Archive - Mar 13, 2008 - Article

Fatal attractions

Among other factors, the American failure to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan has fueled Iran's attempt at regional supremacy to the consternation of many in the region and beyond. The failure of the containment policy, fear that the Islamic Republic will develop nuclear weapons, and the bellicose rhetoric and policies of Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have given rise to urgent discussions about how best to counter the threat of the fundamentalist regime. The main policies under discussion are regime change; surgical strikes; reconfigured containment; limited, issue-based dialogue; and a "grand bargain.">>>

The First Crime

No one has ever been sentenced to a sever punishment called education as young as I was. “I don’t know how to punish him anymore, I ran out of ideas, I’ve tried everything.” I heard my mother saying this with tears in her eyes to my father the night before my sentence was carried out. I was three years old then. The next morning I was trailing my father with a gloomy face to the Mactab (Those days in our town, house-wives who had some education thought neighboring children under school age for a small fee in their homes. The curriculum was learning alphabets and listening to the teacher reciting Koran)>>>

Discover the familiar

How "normal" can a nation be that so often exudes defiance and antagonism? With a belligerent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the forefront of most minds when it comes to Iran, what could a visitor expect to find in the county? Do women lead a normal life despite a draconian police ready to punish the most basic transgressions of wardrobe? Does the Islamic conservatism of the post-revolutionary era make for a sheltered youth? Recently, I was interested in answering some of these questions. As a citizen of Singapore, I am entitled to a 14-day visa-free entry into Iran>>>