Archive - 2009 - Article

Optimism as Resistance

I am an Iranian citizen and I did not participate in the fraudulent June 12th presidential elections in Iran. This is the awkward position I find myself in now, having spent nearly three weeks watching millions protest the results of that election in the streets of Iran and around the world. This is the awkward position I find myself in, surrounded by a sea of protesters demanding “Where is my Vote?” at the solidarity rallies I’ve been attending in the city where I live. This is the decision I am reminded of every day, as I sift through the seemingly endless stream of information being disseminated on the mainstream news, YouTube, Facebook, and the blogosphere for hours every day. This is the decision I am reminded of as I try to find my way in the world of citizen journalism>>>

تشدید دوپارگی

از پی چندین روز پر تنش، سر انجام در نماز روز جمعه ۲۹ خرداد، رهبری نظام به سود بخشی از یک جناح، از مسوولیت "هدایت" تمامیت جمهوری اسلامی دست کشید؛ و به جای دعوت دو بخش جامعه ما به آشتی و همزیستی، اکثریت ناراضی و معترض جامعه را به مقابله و سرکوب تهدید کرد. روز بعد میلیون ها نفر در سراسر کشور به خیابان ها ریختند و خون ده ها معصوم بر آسفالت خیابان شتک زد. کدام عوامل سازمانگر نگاه و رفتار آقای خامنه ای در روند انتخابات دهمین دوره انتخابات ریاست جمهوری بوده است؟ آیا رفتار رهبری کشور به صلاح کشور و منافع ملی بوده است؟ واکنش رهبری کشور در قبال بحران موجود تا چه حد به ثبات سیاسی سیستم کمک می کند؟ آیا گزینه دیگری، با زیان های کمتری برای امنیت عامه و اعتبار کشور و وجود داشت؟ پختگی، انسجام، و دور اندیشی و درایت تا چه میزان با حرکت رهبری نظام در پروسه انتخابات در آمیخته بوده است؟ >>>

A downward spiral

Elections allowed the different factions of the clergy believing in the rule of the faqih to test out the legitimacy of their solutions, and by inference their position in the ruling hierarchy, by reverting to the popular vote. Thus the factions would fight over the popular vote and would use this to manoeuvre in the corridors of power. Hence the regime that Khomeini bestowed on the country was in no way democratic for the population of Iran but allowed a large amount of freedom, indeed a form of internal democracy, within the ruling clergy. Interestingly the people of Iran, deprived of any real voice in government, used the rivalry between the factions to manoeuvre and obtain some breathing space>>>

اینجا کجاست

اینجا کجاست
شهر من اینجا نیست
شهر من اینجا نیست
جمعیت سبز درخیا بانها وکوچه ها مرده است و سپیده صبح به سرخی میزند
من از تمام ادامها یی‌
که به اسم حقیقت،  عدالت، و انسانیت تمام انسانها را قربانی می کنند
و به این بیعدالتی
نام عشق داده ا‌ند
میترسم.
>>>

Dark Mythic Flames Of History

Dark Mythic Flames of history
Sweep far across an eastern sea
Seething through society
Destroying all tranquility
Chronicles from ancient lands
Gripped tautly by medieval hands
Black the red hearts which they fan
Turn the world back into sand >>>

Stay Neda

Stay Neda
The birds are singing
The forests are green
Flowers are blooming
It is Spring
Do not go Neda
Stay Neda
Sing with your people in the streets >>>

Up in arms

...>>>

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
>>>