IRANdokht

I have to agree with Azarin.

I have to agree with Azarin. Thank you for being brave enough to tell it like it is.

Azarain

1) I am not the "Blind one" you are referring to, as I am the only one here who observed the default on this picture (Re: my last comment)

2) By "trouble" it is cleared what I meant. Means they can not argue with me objectively...the proof is they come on always with insult

3) Making too much noise to divert the attention of the readers ??!! What for ? Why should I do this ? We all are in it. What you mean by diverting the attention ? from what ?

4) Sorry if I made you sad....what can I do for you ?

to Souri

I am very surprised and disappointed by your last comment, especially by its tone and its unpleasant air of superiority. It seems that you take Iranian.com’s comment section like a war zone, so you can get anyone in “trouble” by your comments! What do you really mean by "trouble"?

I think you are just making too much noise to divert the attention of the readers on non-issues.

But please, if you are talking about the deaf, please don't forget the blind: "L'aveugle est celui qui ne veut pas voir!"

I am starting to agree with Irandokht and her assessment, but honestly it is very, very disappointing to me. I am very sad and sorry about it.

Azarin

even %20 would be enough...

If someone wanted to listen. Yes, you should thanks your God, that I don' t comment more. You could get yourself in trouble debating with me in all those causes.

Off track ?? It depends for who? As the proverb in French say :

Il n' y a pas plus sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre....

Means : the one who dosen' t want to hear, is worse than a real deaf.

And no, no screaming is needed nor wasted for you. Stick to your keyboard !! and make yourself happy !!!

maziar 58

I agree, Bakhtiyaar was a great man. The brain baked, socially confused, politically naive Iranian society did not hear him to give him a chance that he and Iran deserved.

My problem is in this question, what have we learned?

To:souri

Mrs. Souri, we all know what's the definition of demagogy..but again you're off track. I didn't see your point to elaborate the topic..

Thank God!

I think we all look at this picture with our background.
Some readers are already well aware of the situation of children in Iran (poverty, prostitution, etc.)and so it is the first thing they see. They don’t ask any proof from Irandokht for posting this blog, because they have already been in Iran and have seen the reality with their own eyes, or maybe have been involved with humanitarian organization helping these children.

There are also other people (who also could be very sensitive to these same issues) totally unaware of the situation of children in Iran. They could question the validity of information. It doesn’t mean they’re cruel or inhuman, etc. Their questioning is pretty legitimate, but as soon as they learn the truth they are the kind of people who would care about this issue.

But there are a third group of people who tell us they are well aware of the situation in Iran, but still the only thing they see (and care enough to comment about) is the validity of this picture, or complaining about the lack of freedom of speech and censorship on Iranian.com! They scream about about being misunderstood!...but the good news is that (Thank God!!!)fortunately this 3rd group would only comment on about %20 of what they read...

Yes!God is great! There's justice in this world!

Have a good day!

eiy kash

it was today (mordad 15)that an iranian vazeer
Mr Bakhtiar was brutally mutilitated and killed.
eiy kash the pic. was posted today for comparison to this vazeer and that vazeer.
rooheshan shad a true pan Iranist,not these thugs in IR.

Irandokht

All you said about the children of Iran's today, the poverty, the
discrimination...are all right and undeniable. I don't argue about this.

I suffer from all those injustice too.

But , my point is all about the " integrity"

I believe that we don't need to fake a picture and relate it to the real
fact to say what we believe in to be right. No offense to you , here I' m
talking about Mr. Nabavi and his text. This is called " demagogy".

As to the rest of the argument, I do agree with you about what is happening in Iran specially for the poor people.

About the self-censuring, you are wrong my dear. There are still a lot, much
lots of thing I like to say here, in this blog, or to some of the
people who did the comment here and I assume they are not right, but I
let it go. Believe it or not, I only comment %20 of the articles I read
and there are at least %50 I have a comment about, but I censor myself.
Not worth a headache !

Souri RE: feeling sorry for ourselves

Dear Souri khanoom

Thank you for all your comments, you might be right about the picture being fake, but I think the argument is: does it change the reality that a lot of kids are facing in today's Iran? I can't defend the validity of the picture, but the text that followed touched me deep inside and made me think of all those smiling faces of the underprivileged children I saw the last time I was there. (Yes they were smiling and offering people faal, gum and candy and flowers, that was one of the sad aspects of it)

I am sorry you felt like you needed to self-censure and feel sorry for yourself too.  I am actually very surprised to see you make such comment after having read very uncensored comments from you on previous blogs. But I guess this self-censorship was not about profanity...

I am happy to see that most people do not feel threatened by others and express their objections to other views clearly and respectfully. I have done that too and let me tell you, the people who attack others here on this website are pretty mild compared to the type of consequences one will face when speaking up in Iran and still there are millions of Iranians who show their discontent every day and take the risk.

Unfortunately some of us still prefer to "taneh-kenayeh" instead of direct confrontations, but this website is a good place to practice voicing our opinions and dealing with opposing views.

Thank you

IRANdokht

The picture's source is

The picture's source is clearly ISNA. One needs to look into ISNA's archive.

Has ISNA photoshopped the picture??? For what??

Furhtermore, are we suggesting that there is no poverty in Iran by claiming that the picture might not be authentic???

Dear Mazloom

Regarding the observation about the picture, I had same feeling. One of
the girl has no hijab, the other one has a short sleeve dress, the man behind the minister, we don't see his feet, it's like that something is wrong with the digital...

but, the saddest observation in this blog, is my need to put a disclaimer and your's to put a request under our comments !

It means, that even here, in a website of Iranian diaspora, we don't have the freedom of speech and opinion while we always cherish freedom and condemn the lack of freedom of speech in Iran.

We are afraid of saying what we think, because we are surrounded by the people who all think the same and all say the same thing, and if someone come
and say "I don't think so"....they accused him of being insensitive, or ...God knows what. I feel sorry for ourselves.

Irandokht

OK. you have shown us the problem (one of many thousands). What is your solution?

To clarify any misunderstandings

I did notice the "source unknown", but it did not click in me that it was something that you had added to say that you didn't have a source to mention. Now it clicked.

*****

I am hoping I am not being referred to as one of those people who consider this photo to be a "non-importance image".

Here is the problem with this picture, despite all the criticism thrown at the Minister, the critique's text does not seem to go with the image. The girls are well groomed and fed. They are not starving, they don't even look like they are hungry. Their hair seems to be very clean and well maintained. Their cloths are well tailored and clean. Their skin is soft and does not appear to be burnt by the harsh sun, as beggars have to endure. This picture looks like an event for the Ministry's employees and the Minster is handing out cash as a gift, as it is customary in Iran.  Or, it is a tampered photo.  I don't know, that's why I asked. 

I hope I’m wrong so we can have more reasons to go out there and toppled the regime.

Request: Please, if any one wants to attack me after I post this, at least read my blogs before doing so.

Thank you again,

Thank you all

I received this picture with the above text in an email from my cousin in Iran. As you might have noticed, at the bottom, I added: "source unknown".

That's because I didn't have a source to mention and did not want to misguide anyone into believing that I did. But I do know about the kids who work on the streets instead of being taken care of, or getting an education. I did not find this picture offensive nor the text out of line. The reality of life for a lot of iranian kids is a bitter one and there is no denial.

Thanks for your input 

IRANdokht

Children of Iran

It is so sad to see that there are comments about the non-importance of this image.

This picture is not just about the good deed of a minister paying a poor girl.

It is about the real and untold problem of poverty in Iran. It is about hunger. 

We all know that the hungry wouldn't care about freedom, about politics, about human rights, about choice, about education, about life, ...whatever we (Iranian in Diaspora) enjoy peacefully and let our kids to grow up with this type of "omid and arezoos".

This image is shocking and horrifying, because of the smile on girl's face, because of the smile on “vazir”'s face. Because the children are not supposed to care so much about money. because ministers are not supposed to buy children in public (for so cheap)...

Which problem is more important than our children’s problems? What is more urgent than their hunger?

Thanks a lot my dear Irandokht for posting this very important blog!

Azarin

PS: Ibrahim Nabavi's text is moving and powerful...right to the point.!  

Thank you Anonymous* and Souri

I appreciate your posts.

I was also requesting a link to the ORIGINAL source of this picture. I have tampered with tens, maybe hundreds of photos myself in the past. In this age of digital photography I don't trust many of these photos anymore. That is not to say this photo is fake, I don't know. I just wished if I could see and read the original story.

Thanks again,

This is not a source...

Just a copy paste from another site. Where is the original source from Isna ?

Since couple of years, I have recieved so many pictures, digitally made up,
about so many things, in Iran or elsewhere, that I no more believe something
when I don't see the original source.

As Abaramard rightfully said, there's so many real things within the regime
that are criticisable, that we really don't need to go though false accusation.
There are real problem with this regime, which are worthy of fighting. I'm
always against rumour and made up things.

disclaimer !!!: I don't say this is made up or rumour. Just don't pronounce
myself before being sure of its veracity.

more

//www.doomdam.com/archives/000383.php#more

Source

//www.theiranianhome.com/article.php?id=6395

I'd like to read the original news story

Your writing is good, your passion is great.

Over the last couple of years I must have seen thousands of pictures from Iran from Irainian news agencies, but I have missed this one.  If it's possible could you please provide a link to the original source of this picture.  All my affort to search for it from ISNA have failed.  I'd like to read the original news story.

Irandokht

What was the condition, the circumstance for this picture ?

Was it a " eidi" of Nowruz, was is as " fetrieh",...was it in a hospital ?

As the picture shows, it seems to be in a hallway of an institution, not on the street or the doorways .

disclaimer: I' m just asking more information. Please, don' t jump on me with
your conclusion everybody. I don' t need your judgement.

Thanks

//www.iwsn.org/campaigns/yaghoub-mehrnahad-13feb08.htm

This is the Glorious Islamic Republic of Pious Men of Justice and Benevolence:

A journalist and civil activist condemned to death in Iran!
A journalist and civil activist in the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran has been condemned to death. Yaghoub Mehrnahad is a journalist and the secretary of Javanan Sedaye Edalat (Youth, the Voice of Justice) NGO.

In April 2007, after holding a conference called "Youths question, Officials reply" in Zahedan, the young journalist, who is also a student, was arrested last at the end of a debate organised, capital of Baluchestan, he was arrested together with other members of the NGO and later condemned to death.

According to Meghdad Barimani, the former secretary of the Islamic Society of Sistan and Baluchestan University, the Javanan Sedaye Edalat society is one of the most active of the NGOs in the whole province and has been active regarding various issues, including the fight against diseases like AIDS, hepatitis and disease prevention for the children and women of the area.

None of these activities could be considered a crime, let alone needing the death penalty! No precise information or documented reasons have been presented on Yaghoub Mehrnahad's "crimes" - but it has been rumoured that he has been co-operating with "obstinate" groups.

During Yaghoub Mehrnahad's trial neither he, nor his family, nor his lawyer, nor a jury were present! His family last saw him in Zahedan prison last December saying he showed obvious signs of torture.

Sistan and Baluchestan has experienced a great deal of unrest during the past two years, including terrorist attacks. Mehrnahad is accused of having had contact with the armed Jondollah group, which operates in Iranian Baluchestan.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network will be trying to establish further facts about Yaghoub Mehrnahad's case and will act to put pressure on the Iranian regime for his immediate and unconditional release. Mehrnahad is not the first journalist condemned to death in recent years. Adnan Hassanpour, a Kurdish journalist, was condemned to death last July and is awaiting execution.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
13 February 2008

//www.iwsn.org/campaigns/yaghoub-mehrnahad-13...

He was executed today. This is the glorious Islamic Republic.

Not even his own money !!

زنده باد بیت الما ل / نفت بشکه ای خدا تومن

ابرمرد عزیزحرف شما درست .  اما این آقا که سیاست مدار نیست بلکه یک وزیر انتصابی است

کجان اونهایی که " تغذیه رایگان " زیر پاهاشون له میکردنند

والسلا م

VEGHAHAT @ its BEST

Thank you Mrs.Irandokht and all other sincere Iranian
not defending this shame full hand outs
Shame on IR for showing his generosity to its youngest soul with a pitty $ 1.10
But with handfull $ 100 us bills on the slums of Beirut lebanon shown on aljazeera and al aalem.toofu bar tu aye bogandoo va tarafdaranetan.

PAYANDE IRAN

Thank you for this post. It

Thank you for this post. It is disgusting how these thieves exploit the plight of these poverty-stricken children to score a political point. I thought Pious men of Islam were better than their Western counterparts.

Dear Abarmard

Do you honestly think he's helping those kids?!?!

"All politicians do photo-ops" is not a good excuse for this behavior. Do you remember that one of the things Khomeini promised people (besides a smaller behesht-zahra) was to share the wealth with everyone?

If we expect these ministers to act in a decent way, it's because:

1- they claim to be "islamic" and follow the lead of their Imams in humanity and social justice.

2- they claim to be working for the "ommat" and in the meanwhile they get richer and the "ommat" gets poorer and sicker.

3- the country is rich enough that each of these kids should be receiving at least 1000 tomans every day! along with free health care and free education.

He's not helping these girls, they'll be back on the street begging or selling gums and faal-e hafez right after this photo-shoot. They won't even be spending those generous $1.10 hand-outs, since that will only cover the stuff they couldn't sell while they were watching the minister pose for his photos.

IRANdokht

Mr Abarmard!

""you could find a better reason to be a critique of the regime than a minister helping kids""

How would you feel if your 9 year old sister is lined up on national TV to recieve 500 tomans for sadagheh from your minASSter?

It can be done through subtle private & dignified way for the sake of the little souls..

the saying goes...You can wake up a sleeping man but not the one pretending to sleep

Why is this a shock?

Would you expect a politician to act differently? You know why they are doing this in front of the camera. To think that this is an ISLAMIC act is naive and pointless.

These are the Iranian politicians, similar to anywhere else in the world. I am sure that you could find a better reason to be a critique of the regime than a minister helping kids!!

اگه

 کچلی ..شکم گنده تغاري..انتر و بی ريختي...يه زنبيل دست چپته..يه تسبيح دست راستت..يه دمپايی چينی پات..سوار بنز ميشي با زوجينت ال زينب کيسه به سر..لبات کپرک سفيد زده..ريش بو دارت به پشم سينت ميگه حلو..موی دماغت دندونتو مسواک ميزنه..پس برو تو صفه وزير عقده ای موالي حزب اللهي.مرتيکه دزد تخم قادسيه متظاهر انگار ارث جد حجازشوداره ميده به اين دخترکان بی گناه .اين گلهايه معصوم و زيبا..اسکناس نشون ميدی تو تلويزيون !! ..اين فرشته هايه خدا رو به صف کردی مثل کنيزک که از تو نصف کچل واجبين به سر  طعام بگيرن.. نوبت به صف شدن تويه تخم حروم هم ميرسه با اون لبخند کذاييت..دمت گرم مادموازل ايراندخت..