Archive - Jan 16, 2009 - Article

Happy birthday ayatollah?

In coming weeks, the Islamic Republic, like anyone turning 30, will be wondering what it has done with its life and what its prospects are. The fate it has dealt the scores of political opponents it has liquidised, incarcerated and tortured to consolidate its rule will probably not feature in its reflections. What BBC Persian TV holds in store for it, however, may feature. Funded by the UK Foreign Office – to the tune of £15m ($22m) a year – PTV, which launched this week, has assembled a veritable army of newly trained journalists (some 100 of its 150-strong staff are in editorial) that looks set to knock head-on rival VOA off its perch>>>

The Most Fragile

The Glass House, competing in the World Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival, is a one of those rare films that make you forget that you are watching a documentary. Hamid Rahmanian and Melissa Hibbard have given us a documentary that flows as easily as the tears of their young and troubled protagonists. The film, which Rahmanian shoots and directs, unravels the lives of downtrodden, runaway and distressed girls who have taken refuge in a private half-way house established by a benevolent Iranian expatriate, Marjaneh Halati>>>

In cold blood

In 1941, after the forceful abdication of Reza Shah, the angry British government, who saw Reza as a former ally turned into a treacherous enemy, seriously considered the restoration of Qajar dynasty. However, the lead Iranian intellectuals (like Foroughi) could only foresee a major political upheaval, with the return of arrogant Qajars. Although Foroughi was persecuted by Reza Shah, he reasoned that the country had truly democratic laws (constitution) and if the Pahlavi crown prince was ready to respect them, there was no reason for a regime change. That way, Mohammad Reza Shah came to be the new constitutional monarch of Iran, who for nearly a decade respected the democratic institutions of the country. >>>

آزادی جنسی نامحدود

صیغه بخشی از ساختار رابطه جنسی زن و مرد در ایران را تشكیل می‌دهد. برای ‌بررسی پدیده صیغه باید به شناخت و كالبدشكافی این ساختار كه سیاست جنسی‌ حاكم را بر اساس سنت/فقه/قانون تعریف كرده است پرداخت. در این ساختار به جنسیت زن و مرد دو نقش كاملا متمایز در رابطه جنسی‌ با یكدیگر داده شده است. نهاد ازدواج تعریف شده در این ساختار یك رابطه كاملا یك طرفه است، رابطه ای‌ كه از سوی زن بسته است و از سوی‌ مرد باز. در هر زمان ‌زن فقط با یك مرد می‌تواند رابطه داشته باشد ولی مرد می‌تواند با چند زن رابطه جنسی برقرار كند. تعدد زوجات یكی از لوازم این ساختار است. ولی‌ محدود كردن آن به عدد دلبخواهی «4»، اصل «باز بودن» رابطه جنسی از سوی‌ مرد را نقض می‌كند. صیغه یكی دیگر از لوازم این ساختار است كه تناقض اخیر را نیز رفع می‌كند. نهاد صیغه اصولا برای ‌تأمین آزادی جنسی نامحدود مرد تعبیه شده است و نمی‌توان از آن به عنوای وسیله‌ای محترمانه برای به قاعده درآوردن روابط جنسی خارج از ازدواج بین زن و مرد بهره گرفت>>>

The Good Old Days

The first few dates are fine, but somewhere around the fourth or fifth date, there'll be a couch and a T.V. - this will be in her apartment, not mine, since I have only a couch - and I know how nice a couch is and I know how nice sitting close together and touching is, and I know how much we deserve to sit and rest and let someone else do the living for a little bit, and I know how much it feels like living when we can talk about what we are watching, in a way that we couldn't talk about a book or a song on the radio, and it is like everything is laid out nice and easy, the two of us on the couch together and all that life on the television screen, everything is laid out nice and easy except for the world, except for just that one thing that asks you to be small at first>>>