice done in Iran, this picture must bring hope to any Persian to see justice done one say soon i hope
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PERCEPTIONS
Does every Middle Eastern man have to be a wife beater in their stories?
On one of my recent trips to the Middle East, a friend and a business associate, Hesam, invited me over to his house for dinner. I eagerly accepted. The dinner was plentiful, the host and the hostess extremely gracious, and as the tradition goes, some relatives, including Hesam's parents and his wife’s two sisters and their husbands, were also present. Everyone was dressed in western-style clothing except my host, who was wearing a long while dishdasha. The house was sumptuously furnished with European sofas and chairs, artworks from the surrounding Gulf countries, expensive Persian rugs, and lavish, beautiful curtains, which dressed the bay windows that faced the Persian Gulf across the street
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