Persian Realm

Thanks Darius.  That was

Thanks Darius.  That was very insightful and well written.

What did you expect?

What did you expect from islamists who have offered nothing but murder and deceit, oppression and thievery for the past 30 years after decades of trying to take over the country and criticizing shah for his (comparatively) petty crimes and petty thievery, only to do the same crimes thousands of times larger against iranian masses.

Hard to argue rationally with followers of a religion and its murderous god who is only there to cowardly order his followers to murder his other creatures.

Haven't you read about prisons? Haven't read of gang-rapes in islamic prisons? Haven't you seen where we were when the country was handed in to islamists.

Yeah shah and monarchy was bad; but that was 1979 and this is now 2008. And we have seen the other side of the coin and any fair-minded person would be proud of being a monarchist as we proved that we deserved no better. After all, 17 million of us voted for this nobody Ahamdinejad, and another 15 million of us voted for the executioner Rafsanjani. And the best of them, Khatami with his stupid deceiving laugh (at the stupidity of iranians) was the one who engineered persistence of the brutal islamic regime in the face of mass student demonstrations and then arrests and smiled at the iranians when chain murders were under way under his ugly nose.

These people are nasty. Darius, you should be grateful that they only harass you as nothing is immoral or forbidden when it comes to islamist. Islamists have no conscious and no heart; they know no humanity and are not human except that they only look like one to deceit many.

What can I say?

It is interesting to read about your personal development if you like. I agree with a lot of points you mentioned. However I beleive there are some registered users too who are not any better than the unknown ones. They say what they want and when readers respond and they find it hot they flag. It is interesting that you mentioned one of them. Put it this way sir, they insult millions of Iranian because they have a dark heart, then they complain if someone is open about them. Regrettably, it seems site admin such as JJ believe people can say anything they want to a lot of people and it is ok, as long as it is not personal. This does not feel right to me. I do not know what you think.

In other words, in some way, your comments above are not necessary as this is how the site supposed to be. Some of the registered users are so naive that the moment one mentions words like 'allah' very quickly guns are pulled without thinking why an issue is mentioned.

Have a nice day.

DK daram joosh miyaram az

DK daram joosh miyaram az intekhabe akset! Khomainy ye taraf va padeshahi ye taraf!!! What is he representing that you think we should have truce with his followers? laaghal mizashti Forouhar o Padeshahi. vahdat o etehad ba ye moshte shayad!! WOW!! hanooz nakhonadam ke bebenam chi migi? chi mikhahee? I need to cool down. raftam be roozhaye ke shinideem to daryacheh namak bachehaye mardom ro sar be nist mikonan, raftam to majare edam doosti ke dar didani az madaresh baad az namazesh goft ke hamrah ba jenazash ye jeld quran ham dadan babate mehriyash!! raftam to majare fahsha o etiyad dar Iran imrooz, va mesle hamisheh yadam aamad be "sabr o zafar" miyad ke aazadi basheh!

What are mullah government diplomats doing for us now?

I agree with you that the Shah and the Shah alone decided for a lot of things back then but at least he had educated himself a bit and was knowledgable enough to talk about modern world affairs as a lot of foreign statemen have testifdied to that. Can you say the same about our great Pharoah Seyyed Ali Khameneii who is the ultimate power in Iran now and has final say in everything?!

To be fair you should admit that there has hardly been any difference. The only difference is that the crown was replaced by turban!

I think it's gotten even worse because the Supreme leader Khamaneii considers himself a deity, or God's representative on Earth and as Vali Faghih, the guardian/warden of every Iranian, and every Iranian is duty bound to bend backwards to please the Supreme Leader and follow his commands without questionning him. He is not acountable to anybody at least to no human being on Earth.

The Shah never dared go that far.

Dear Mr.Kadivar ...

By writing this blog you're not saying farewell to us,are you?(I hope not) ...I always enjoy reading your movie reviews  and find them insightful,entertaining, and delightful...STAY and contribute to Iranian.com...and thank you for sharing your interesting video clips with us.

Much Respect,Mona ;)

Dear Mr Kadivar

Thanks for amother brilliant piece of writing. Thanks for remembering me.

thank you

Thank you Dariush jaan. 

Best,

Masoud

Dear Mr. Kadivar

I often read your exchanges with people with whom you disagree and I enjoy how by staying cool and on the subject, you also bring out the best in those who disagree with you, making the dialogue interesting to those who are following it. I myself have learned and grown as a result of watching the experiences you so eloquently described. As a community, we've come a long way and we have a loooong way to go, but goodwill in spite of our differences will show us the way, I am convinced. Thank you for mentioning my name; you humble me.

Dear Mr. Spahbody Nicely put...

BTW,  I also realy like your own web site sir, Thanks!//users.sedona.net/~sepa/index.html

PS. ALL, "CAN WE ALL GET ALONG!"

Mr. Kadivar

As always, another terrific post! In fact, this may be one of your best ones.

We should consider ourselves lucky to have you among us. Through your contribution we have learned a lot about our contemporary culture and heritage. You are doing a great job, especially for the younger generation.

Also, I am honored to be mentioned in your list. But, at the same time, I do not believe that my "name" deserves to be among such brilliant and talented contributors of this site.

As you have already mentioned, we cannot forget the person that has made all this possible. I would like to also thank JJ for his efforts.

p.s. Une "treve"? Etes-vous serieux? ...Avec qui? Les fanatiques?!!
Comme ont dit en bon quebecois: Tu niaises, non?! (you're kidding, right?!) :o)

Je vous remercie encore.

Very kind of you

You are very kind and this piece is written in a proper time.

Think of this site as a sample of our society, there are people who are religious, secular, peaceful, and violent; all believe they are right. The important point is that no one has the answer that can satisfy everyone and the only possible response is a compromise. It’s a democratic idea but easier said than done.  This site, for some could be a lesson that things are not as black and white and there are many gray areas, in other words, our society is complicated and diverse similar to this site. You can never convince a person that he or she is wrong! Once we experience this reasoning in a society as a whole, then we are on our way to a better Iran, with or without a government!

Thank you again and hopefully one day in the near future we will have an opportunity to meet in an Iranian.com party :)

What did diplomats do for us?

Why should Mr Sepahbodi bring Diplomacy into the middle of this blog. I suppose to show off his ex-diplomatic identity. But what did the Shah's diplomat do for us? No, seriously what did they do for us? Did they save Bahrain for Iran? Did they convince the Americans, the British, the French or the Germans that the Shah was better for them than Khomeini? Did they reach peace with Palestinians? And man more questions like these. The answer to ALL such questions is NO! The fact of the matter is that the ONLY person who defined Iran's diplomacy was the Shah and the Shah alone. These dipomats were just the YES MEN under the Shah's thumb. Their role was purely ceremonial. Mr Sepahbodi, please sell your stories of YES MAN diplomacy elsewhere.

You got it Darius!

You got it Darius!
Hopefully people will learn more and more how to show tolerance, not generalize, not hate and not discriminate.

These are the thoughts that crossed my mind when I read the responses

about "Free Thinker", I am afraid his/her comment was full of generalizations and assumptions.

"Zion", this is not the first time I see someone advocate cruelty and intolerance, but most experts agree that revenge and cruelty is destructive and should not be recommended.

and I wondered what kind of degree "mokhlesse", has and whether or not it's from an english language establishment...

:-)

Dear Mr Kadivar

Very nice blog, thank you for taking the time and expressing your views and experiences, and I feel honored to have made it to your list of positive contributors.

I am afraid this blog reads a little like a goodbye note. I hope it is not and that you keep sharing your views so we can all continue to grow too.

IRANdokht

Free Thinker,

Who are you Agha or Khanoom?

Awesome! What a lucidity and logic in your speech. I met a lot of people educated or not. From a persian standard, I have myself the highest degree in science and I can tell you that I have found just few persons with such a limpidness and truth in their discourse than yours ... Waow just waow.

Proud to be your compatriot, no really !

Those who are...

"Those who are merciful to the cruel will in the end be cruel to the merciful." (The Talmud)

Freedom of expression in the IRANIAN

The right to freedom of expression upholds the rights of all to express their views and opinions freely. It is essentially a right which should be promoted to the maximum extent possible given its critical role in democracy and public participation in political life. There may be certain extreme forms of expression which need to be curtailed for the protection of other human rights. Limiting freedom of expression in such situations is always a fine balancing act. One particular form of expression which should not be allowed is “hate speech”. Hmm...
Now if readers do not like certain comments or a person it is best to use DIPLOMACY:
Diplomacy is the art of saying to someone you do not much care for to go to HELL in "such a nice way", that as a result, he will embark on that road and thank you profusely fo it.
Take it as an advice from an old diplomat.
PS
Many thanks to JJ for allowing freedom of expression in THE IRANIAN and to DK for his views... and others for their views too...

Dear Darius,

Dear Darius,

Thank you so much for choosing me in your special list …I feel so honored to be among your friends, even if we've never met!

But I am especially touched by your sincerity in this blog. I admire your honesty and courage. It’s so true what you said about this little world (Iranian.com) where we read and listen and watch different points of view with such a freedom and openness.

Didn't we used to hate each other so easily?

Of course I can only speak for myself but I used to recognize so well the troubling signs as soon as I met another Iranian and sometimes so easily I judged and condemned and went deaf and blind.

I have to confess that sometimes I still do it.

Last week, I was talking with one of my best friends who has lost her father during the revolution. He was executed by Islamists. But the strange thing I noticed was that even if my friend had already moved on, and had already forgiven and forgotten what has happened to her family, but I was feeling more pain and I had a hard time to forgive as she was telling me all the details. My friend is happy and in peace with herself, but unfortunately I cannot be at the same place, as long as in my imagination this man dies so unfairly a thousand times, each time I think about him.

I guess now it is up to me to choose: To let go of this past, or to let this dark hatred overshadow me and my future peace and happiness.

Writing for Iranian.com is a real exercise in democracy, like making a virtual prototype of the future real society we Iranians will hopefully build.

Thanks again for your great article Darius Jan!

Azarin

Tolerant of intolerance?

Hi, I guess I must be the ultimate object of scorn on this site, at least by Mr Kadivar' s standards. It is of course easy for Mr Kadivar to sit in his Parisian atelier, sipping French wine and typing away his sanctimonious moralism on his friend's well protected website. Well protected I say, because Iranian.com is broadly speaking a Network of Nepotism and Cronyism with the chief Nepotist being Jahanshah Javid himself. But protected against what, you might ask. Protected against all those aliens, like me, who are not part of this Network. The next question is: what qualifies one to be a member of the Network? The answer: those who do not upset the editor by saying things that would upset his circle of friends, nepotites, cronies, favourite contributors and so on.

It is easy for the likes of you Mr Kadivar to lecture others on tolerance and for many other nerdy characters on this site to engage in pseudo-intellectual arguments which never resolve anything and keep congratulating each other or secretly feeling proud in the number of comments posted on their blogs. It is easy because you guys have hardly been touched by the calamity of 1979. It is easy for you to embellish your past and feel grand because in the absence of any one to call your bluffs you can get away with it.

ALL the commentators who have agreed with you and congratulated you here are the kind of cronies that Javid and co are promoting. None of them live in Iran. They, or their families, fled or flew out of Iran, with varying degrees of difficulty or with no difficulty at all. Now their western educated Aghazadeh and Shazdeh khnoms are lecturing us on being tolerant toward those whose intolerace drove them out of the country in the first place!! Tolerant of what? Tolerant of the Islamic Regime's sympathisers who shamelessly support the regime that you Mr Kadivar and others like you have fled from? It is easy for you to scoff at those, like me, who write anonymously because you are so well grounded in Europe that you would never need to go back to Iran. But what about those who, unlike you, have their parents living in Iran and need to go back to visit them once or twice a year? Are you seriously suggesting that they should reveal their identities when they write on this site and risk arrest on their return to Iran, only to satisfy your self-styled standards for honesty and decency?

Sorry Mr Kadivar but you, like your congratulatory friends on this page, are living in a world that you have built around yourself and hate to be disturbed by the realities of life. In the words of an earlier contributor you have decided to come to terms with Khomeni's revolution. Fine! Keep it that way but please don't lecture others on the benefits of being tolerant toward intolerance. They don't have your luxury of Parisian paradise.

Yikes.. I'm in the original list of writers.

How the years pass.. How the body withers. And yet the consciousness lives on.


As for truce. Hmmm. So much has been suppressed by people themselves, that it may be possible at this historic juncture (when the prodigy of Jimmy Carter returns to the white house after a 30 years hiatus) for a truce to actually stick.


But wait for the slightest crack to appear in the Taazi regime. The smallest glimmer of light from the silhouette of a closed door, and that door will slam wide open, and you can kiss your truce hasta la vista, adieu, bye bye.


We are more likely to go through a civil war and national disintegration before this evil omen passes us by. What I believe Dariush has failed to observe, is that the very framework of Shah & Ayatollah, and the mythology that goes with both fails to account for all the political interests in our country. And we will be hearing from those not committed to the integrity of Iran soon.


*******************
Just happened to be watching Satrapi's film "Persepolis" at home last night. I thought she honestly portrayed the world as she and those who flushed our country down the toilet, saw it. An honesty and self reflection that is rare amongst Iranians. (You Dariush and brother Cyrus being the rare exception too). As such I liked the film. I wonder if she ever connected the dots and wondered how her principle premises, that the Shah was installed by the British, that he was not committed to the well being of his own people, that he therefore had to commanded a police state to stay in power etc. etc. made what has transpired these last 30 years inevitable as an extension to those beliefs. Please send her my love.........

Thanks Mr. Kadivar...

...and I hope that we continue to see more tolerance, more respect and fewer "drive by shootings".  There is already evidence for this wish to be fulfilled.

All the best,

Alborz

Was this a good bye letter!

There was so much information in your open call that I just had the patience to read only couple of paragraphs of it.Mr. Kadivar looks like you have a lot of free time on your hand to write so much.About the politics ,I have found out that it is better left to politicians.About the threats that you receive I believe it come naturally,if you oppose a regime that does not believe in freedom.If I had received this much threats that you said you have received I would have given up long time ago.If you think that one day the monarchy government would return to Iran,you are just dreaming,but it does not hurt to dream.

Dear Kind Darius

What a wonderful post and what kind words!  I am honored to be mentioned in your list.  What I have to say to you is how much I have learned from you, a most unusual man.  You are intelligent and articulate and artistic and interested in the world in which we live, and above all, you have such a good sense of humor!  I don't know too many other people like that, Mr. Kadivar.  Thank you for being so original, so special, and so yourself.  Thank you for being courageous enough to write this post.  Even at this moment I am learning from you.  Thank you.

P.S.  And I think you must be one heck of a party animal, too! 

I wonder if Imam ever had an affair?

Just wondering.

Dear Darius,  Thank you

Dear Darius, 

Thank you so much for this sincere and open-hearted contribution. I can truly relate to what you wrote about tolerating other people's idea's and backgrounds. I think you could say that iranian.com is a good practice area for us Iranians to prepare ourselves for a more pluriform and open democratic civilization (maybe one day in Iran?).

I admire you for your frankness and hope you'll continue writing your lovely posts. You and all other online writers exercise their freedom of speech. We should never limit each other in that right, as long as we don't insult each other personally. 

Since you too enjoy the wisdom of Voltaire, I will finish with his most famous quote: 

"je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire"

(other than what the quote says, I certainly don't detest what you write!)

Kind regards,

Tina

www.tinaehrami.com

Thanks, Mr Khadivar!

Really enjyed reading your eloquent piece.

May the Force be with you. :)

truce with self and selves:

I have enjoyed your contributions over years .

As for truce

I have no tolerance for intolerance !

Acknowledging other contributers

Can someone please acknowledge our beloved and censored Haji Hossain Agha from Vancouver. He had put in a lot of time and effort into writing and drowing for Iranian.com.
One planet more People, Please!

Dear Khadivar

I have always enjoyed your postings specially the  old French songs .

Thank you  and this is for you to cheer up.

//www.liveleak.com/view?i=8ee_1225211423