Archive - 2011 - Article

Fighting Ignorance

While reading War on Error by Melody Moezzi, I was overcome by awe for a young Iranian-American woman who is brave enough to take a chance and defend a topic that has caused much animosity. This may be the most difficult time for Muslims around the world to raise their voices, but it’s ten times more so for those in the US. In the words of one interviewee, “It has just become such a Pavlovian response in this country: if terrorism, then Islam.”>>>

Motherhood under Capitalism

Under capitalism of the 21st century, the body has turned into a package of parts such as milk, blood and sperm; and these parts have become commodities for sale. So, here one needs to find out how spaces of motherhood are created in body parts instead of in body per se. To tackle this issue, one could begin with the most negligible aspect of the mothering experience, which however has been assigned the utmost value under patriarchy – sperm>>>

The Bloodstain

On a Wednesday at noon, three people are sitting at a round table in a restaurant. The restaurant has red tablecloths and red velvet chairs. A woman and a man of almost the same age, and a teenage boy. The man is the owner of the restaurant. The boy looks at the woman and says, ‘For fifteen years, he’s been saying he’s gonna take me to a resort in the North>>>

Temptation

An appointment with a perceived destiny,
Stumbled upon a crossroad of
Devastation and misery, instead.
Against the stretch of time,
“Why me, and if that…..,” I asked >>>

سبز انحلال طلب

مقدمه: شنبه و يکشنبهء اين هفته (هفتم و هشتم ماه مه 2011)، پس از يک سال و نيم تلاش، شبکه سکولارهای سبز انحلال طلب که در ژانويهء 2010 آغاز بکار کرد اولين همايش خود را در شهر تورنتوی کانادا برگزار کرد. در طی اين مدت پرسش های فراوانی از جانب موافقان و مخالفان اين جمع مطرح شده که خلاصه ای از آنها بصورت پرسش و پاسخ زير تهيه شده و جهت اطلاع علاقمندان تقديم می شو>>>

Read My Lips

While the Iranian authorities have effectively quashed all overt political organization for women’s rights, today women are the most dynamic group in Iranian opposition politics. The feminist critique of the Green Movement is mainly focused on Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, whose name is often mentioned by the international and pro-Mousavi media as representative of Iranian women’s rights movement>>>

Cost of War

While the corporate media focuses on glorifying the killing of Osama bin Laden and creating near 'hysteria' about the Arab uprisings, the European Union and western developed economies are facing massive debt and crisis in the economic realm. On May 3rd, Portugal, now the third eruozone country to be bailed out of a sovereign debt crisis, reached a deal on a €78bn rescue package. Coupled with loans from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus far the price tags on the bailouts come to $157 billion for Greece, $122 billion for Ireland, and most recently $116 for Portugal, the total of $473 Billion!>>>

Confusion

If you decide to forgive me
I will make it easy for you
I will tell you, how for so long
I was trapped in my soul.
>>>

The death of a man is the death of man

The Iranian community worldwide was saddened when a few days ago news of the passing of Siamak Pourzand -- a seasoned, well-respected Iranian journalist with a glowing reputation for advocating liberty -- spread across the globe. Well-deserved messages of sympathy and condolences filled many pages in the cyber space as well as the printed media. A man of honour had died, and his loss was painfully felt by his compatriots who knew and respected him>>>

Motherhood under Technocracy

Although women were the main inventors of tools during the Neolithic Revolution, with the advent of patriarchy, they became identified with nature, while men were marked as producers of technology. Through technology, men conquer nature and other men, and exercise control over women's bodies. There is this dominant view that technology is neutral, just a neutral tool for any kind of purpose; that only the purposes can be good or bad>>>

The American Reality

The Visitor was released in 2008. I was reminded of it after President Obama announced that photographic proof of Osama Bin Laden’s body would not be released to the public. A small circle of insiders who supposedly know what is best for the country made the decision. This elite circle tells us that lives may be lost to terrorism if the photos are made public. As though fewer lives are lost to terrorism when only the elite have access to information and make the decisions>>>

نیویورک

امروز
نیویورک خم شد
و در آبهای اطلس گریست  
از زخمی بزرگ می نالید
روی تیره ی پشتش >>>

New York

Today
New York bent down
And cried
In the Atlantic waters >>>

The green lantern

As a boy it might be
the stance of a holy knight,
a Jesus of power, heralding
Arcadia.
>>>

حذف رقیب عمده ایران

کمتر کسی انتظار آن را دارد که با کشته شدن بن لادن، دامنه عملیاتی القاعده کاهش پیدا کند. به عکس، ارزیابی کشورهای غربی و به خصوص آمریکا بر این است که در کوتاه مدت، ممکن است عملیات القاعده گسترش یابد. می‌توان انتظار داشت که با از بین رفتن یک عنصر عملیاتی دامنه عملیات یک گروه کاهش یابد، ولی حذف یک رهبر ایدئولوژیک می‌تواند اثر کاملا به عکس داشته باشد و پیروان او را در اجرای عملیات (دست کم در کوتاه مدت) مصمم‌تر کند. با کشتن ایدئولوگ نمی‌توان ایدمولوژی را کشت>>>