Archive - Apr 2009 - Article

Free Saberi

Roxana Saberi's case has by now become internationally known: The very photogenic Iranian-American journalist, who for the six years before her arrest in January had been working in Iran as a freelance reporter with different agencies including the BBC and the NPR, and after a closed-door summary 'trial', was sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges. The Iranian President Ahmadinejad along with the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, have since made public announcements, urging the relevant courts to play fair with Ms. Saberi's case and to allow her all the legal means available to her by law, including the chance for a fair defense>>>

In the name of love

In "Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva," Akbarzadeh familiarizes us with the life and artistic achievements of one of the most popular Persian singers of the 20th century. In the words of conductor, Farnoosh Behzad, she was a singer "whose voice was unequalled in texture." And, in an interview, Frank Sinatra praised her voice. Hayedeh (1942-1990), whose real name was Massoumeh Dadehbala, was born in Tehran, and died in exile at age 47. In his film, Pejman Akbarzadeh shows the various periods of Hayedeh's artistic activities: Starting in 1960s, when she sang her first song in public, but remained unknown, until her discovery by Ali Tajvidi for the "Gol-ha-ye Rangarang" program on Iranian National Radio, followed by her turn to popular music>>>

سرنوشت

شب ها
درست نیمه های شب
در بیداری من دراز می کشی و به خواب سردی فرو می روی
صورت تو کو؟
روز در زیر پوست تن تو رژه می رود
پوست تو کاشف رنگ نور است
روزها سردند
و روزنامه ها تصویر سایه های دست تو را چاپ کرده اند >>>

A little more

He strained to hear, yes,
a female voice, repeating
"Djinni Djinn Djinn!
Come through the howlin' wind!
Come to your purple kin!"
It sounded like the falls
that Aladdin had stepped in
before he got himself lost,
the deepest rumble now
and more frightening >>>

Why Roxana?

So why is this happening to Saberi? Most analyst agree that she has become a pawn in the political games between the US and Iran, though the explanations for Tehran's actions differ. One theory reads that both Saberi and Esha Momeni, another Iranian American who was arrested in 2008, will be used as leverage with the US in a future negotiation, possibly to exchange for two Iranian nationals taken by US forces in a 2007 raid of the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraq. Tehran maintains that the two Iranians are diplomats. The Bush administration said that they were Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps agents>>>

دشمن تراشی

آقای احمدی‌نژاد در مقام ریاست جمهوری اسلامی ایران در كنفرانس ضد نژادپرستی دوربان 2 در سویس حضور یافت و از آن به عنوان فرصتی برای طرح نظریات كلیشه‌ای تكراری‌ خود یك بار دیگر بهره گرفت. او اگر چه در تبلیغ نظریات خود و پذیراندن آن به مستمعان تازه‌ای در سطح جهان توفیقی‌ نداشت، ولی‌ توانست این كنفرانس سازمان ملل را كه با هزینه سنگین و تلاش چند ساله‌ای تدارك دیده شده بود از مسیر خود خارج كند و دست كم برای ساعاتی پیشرفت آن را دچار اخلال سازد. به جز این،‌ آقای احمدی‌ذژاد در لباس حمایت از مردم فلسطین موفق شد یك بار دیگر افكار عمومی ‌جهان غرب و به خصوص مردم اسراییل را علیه ایران برانگیزد و به آتش خصومت با اسراییل دامن بزند، چهره‌ای عمیقا خرافی و خشن از ایران به جهان عرضه كند، و شبح جنگ را باز بر سر ایران و مردم ایران بگستراند>>>

Why I feel for Roxana

I am not a frequent visitor to Iran. Like most Iranian-Americans, I have few other reasons to visit than to see my ailing parents and the remnants of a once large family that is still left in Iran. In the 1990s, I only made two visits. Both were brief, and both were relatively uncomplicated. After my father’s heart attack in 2002, however, I have visited the “homeland” three times. Though my parents are still alive and cannot travel, I will visit Iran no more. Here’s why. Early one spring morning, two civilian clothed men knocked on my mother’s apartment in Yousefabad, Tehran. The time was probably no later than 7am, though my memory may fail me on this detail. They said they wanted to have a word with me>>>

How much longer?

With the sad news of the impending execution of Delara Darabi, the gentle and gifted poet/ painter, imprisoned for a murder that her former boyfriend most likely committed, coupled with the harsh eight-year sentence handed down to Japanese-Iranian American, Roxana Saberi after a one-day secret trial from which even her attorney was barred from attending, I have felt a sick and shameful feeling overcome me. I feel sick that the land of my forefathers has become a place that I rarely feel proud of anymore when I watch the news. Why should I be surprised though? Haven’t thousands upon thousands before these two ladies been victims of a regime that cares nothing for the truth as long as it is able to pursue its twisted political agenda?>>>

آتش شرم مقّدّس

هموطن شعله ي عشقت ز آلامت پيداست
آتش شرم مقدّس ز پيامت بر پاست
پرده ي غفلت تاريخي ما خواهد سوخت
تا چنين آتش جاويد بپا در دل ماست
زاده ي آوروشي و دانش و دادش به سرت
لوحه اش زنده ز منشور حقوق بشرت
اين آه با ظلم رَوَد آبروي ايران است
آيد آن آبروي رفته به يمن اثرت >>>

Traveling Friend

There is always a reason to travel
For beyond everything you see today
There is a tomorrow, a yesterday, a today and a forever
And for the night
A reflection lives in that beating of the moon’s heart
To reach you in a rainbow of strikes
Singing blue, silver and green >>>

Rebel with a pause

News that 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has received an eight-year jail sentence for being a US “spy” comes a month after 29-year-old blogger Omid-Reza Mirsayafi was found dead in Evin prison and deals a blow to President Obama’s change of foreign policy tack with Iran’s clerics. It is, however, an apt blow – Obama’s now famous Norouz speech, in which he stopped short of praising Ayatollah Khamenei’s taste in underwear, eclipsed reports of Mr Mirsayafi’s death. On 28 March, Voice of America Persian’s website published a report that quoted Reporters Sans Frontieres’ Reza Moini, Amir-Parviz Mirsayafi, Omid’s brother, and Masoumeh, his sister.>>>

Summer of 1973

Sleeping on the roof in the summer is customary in Tehran. The dry heat of the day cools after midnight, and those of us who sleep on the rooftops wake with the early sun on our faces and fresh air in our lungs. My mother is strictly against it, and reminds me each evening, “Hundreds of people fall off the roofs every year.” My best friend, Ahmed, and I trade hidden smiles with each warning, then climb the stairs to spend our nights under stars that seem close enough to touch. The alley below settles into a patchwork of streetlight, shadow, and sound. A car hums slowly down the deserted street, cautious not to wake anyone, as a stray dog in the distance releases a string of officious barks>>>

The Secret Agent

The ghost exhaled a fog of smoke, enveloping us in the mists of the past. “Two years before you were born, something important happened in Iran. Is your head full of Churchills and Roosevelts, or do you know your own history?” “Mossadegh?” I hazarded. He nodded approvingly. “When he became prime minister he knew Iran needed an independent secret service in order to protect our constitution against foreign enemies. So he quietly planned an organization made up of the most trusted people.” Ah, the top-secret classification, I remembered. “Did the Shah know of this?” I asked surprised. “Made up of the most trusted people,” he repeated with emphasis>>>

نخست وزیر کشتارهای دهه شصت

آقای مهندس موسوی بی تردید فراموش نکرده است و فطعا" توجه دارد که حکومت اسلامی در نشان دادن یک قلم از "ویژگی های اسلام ناب محمدی" و "فضای انقلابی" مورد نظر ایشان مرتکب 5 کشتار بزرگ از دگراندیشان, روشنفکران و روشنگران و مخالفان سیاسی و عقیدتی خود شده است, کشتارها یی که تمامی آن ها در زمانی که آیت الله خمینی, یا به قول مهندس موسوی "رهبر فرزانه انقلاب" در قید حیات بود, اتفاق افتاد و یا آغاز شد. در دو کشتار از این 5 کشتار, که در زمان نخست وزیری جناب مهندس موسوی رخ داد, هزاران نفر قتل عام شدند, کشتار هایی که "رهبر فرزانه" آمر اصلی آن ها بود. آقای مهندس موسوی نمی تواند و نمی باید از مسؤلیتی که در قبال این دو کشتار داشته شانه خالی کند >>>

جهانی شدن

جهانی شدن (globalization) يعنی «برداشته شدن فاصله ها» از ميان جوامع پراکنده بر کرهء زمين (globe) و، در نتيجه، «عمومی شدگی» ((universality باورها، ارزش ها، روش ها، نهاد ها، نظام ها و قرارداد های اجتماعی. «عمومی شدن» هم، لاجرم، به جابجائی همهء آن پديده ها که بر شمردم و بقای شايسته ترين و کاراترين آنها می انجامد و اشکال ديگر پديده ها کنار ذاشته می شوند. به همين دليل، روند «جهانی شدن» مخالف بسيار دارد؛ بخصوص در ميان آنها که، در برابر روندهای «عمومی شدن» و «جابجائی»، هويت و ماهيت زندگی خويش را در خطر اضمحلال می بينند و، در نتيجه، می کوشند تا در راه اين روندها سنگ بياندازند. اما من معتقدم که تحقق اين روند اجتناب ناپذير است >>>