Best of iranian.com: Women

Second installment of the “Best of Iranian.com” project [see: “Being Iranian.com”]. Through a series of blogs I will publish the “best of…” selections under different thematic categories. Here is the selection for the theme “Women”. Also see "Best of Iranain.com: Work".

Dancing for dad
I first thought, Mahdiyeh is almost 13 and
too old for serious ballet lessons
By Jahanshah Javid
November 1995
Only two people would call me at 6 in the morning. My ex-wife Narges from Tehran or my mom from Florida. This time, it was Narges. She said she needed my permission for something regarding our daughter Mahdiyeh. It reminded me once again that I was not just a single guy living thousands of miles away in New York>>>

Like mother, like daughter
I first thought, Mahdiyeh is almost 13 and
too old for serious ballet lessons
By Jahanshah Javid
November 1995
On my way to Tehran from New York, I made a to-do list. High on my mind was an interview with Gizella Varga Sinai, one of Iran's celebrated painters. I say "Iran's" because after nearly three decades of working and raising a family in Tehran, she has become Iranian in spirit, even though she is Hungarian by blood. I wanted to ask her about her feelings when as a young woman she left Budapest for Vienna in the early 60s. Then I was going to compare Gizella with her daughter, Samira, who for the past year has been in Budapest>>>

Oh sweet rebellion
What an angel!
By Ramin Tabib
October 1997
In my apartment complex, there are a number of Iranian families. This low-rise building in West Los Angeles is managed by an Iranian and home to at least five or six Iranian families. I do not know any of them. I leave early and return when it is dark outside so there are not many opportunities to meet them. Besides, this is not Iran. Iranians here do not venture out to actively seek each other. In fact, the reverse is true. My only contact is when I infrequently see them in the parking garage or by the mailboxes>>>

The women we wanted to be
A simple recounting --- and nothing else
By Laleh Khalili
July 30, 1998
Some nights ago, surfing the cable channels in insomnia, I came across a quaint film I had not seen in nearly 20 years. The film version of "Daddy Long Legs" with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron was not at all as I had remembered it - nor did it bear any resemblance to the book by Jean Webster. In the book, an enigmatic man - whose lean figure casts a long spidery shadow (hence the name) - adopts an orphan girl with a talent for writing and sends her to college. In college, the feisty girl finds her voice and eventually love as well. In that order and with that emphasis>>>

Loving an Iranian man
By Laleh Khalili
June 15, 1998
All my life, I have looked at every potentially interesting man and found him in so many ways deficient. They are never as intelligent as my father, nor are they as romantic as he is (my parents still wrestle and giggle after 30 years of marriage). The men I meet are usually not politically passionate, and frequently they are not erudite enough. They haven't read as much as I would like them to, and they are not open to experiencing all the luscious vagaries of life. These men haven't seen the world, and often they are not familiar with both literature and philosophy>>>

Loving an Iranian girl
By dAyi Hamid
July 9, 1998
Let me introduce myself: I'm a sports-car-driving, cellphone-carrying, club-hopping, chauvinist pig. I'm no doctor but I am a telecommunications engineer. I'm also an Iranian man. So fasten your "longs" (public bath towels) and get ready for a real good "leef" (scrub). Until three years ago I knew only a few Iranians, all male, except for one tiny, ugly, girl with a big fat butt and an I'm-the-most- beautiful-girl-on-earth attitude. Then I slipped into the Iranian community in Zurich and, to my surprise, had a few Iranian girlfriends. So I know what I'm talking about>>>

Siaah Sookhteh
Black boyfriend: Prejudice towards Blacks and other non-Europeans
By Shalizeh Nadjmi
April 9, 1999
Unlike the stereotypical slap-happy immigrant entering the Land of Opportunity through Staten Island, gazing in awe at Lady Liberty, my family flew in to the U.S. through the gates of the America's capital... In this city of a thousand and one nationalities, I had mistakenly equated diversity with understanding, tolerance with acceptance, integration with brotherhood, and tokenism with equality. The ebony almond eyes, gentle flat nose, and voluptuous red lips of my boyfriend are unfamiliar and threatening to my great aunt and her family. Full of Persian pride, I am drowned in a sea of shame when I try to speak of him, and my tongue holds its silence. Dizzying thoughts of rebuttal swim in my head, but I give into submission when confronted by my elders, remembering that I must not disrespect them. My aunt's final comment on the matter is "Do you want Black children?">>>

It's time: Women in Iran fight for their rights
Interview with Mehrazngiz Kar
by Jahanshah Javid
October 21, 1999
Mehrangiz Kar, a human rights lawyer in Iran, attended a conference in Washington DC, organized by the Middle East Institute on October 2. She gave a speech on the legal obstacles facing women in Iran. She gave this interview following the conference. Click to listen to responses (RealAudio, in Persian)>>>

My lemon yellow roosari
My hejab had to say something about me
By Dokhi Fassihian
December 29, 1999
First part of an article on personal experiences with women's public appearance in Iran: I braved Tehran's summer heat one day after work and went shopping near the crowded Vali Asr Square. I was having an all-linen summer manteau sown and wanted the perfect buttons for it. At the time, I only had a black manteau I bought in the spring when the weather was still cool. When summer came to Tehran, I endured a magnificent sauna inside the polyester garb. When I took off the manteau, steam would rise off my body>>>

Rice, Iranian style
For the staunch feminists out there, do not read on
By Sally Amir
August 26, 1999
For me, having an Iranian husband means cooking rice every night no matter what my day has been like. Dinner without polo is not dinner. Rice cooked in a rice cooker or in a way other than the proper way, is not good enough>>>

Never to be called mom
Poem
By Sheema Kalbasi
September 14, 2000

The rules
... of dating Iranian women
By Siamack Baniameri
November 8, 2000
I'm not the smartest guy out there and when god was teaching her creatures common sense, I came down with a bad flu and called in sick that day. They say, "the path to success comes from being either booksmart or streetsmart." My problem is that I don't read much and I almost never wander the streets. But, the key word is "smart" which, is something that I am not very familiar with. However, the weakest skill in my limited arsenal must be my social skills>>>

June
Short story
By Nooneh
June 4, 2001
Separations are a fact of life. I've come to accept that. As frequent as falling in love, and as natural. When you walked out of my life I realized that no matter how logical or natural leaving is -- it sure as hell breaks your heart. One day you're sharing your life with someone, making all sorts of optimistic promises and the next day, you're not, and they're not. And you're alone, and they're not. And you cry and they don't. Or even if they do and they are lonely too just like you or even worse than you, it doesn't change the fact that you've lost something you once thought of as beautiful and everlasting>>>

Shahla
Women's rights advocates were rare in 1962
By Abbas Atrvash
July 19, 2001
It was a winter 1961. The two-engine DC-3 flew over high mountains and I saw Shiraz through the small window. From above, it resembled a bonsai garden. I was looking forward to my stay in Shiraz. Although my parents were Shirazis, I had never lived in Shiraz before. I had only visited during school holidays in the summer when we used to escape Abadan's killer heat>>>

Tight knot
I could stay in my country forever
By Mersedeh Mehrtash
November 20, 2001
It's amazing. I feel like crying so bad. It's almost 2AM and I am sitting in the pre-boarding area of Mehrabad airport, waiting to get onto my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. In front of me, is an elderly couple sitting side by side. The woman reaches into her mysterious black bag and pulls out some ajil. Her husband takes the bag and gets right to work with his shaky hands. The woman's attention now shifts to me. I can feel her curious glance running over me, and the heat rises inside my hea>>>

Accidental Eden
Overwhelmed by Iranian women's beauty
By Roozbeh Shirazi
December 11, 2001
There are moments in life when we suddenly realize something instantly profound. Experiencing such a moment destroys all notions of how we once viewed life and permanently alters of how we will choose to live our future. still don't know how I feel: whether I have somehow fallen into some maddening trance, or if I have just emerged from a dark and long hibernation and have seen this glorious light for the first time>>>

Parvaneh's memories
Khatereh Parvaneh sings again, for women only
By Najmeh Fakhraie
August 14, 2001
I've seen showers that only women can use, salons that only women can go to and I've even heard of a hospital for females alone when those crazy goats in parliament were talking of starting one. But this one I had not even dreamed of: a concert performed and attended only by females. It sounded too bizarre to be real. "Do they ask the guys standing outside to cover their ears?" I ask a friend>>>

Super agent
CIA should recruit Iranian women
By Niki Tehranchi
July 19, 2001
My thesis is simple. All Iranian women should join the CIA. For what other group of human beings has sustained the intelligence, self-reliance, responsibility, adventurous spirit, forceful personality, superior intellectual ability, toughness of mind, personal integrity, courage and love of country that it takes to be able to fight the battle of their Iranian genes throughout centuries?>>>

Vezvezee
God's way of preventing Iranian women from ruling the earth
By Niki Tehranchi
June 29, 2001
Hair is the curse of the Iranian woman. From the top of her head to the tip of her toes. Now you will probably sigh to yourself "Another woman having a bad hair day, why should I read this?" But don't touch that mouse! What I am about to reveal to you is much more than your run of the mill "the grass is always greener on the other side" woman's hair dilemma. It is a long history of an unending battle between the forces of good and evil that has pitted the Iranian woman against her genetic curse for agonizing centuries>>>

Bigger is better
A pair of perfect bouncy hips
By Niki Tehranchi
June 21, 2001
In a recent article, one of your writers advocated to young Iranian girls not to get nose jobs so as not to lose our Iranian identity ["Diana not"]. I couldn't help laughing because all my life, there has been one specific, very Iranian part of my body that I have always wanted to get rid of, and it is not my nose>>>

Punch
When all else fails
By Setareh Sabety
February 15, 2001
My daughter came home today from school and for the third time told me that a boy in her class was teasing her for being brown and Iranian. Since I had just the day before talked to her teacher about it I was shocked to find out that the teachers subsequent actions had bore no fruit. Of course living in an all-white neighborhood in the notoriously redneck county of Frederick, Maryland, I was not too shocked that this kind of thing happened. What was shocking was that it happened to MY daughter and in the first grade!>>>

Kobra Khanom
Advice column
April-October 2001

Cooking with words
Goljan's bread
By Naghmeh Sohrabi
May 4, 2001
When I was a student in London, with only a hotplate and a bedsitter washbasin for a kitchen, I discovered the paradoxical pleasure of reading a good cookbook while I ate my tin of beans. My stomach was filled, my imagination stimulated, and all for pennies. Something like phone sex, I suppose. But sometimes a writer who touches the subject of food can go to a much deeper place and nourish the soul; a place where food becomes a metaphor for love. Or life, or knowledge>>>

Good old-fashioned sexuality
Among the "old-fashioned" one finds more openmindedness
By Naghmeh Sohrabi
May 9, 2001
It seems that now our highly-regarded and closely-watched sharm and hayaa are flying out the door ["Little sharm va hayaa"]. A publication catering to Iranians has published an account of a woman, masturbating ["Bahram"]. It has made the publication vulgar, it has embarrassed "us" in front of our non-Iranian friends, it goes against our "non-sexually explicit" Iranian culture. *gulp*... We're becoming like Americans>>>

Nazanin's search for Nirvana
Fictional diary
By Nazanin
July-December 2001

The night flight
From Paris to New York
By Sarvenaz
February 4, 2002
The following piece of erotica is from a woman's point of view. An Iranian woman's point of view. It goes beyond anything that has appeared by any Iranian on the net. Some will, no doubt, find it to be vulgar. But I am presenting it to the readers of iranian.com because I believe it is both beautiful and important. It is beautiful because it describes an episode of the most pleasurable sex. It is important because it takes one step, however small and distant, towards erasing the stigma attached to sexuality, and especially female sexuality in our culture. This is for all of you who think ordinary women do not have sex for pleasure, and/or that if they do they are shy or afraid to talk about it. Here is one episode in the life of an Iranian woman who enjoys writing about sex as much as having it. Enjoy!>>>

Harf e Beepardeh
Men, women & virginity
By dAyi Hamid
February 27, 2002

Not Johnny or Jane
I'm a hairy monster
By Marjaneh Zahed Kindersley
June 26, 2002
Since the beginnings of my puberty, many a moon ago, I discovered to my horror of horrors that I was hairy. It all started with strange black lines on my stomach, stretching over my bikini which I could not fathom. So, I ignored those lines only to discover that they would not go away, but seemed to be breeding all over my body>>>

The small things in life
I just want a perfect sperm
By Marjaneh Zahed Kindersley
July 19, 2002
I'm over the moon, 'cause I've decided to get preggies before the menopause hits like the Bing Bang. But before you all hide and lock up your sons and brothers, refill the Channel-tunnel, hold mass demonstrations to protect your family jewels and design male chastity belts: Hold your horses and don't worry!>>>

Yek album e siaah
Poem
By Leila Farjami
May 13, 2002

Unsuspecting souls
Mother anew, to a 5-year-old village outcast
By M. Maleki
May 13, 2002
I don't have very many memories of Mother's Day. A long time ago in Iran my sister and I would go shopping for a gift. Our teachers used to tell us that a simple card with a personal note of appreciation was all that was needed. But it seemed easier to go and buy something she didn't really need. Surely she knew we appreciated her, notwithstanding all the troubles we put her through>>>

My day
The best I could give my son was the example of my own life lived fully
By Zara Houshmand
May 10, 2002
A long time ago, my mother taught her children to ignore Mother's Day. It was a Hallmark holiday, her nonchalance implied, a Madison Avenue plot to get into our piggy banks. Exploitation and sentimentality, such a distastefully American combination>>>

Make it your bible, bubba
How to woo a middle-aged Iranian woman
By Azam Nemati
November 7, 2002
I have observed a trend for the past few years and secretly had wished it would be successful. However, I have realized it is not as successful as I want it to be. So I decided to pay my dues and put my wealth of knowledge acquired by years of listening to Iranian women complaints about how clueless our counterparts are to good use. Let me explain what I am talking about>>>

Against the wind
Pioneer women pilots
By Abbas Atrvash
November 22, 2002
In 1908, Therese Peltier of France was the world's first woman who piloted an aircraft. Two years later, Raymonde de Laroche of France was the first woman in the world to receive her pilot's license. Between these years, a large number of women were attracted to flying. The extent of the women's interest in an activity dominated by men was enormous>>>

One Iranian woman
You do not have to have read de Beauvoir to be a feminist. You just have to have common sense
By Setareh Sabety
March 1, 2002
International Women's Day is approaching and I find myself thinking that maybe I should write an essay about being an Iranian woman or about women in Iran. How does one start a piece that is so much about oneself and so much about a whole half of the population of a nation, not to mention the world? How does one begin to discuss something that is at once personal and collective, private and public? How do I begin to talk about a subject I have pondered since I was old enough to think?>>>

Red lipstick
No rules, no pre-conditions
By Azam Nemati
January 4, 2003
I looked in the mirror. My lipstick was red enough and the very bright beaded blue top met my requirement. Bright colors have always been the symbol of my defiance and challenge to a culture I love so much, yet its hypocrisies and standards of being decent and good I find nauseating sometimes. I was a child when I realized people often remarked that my parents should not let me wear such bright and shocking "zanandeh" colors>>>

Black is back
Suddenly the blonde look became an embarrassment
By Leila Shirazi
September 29, 2003
I have to admit I'm scared. I'm terrified. I'm shakin' and quakin' in my boots. Today's the day that I'm going in for the big HC... Hair Cut. It's probably not a big deal for most people. Go to the salon, sit in a chair, and voila! With a few snips of the scissors, you're fresh as a rose and ready to go out in to the world. For me, though, it's different. I'm not just cutting off a few inches of hair. I'm cutting off what remains of my journey into the evil world of hair dye. By tomorrow, the last traces of parched, blonde hair will be forever erased from my head. Probably a good thing, but I am scared>>>

Exclusion and complicity
Becoming a lesbian in diaspora
By Choob Dosar-Gohi
November 14, 2003
This is a version of a talk given at the First Conference on Homosexuality in Iran, which was organized by Homan and took place at UCLA on November 8th, 2003. I was asked by a member of the audience to submit this short paper to iranian.com, which I am in the hopes that it will not be taken as a grounds for further homophobic bashings of groups such as Homan. While I may be critical of certain forms of gay/lesbian politics, I think Homan has been an important resource for many Iranian queers in the U.S. and deserves credit for posing a challenge to heteronormative imaginations of Iranian-ness>>>

User friendly feminist
When did the collective female conscience undergo a collective lobotomy?
By Afsaneh Bahrami
November 20, 2003
Part 1: Misogyny, when practiced by men, is sometimes very funny, though at one time it was nothing short of painful due to burning embers. Misogyny, when practiced by women is simply retarded. Sorry wrong choice of words. Misogyny when practiced by the weaker sex is simply retarded>>>

She waves back
Two short stories
By Kristopher Kolumbus
November 25, 2003
With a harmonica and hammer in his pants he knew hearts accepted his mask. You want love, matador entering when wanted on the Mediterranean, slipping his penis in willy-nilly. Dolce, sweet sand and crabs, not much romance. No hotel room. Nets with shells, a jackass stool, olives. Green fish in the dark, no seagulls, eternal rock with real stars. He saw her Bakhtiari reciting Khayyam on the Costa Blanca, Spanish eyes bullseye hitting the target>>>

Women and babes?
You thought I was gonna be all sugar and spice
By Afsaneh Bahrami
January 27, 2004
A male friend of mine once said, there are three genders in this world; Men, Women and Babes. He attributed a fairytale life to women fortunate enough to be born as Babes. What does he know? All woman start out life as beautiful, perfect little babes. Hello, I'm baby #1: At the moment, I poop my pants and babble a lot. In about 20 years, I'm going to be one drop dead gorgeous babe>>>

Maylee nah Melli
Photo essay: Dressing in Tehran
By Schahram
August 20, 2004
I received several hundred photos from Schahram yesterday. They show different aspects of life in Iran, which he recently visited [see his note]. These particular ones are interesting because they show how Iranian women are modifying and eroding the strict religious dress rulesc. Incidentally, the ruling righ-wing conservatives are considering the introduction of a unified "National Dress" (Lebaas-e Melli) for women. Good luck!>>>

If you can't beat 'em, ban 'em
Quota for men in the field of medicine
By Maryam Ghadessi
March 24, 2004
At a recent seminar on women employment in Tehran, the Deputy Labor Minister for Planning and Policy, Sadeq Bakhtiari, reported that the level of women participation in the labor force in Iran stands at 11.5 percent for the whole economy and 10.2 percent in larger cities. Furthermore, Mr. Bakhtiari informed the participants that women's unemployment rate in Iran stands at 21.2 percent, which is twice the country's unemployment rate of 11.8 percent>>>

Iranian diva
Googoosh was a bad role model
By Azam Nemati
July 15, 2004
Most Iranians are often horrified to hear that I am not a big fan of the Iranian Diva and do not think highly of her. Their jaws drop open in disbelief when I say she was and is a bad role model for Iranian females. Personally, I am baffled at how she has been elevated to a God-like figure by so many, including my own teen-age son. How could people not recognize the negative role she played in keeping Iranian women "victims"?>>>

Arayeshgah
This is quite an interesting place: an all-female salon in Iran
By Najmeh Fakhraie
July 9, 2004
I remember watching a scene out of Braveheart -- Scottish men in kilts going off to fight the evil British, standing by the fields to begin the war, and waging it full force. Then came the spears raining from the sky and the swords mercilessly plowing through bodies, as if a breakfast knife through warm butter>>>

Number one
Atefeh's defiance of all conceited Iranian social and cultural values is what makes her my number one girl
Siamack Baniameri
September 25, 2004
In the past twenty some years, I have seen them come and I've seen them go. Some live, some die, and some disappear. Some are executed, some are tortured, some are rotting in prisons, and some are rotting in hell or heaven -- depends on who you talk to>>>

Miss taken identity
Iranian women have proved undeserving of having any rights at all
By Susan Moeen
October 26, 2004
Iranians in exile appear to have been frozen in time and mind; for they are still fighting for the same things they used to fight for over twenty five years ago. One of these so-called "rights" for which Iranians in exile have been making a great big fuss over was and still is "women's rights.">>>

Women against women
Women in Iran's 7th parliament
By Elham Gheytanchi
November 5, 2004
Parliament, or Majlis, in post-revolutionary Iran has been, for the most part, a conservative force with an exception of the sixth Majlis which formed three years after Khatami's election in 1997. The sixth Majlis (2000-2004) reflected the vote of 84% of the voting population and was comprised of reformists (dovom khordadis). Women of the sixth Majlis made history by standing up for women's issues or at least discussing them in Parliament>>>

Some of us like our women hairy
My moment of real consolation came when I met Qajar women
By Afsaneh Najmabadi
December 20, 2004
Insomnia is a terrible condition. I am actually lucky; I don't get it that often and years ago I discovered a cure that almost always works: My bedside radio is tuned into our local public radio and between 11 pm and 5 am it broadcasts BBC World Service. The monotonous voice of the news caster almost always puts me right back to sleep. The challenge is insomnia on a Saturday night. Instead of the boring BBC voice, they broadcast Salsa music between midnight and 5am; and this was a Saturday night>>>

Almos Baba
Iranian woman arrives in America in 1929
November 14, 2004
This is the text of a document from 1929 on public display at Ellis Island museum in New York. It records the arrival of Almos Baba Shiman, an Iranian woman to America. Thanks to Ali Tavaf for sending a photo of the displayed document>>>

Vaaseh-ye eshqam
Poem
By Leila Farjami
December 7, 2004

So could we
Virginity and the incredible pragmatism of the Iranian woman
By Shahla Azizi
May 9, 2005
When I was a teenager I made a bet with my cousin that I would lose my virginity before him. I remember we were sitting in our garden in Tehran, under the walnut tree, by the swimming pool. It was the seventies, I was around fourteen, and my cousin, who was my best friend and confidant, was a year older. I had not yet lived in the West but I did attend the American-style Community School>>>

If only I knew
Had the child of then known what the woman of today knows, she would have spoken up. Glad I didn't
May 16, 2005|
My editor called and asked if I could stay with the retrospective voice throughout the new novel. Unsure of how retrospective she wanted the voice to be, I asked, “Why?” “It may be more interesting to the reader if you write with your ‘now’ voice, but in an ‘if I knew then what I know now’ sort of way.” I don't particularly enjoy that voice and find it pathetic to acknowledge the mistakes that could have been prevented>>>

Khorramshari Cinderella
I went up to her and said, "I know you." What a small world.
Azam Nemati
July 12, 2005
I had been looking forward to going to this wedding literally a lifetime. The beautiful little girls whose mother is like my own sister (literally) not only because she is from Khorramshahr but also because she is a true sister in every sense of the way, has all grown up and her big day was scheduled for May 28th. The perfectionist mom had been working on all the details for the past year and a half>>>

Nice try
"Sahar, Khanoom," Haniye started asking me "Are you married?" Where the hell did that come from? Please shoot me now
By Sahar Dastmalchi
August 17, 2005
It is hard enough being a single woman in the 21st Century, living in the West. These days you are expected to be educated, work a 50-hour week, every week, be secure and independent one minute, all insecure and vulnerable the next and look impeccable while doing all of that. Just thinking about it makes me want to go on a very long vacation. Having said that try being a Persian single woman>>>

Beecheshmoroo
If you took a pair of tweezers to your brows, your mother might not hesitate to tell you looked like a whore
By Jasmin Darznik
August 8, 2005
You cannot find a pair of bushy eyebrows anymore. They have gone the way of virgins, that is to say, they are now the stuff of Persian fairytales Still, I cannot seem to stop thinking about them and why they have left us. Eyebrows have enjoyed a special place in the history of our people. Iranians are apt to speak rapturously of a woman’s “cheshm-o-abroo.” In describing a beautiful woman, we do not speak of her eyes alone, but of her eyes and her eyebrows, as if they were of a piece>>>

Rules of desire
The interminable question of hijab
By Afsaneh Najmabadi
August 30, 2005
When I arrived in Tehran in early July, it was shortly after the presidential elections. There was a great deal of apprehension about what the election results would translate into, especially as far as cultural space, civil liberties, public norms, and similar issues were concerned. Understandably, among all the women I visited, Islamicly-oriented or secular, how the practical rules of hijab and female-male socializing in public would change were topics of agitated concern and speculation. But what I found most fascinating was the working of the rules of hijab in private homes>>>

Keeping going
Losing Parvin Paidar all too soon
By Afsaneh Najmabadi
October 23, 2005
“Why is the measure of love loss?”-- Jeanette Winterson
When in fall 2002 Parvin told me that her melanoma had returned, after a twenty-year lapse, I could not but think it must be a mistake. Our friendship had its beginnings about the same time as her first bout of struggle with melanoma. How could it have returned to end our friendship? How could a mere dysfunction of a gene ruin a most precious life?>>>

Azam's Fatwa
Viagra is not the solution
By Azam Nemati
Ocotber 11, 2005
My friends and acquaintances have always been curious as to why, unlike most middle-aged Iranian women, I am not bothered by the fact that some of the Iranian brothers in my age group marry very young mail order brides from Iran. Not to toot my own horn (okay, I will this time), but my theories have been proven time and again as I’ve observed the outcome of these marriages over the years. Interestingly, many of my highly educated, successful and cultured middle-age male friends do not desire marrying the younger professionals who actually live here!>>>

Napoleon mon amour
That is how much I love him. I rather see him with her more often than less without
By Sarvenaz
November 8, 2005
It is difficult to write about love, when in love, and not sound pathetically corny. It is difficult to name feelings and sort them out into neat paragraphs. I have had an affair with the subject of this essay for more than a year now. It actually started four years ago. But at the time I was in love with someone else and I just saw it as a physical turn in a long friendship. Last year, when my husband and I separated and I came to Paris, my present love and I started a sexual affair. He was seriously involved with his present girlfriend who is more like a wife and I was just breaking up with my husband>>>

Zinat Khanoom
Taa meetooni benevis
By Setareh Sabety
November 25, 2005
I first met Zinat Javid when I traveled to Shiraz some fifteen years ago. I had just married her grandson from her first born son, Manoochehr Javid. I had not seen Shiraz since before the revolution and was happy to both see that beautiful and ancient city and my husband’s grandmother. It was Ordibehesht in Shiraz. The most beautiful time of the year to visit the place. We stayed in the home that belonged to her and her husband on Khoocheh Bagh Safa>>>

Beheshte Los Angeles
Photo essay: Zinat Javid's burial in the outskirts of Los Angeles
By Jahanshah Javid
November 20, 2005

My story
I have always wanted to write about my sex life
By Shana Yazdi
December 18, 2005
Dear sir, I have always wanted to write about my sex life but I have always had a big hesitation talking about my sexual and personal matters. However my adventures in sex and relationships are so great that I would like to talk about it, especially with women who fall in love with more than one guy. This is a completely true story but I had to make slight changes to the Persian names for the sake of anonymity>>>

Kicking women
Photo essay: Women continue to press their right to watch football at Azadi stadium
By Noushin Najafi
April 23, 2006
These pictures show the latest failed attempt by women to overcome a ban on entering Tehran's Azadi stadium to watch football matches. They were treated more viciously by the police than before. These days Iranian officials are so busy with the nuclear issue that they have forgotten about people's righs. While World Cup competitions will soon start in Germany, the mood in Iran is as depressing as a cemetery>>>

Meysam
I took his lovely face in my hands and kissed his innocent eyes and told him how wrong our relationship was
By Shana Yazdi
May 18, 2006
A few months ago I sent you the true story of my life. In just a few hours I was overwhelmed with all the mails I received from people who had read it. There was only one reason why I wrote and sent it to you. To be seen by others of course. I wanted to know what kinds of reactions I would get. What degree of tolerance is there for these kinds of life among our people? And was that possible for me to talk about my past to a relative one day? What kind of labels would they give me? A whore? Or a bitch? Or just a self-indulging woman?>>>

Thou shall love no one else but me!
Iranians revisited: mother-son relationships
Ms. Insight
June 30, 2006
The mothers as covert lovers and the sons who cling to them as their own eternal saviors and undying icons of perfect love and divine security are countless in the Iranian culture. An overbearing mother’s characteristic signs are: feeding the son with excruciating guilt for making rightfully personal choices, interacting in a purely conditional manner as if every gesture of affection or kindness is being executed with some degree of effort and burden, interfering with the son’s matters of the heart; incessantly disapproving the son’s partners or significant others; having the “no one is good for my son” attitude, manipulating circumstances and situations to her own benefits and personal merit instead of considering the son’s ultimate happiness, individuation, and independence>>>

Shame on shame
Part 1: Ensy is just another a call-girl
By Pullniro
August 15, 2006
This is the first portion of a ten-part series -- a nice story that touched my heart and I am sure the same thing will happen to readers too. I would like to call it "Shame on Shame", (Sharm bar sharm): Ensy is just another call-girl in the streets of Tehran whose path crossed mine one day. Although her once fascinating looks still attracts people and turns heads, her days at her current job are numbered, regarding the fact that young flesh is saturating the market in the Iranian capital. She confided me with the details of her misery in three different occasions. I did not record her voice and did not take any note. Just listened and listened and got carried away with her story>>>

Blowing smoke
Photo essay: Women hanging out somewhere in Iran
Sent by A.M.
October 28, 2006

Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen!
Some men AND women quite simply ENJOY the bittersweet cat and mouse game
October 16, 2006
When I first read Mr Shirazi’s ‘s pussy bashing article, entitled "I’m the Boss", the hardcore feminist- how dare such a “pedarsokhteh”, chauvinistic sexist son of a b*** denigrates & objectifies women- person inside of me wanted to kick him hard in the balls with my 10 inch stilettos! But upon having second thoughts, I came to realize that he had made some good points, though I have to admit, it took a lot of courage for me, as a female, to agree with such radical remarks!>>>

Women are women
Clearly, a rights-based discussion can’t begin with Islam but has to begin with the woman and her rights
By Maryam Namazie
November 25, 2006
It is crucial to speak about the rights of ‘Muslim’ women, go beyond the issue of the veil, and talk about secularism, particularly in light of the political Islamic movement’s assault on women and their rights, but restricting the debate in this way is seriously flawed. Firstly, the so-called grouping of Muslim women is a constructed one. Out of the innumerable characteristics women have, why focus on their beliefs? Doing so, implies that religion informs the rights of all those labelled as Muslim (including very often people like myself - an atheist). This is not usually the case>>>

Women-only taxis
No longer will Iranian women need to sit in cramped taxis adjacent to unshaven muscular sweaty perverts
By Mazloom
December 19, 2006
Congratulations to Iranian women for achieving another milestone, the official woman-only taxis, driven by woman drivers in Tehran. Yes for those ignorant westerners women in Iran do drive vehicles. They passed that milestone decades ago, and for years for extra income they have been acting as taxi drivers by picking up passengers on their way to their regular jobs as doctors, bankers, teachers, etc. What’s new now is that it’s official, and it’s for the services of pious rich female passengers like Rafsanjani’s daughters and brides, when for some reason they cannot use their Mercedes Benz>>>

Clearing my closets
Fereshteh Saheli
December 11, 2006
I was diagnosed with breast cancer about a month ago. I was aware of my tumors a good year before that and did absolutely nothing about them. I never went to a doctor, never sought help of any sort much to the dismay of childhood friends who found me out during one incredibly glorious vacation recently. I tried to explain my thoughts ...I have packed so very much in my first thirty years of life than most people do in their whole. Not even touching on the next 15, I tried my best to tell them I’ve had enough. I could happily pass on now. I really can! Enough pain, enough joy, enough fun, enough bitter, enough sweet, enough laughter, enough sadness, enough any and all>>>

Always!
Shorts
By Sheema Kalbasi
December 19, 2006
You sit by the window. You are not tall, not short, and not unfriendly. You have half a smile. You have ordered orange juice, a pack of cigarettes you won't smoke, a cup of coffee for the girl who will not come to you. I am a wife, a mother, and I can't be yours. You can't be mine>>>