Archive - Jun 2009 - Article

Do the right thing

I am now genuinely scared about what might happen to Iran. I fear that this movement for freedom and democracy that took us all by surprise with it depth and breadth, its courage and resilience, will be choked into silence. I am afraid that we will have to face many more years of an even more fascistic theocracy or “thugocracy”, in the words of Robin Wright. The people, activists, young and old, male and female, can only stand for so long in the face of the vicious brutality that the Khamenei regime inflicts. Especially if they stand more or less alone. The response of the world to the election fraud and ensuing clamp-down by the Ahmadinejad government has been very lukewarm>>>

The Real Situation in Iran

The situation on the streets of Iran, to get back to reality, has moved far beyond bean counting, and increasingly more radical slogans are raised on the streets. This has got the system seriously worried; hence their extreme crackdown. The larger political questions are enormous. Most essentially, how clear is the strategic vision here, and how foresightful can this spontaneously erupted movement be? Let us not lose sight of the fact that the people took to the streets as a result of an unexpected insult of an 'outcome' of a sham election they willingly participated in. That makes for a highly contradictory movement>>>

Shattered forever

The people’s uprising in our country not only resulted in the beginning of the end of the IRI regime, but it extensively changed the beliefs of not only some of us Iranians but also most people around the world towards the IRI regime. This is not saying that this uprising will succeed in overthrowing the regime, since the two crucial elements of any revolution has yet to see the light: strike and military rebellion. But what has happened is that by rejecting and exposing the previously thought miscalculations and misanalysis about this regime, its moral authority and its legitimacy and reason for staying is power has vanished. Many old beliefs of conspiracy theorism and many outdated and cold war era type analogies and analyses were thrown out the window>>>

I, for one

For over 30 years the Islamic Republic of Iran has managed to hold on to and consolidate its power through a combination of repression, brutality, spreading of fear and remaining united in the face of their enemies. All of that changed on Friday 19 June when their supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, reduced himself to the ranks of a factional politician and took sides in Iran’s disputed elections. Khamenei’s words in support of a falsified election signalled the end of the Islamic Republic’s hard-earned legitimacy and moved the country and its people into uncharted waters. Iranians inside and outside the country, long accustomed to having their hopes for an end to tyranny dashed, have smelt blood and a movement has commenced which can have no other outcome than an end to the Islamic Republic of Iran and all that it stands for>>>

پرچم مقدم است یا ایران؟

ایران روزهای پر فشار و سختی را می گذراند. التهاب فعلی در ایران نتیجهء کودتای انتخاباتی بر ضد رای مردم است. حق آنها است که از رای خود پاسداری کنند. آنها موسوی را به عنوان رئیس جمهور خود انتخاب کرده اند و حال نیز به دنبال مطالبهء رای خود هستند. در داخل ایران این حرکت خودجوش با چالشی به نام لباس شخصی ها و شبه نظامیان و سرانجام ولی فقیه روبرو است که سعی در لوث کردن این جنبش مدنی دارند و در خارج از کشور نیز با کمال تعجب و در عین ناباوری (حداقل برای من) اپوربسیون این وظیفه را ناخواسته (امیدوارم!) بعهده گرفته است. پرچم ایران تبدیل به هیزمی جهت شعله ور کردن آتش اختلاف گروه های مختلف ایرانی در خارج از کشور شده است در حالیکه درد اصلی جوانان ما اصلا این نیست. در حال حاضر نسل جدید ایران با یک کودتای واقعی روبرو هستند و می بینند که جلوی چشم آنان آراءشان قلب شده است، لذا آمده اند تا رایشان را پس بگیرند>>>

Brutal finale

In 1986, French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s car unexpectedly stalled on the steep, narrow roads zigzagging along Kupayeh’s austere mountain ridges, stranding him in the wind-whipped village. Walking among the sand-dusted brick houses, Sahebjam was accosted by a desperate woman, Zahra, who feverishly related a terrifying true story of a village conspiracy involving blackmail, misogyny, and murder. Zahra told the journalist that she, as a woman in Iran, no longer had a voice and she pleaded with him to “take her voice” and tell the world her story. Speaking into Sahebjam’s tape recorder, Zahra recounts the tragedy of her 35-year-old niece, Soraya, who was stoned to death for the crime of adultery, a crime that she did not commit>>>

Neda

Beneath the haloed
circle of lights
the bird of truth
flies over the waves
of blood flowing
like pomegranate juice,
its melancholy song
touching the jasmine >>>

همیشه می آیند

 از فراز سر ما می گذرند.
 هوای رفتن دارند،
 پای جهیدن و  بال پریدن.
 از شجاعت و ایثار سرشار اند.
 بیزاراند از بوی تعفن مرداب،
 از  حس ماندن و در جا زدن،
 از مطیع و دلمُرده و سرکوفته زیستن
>>>

ندا

تصویری حک شده
در وجدان زمان
قلب پیر مات شده
از نازکی حیات
که از دست رفت >>>

Seyyed Ali Shah

In your carefully chosen words, there is no sign of weakness. You were present in 1978, when the Shah gave that awkward speech and you know how it works. Give "them" a finger and "they" will ask for your whole arm. After all, then, you were one of "them". Now you are at his place. You are the shakhs e avval e mamlekat. And you are not going to repeat his mistake. No revolution is going on here. Just a number of loyal people having some difficulty with arithmetic and with admitting their defeat! You refused to give a fingernail! Nothing! Hichee! Rien! Nada de nada! Any sacrifice would only sharpen the appetite of the beast. There is no way for those future schoolchildren to mix you up with Mohammad Reza Shah, that wimp. You got guts>>>

After Khamenei's speech

I was thinking it is funny how distant events have touched my life. I remember watching khomeini's take over of Iran on TV while eating my dinner at college cafeteria somewhere in Midwest. Was still a teen and too inexperienced to understand how profoundly this bearded beast will impact my life. I recall thinking that he looked strange and not like anything or anyone I could relate to. Mullah's were supposed to be for Aghd and death and stuff like that. After that I was too busy working and studying to know what was taking shape in Iran in any real sense. Tony dislocated my right shoulder with a nasty twist during the afternoon wrestling warm up before I had to go to my 6 pm class and during break a classmate asked me about hostages which is how I found out about the take over of the embassy>>>

سئوال اينست، چه بايد کرد؟

در شرايط کنوني طرح اين سئوال از آنرو حياتي تر شده که بنابه گزارشاتي که از داخل کشور مي رسد، بيش از پانصد تن از نخبگان فکري و روزنامه نگاران، و عدهً زيادي از جوانان و دانشجويان معترض در داخل کشور بطور بي سابقه اي دستگير شده اند و مردم عادي، گروههاي مرجع اجتماعي، و گروههاي سياسي بيش از هرزماني با اين مسئله مواجه اند که واقعاً چه بايد کرد؟ اين نوشته تلاشي است براي يافتن پاسخي درخور به اين سئوال حياتي. براي شناخت شرايط کنوني لازم است نخست به اهمّ رويدادهاي چند روز اخير نظري اجمالي بيافکنيم: اول، خامنه اي بعنوان ولي فقيه مطلقهً نظام، در دعواي بين دولت و ملت، جانب دولت را گرفت. او با اين کارش، ماهيت دروني خود را بارزساخت، پرده از رخ کشيد و برخلاف خميني که مي گفت من به کمک ملت توي دهن اين دولت ميزنم، به حمايت از دولت انتصابيش شتافت تا به خيال خام خود به دهان معترضيني، که اکثريت ملت ايران را شامل مي شوند، بکوبد. >>>

کاش هرگز زاییده نمیشدم

بنده مسعود ده نمکی در پیشگاه ملت سوگند یاد میکنم که حامی مظلومان و دلسوختگان ایران زمین باشم و از عملکرد تیره و نابخردانه خویش در گذشته و همکاری و عضویت ام در گروه انصار حزب الله و فشار اعلام برائت و پشیمانی مینمایم و رفتار دیکتاتوری حاکمان امروز ایران را که با زبان دین و ائمه اطهار اقدام به دروغپردازی مینمایند و کاخهای قارونی از جواهر برای خاندان خویش میسازند را محکوم مینمایم. نفرین ابدی خداوند بر نظام توتالیتر و ماکیاولیستی حاکمی که امروز در ایران به شکل انفرادی خویش را ولی نعمت همگان میداند و خود را بر تارک ولی امر مسلمین جهان نهاده است. سربازان گمنام واقعی امام زمان را در شرایط کنونی به اجرای عدل و همدلی با مردم دعوت مینمایم و از آنان تجدیدنظر در ایدئولوژی شخصی و همسو با مصلحت واقعی مردم ایران را خواهانم.>>>

Anxious

I am, like most of you
holding my breath, hopeful
that enough might be
just for once enough.
But I was born scared
of bullets, of blood, spilling for
an unsatisfactory state.
I always said: no, wait. >>>

The Call

To the gathering-places of thieves
—I stand witness—
To the guns and the chains
To the clubs and the blades
—I stand witness—
To the false, real bitterness of those tears
Clad in the matt, choking metal of a canister >>>