Life

Familiography

I was born in Tehran, Iran also known as the ancient Persia the land of Cyrus and Darius the great. I was born on January 26, 1984 in a hospital called Mehr which is located near the state building in Tehran. Since I was over 11 pounds in weight and over 55 cm in length my grandfather called me Rostam which is an old Hero (like Hercules in Greek writings) in Persian writings by Ferdousi (an ancient writer who wrote the Shahnameh that resembled the true culture of Persians and their tales of bravery and loyalty toward the King). I was raised in Northern Tehran an area that is called Tajrish and nowadays is considered uptown Tehran due to the great numbers of buildings and shopping malls>>>

Cutting rope

Piers Bannister, a researcher on the death penalty for Amnesty International, has had an active role in international lobbying for a global moratorium on the death penalty. A resolution calling all states for a moratorium on executions, passed at the UN General Assembly Third Committee in November 2007, leads up to a vote by the UN General Assembly. Piers, who has kindly answered some of my question about the death penalty in a previous interview, kindly agreed to talk more about international lobbying for the resolution. >>>

Shall I light another cigarette?

What should I do? Go out and face them under the pretence of lighting another cigarette? Or shall I hide and try to save what can be saved? What would it serve and to what end would I face them anew? Another round of me pushing them back, showing my own teeth and they barking at me as lose dogs, once beaten by me in the past? Naaaa …. I chose to stay in. No point in indulging them a re-run of our past encounters.>>>

Life is cheap(er)

On September 17th 1992 four members of the Democratic Kurdish-Iranian Party were shot to death in a Greek restaurant ‘Mykonos’ in Berlin. Dr. Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardakan and Nouri Dehkordi who were in Berlin for a conference of the Socialist International were brutally killed on bright daylight. Now Germany and Iran seemingly are trying to improve their diplomatic relations by swopping detainees. This occurrence reminds us that in politics it’s all about interests, meaning making sure you are guaranteed of your current and future existence. It’s a very basic need and usually results into cruel unethical conduct.>>>

My generation

To my children who might say “we are suffering because YOU made a revolution,” I would say: My generation beat you in the “suffering game” hands down! Those are people from our generation sleeping in those nameless graves in Iran. Those are people from our generation who have been missing, maimed, or put to rest in the Martyrs Graveyards across Iran. Those are people from our generation, displaced and exiled to faraway places of the world, seeing Iran again just a huge dream in their hearts.>>>

با خودم به بهانه ی زهرا...

اعتراف می کنم که هيچ وقت نتوانستم هيچ خبری و گزارشی و نوشته يی را در باره ی زهرا تا آخر بخوانم. هميشه وقتی شروع به خواندن می کردم بغض گلويم را می گرفت. و می ترسيدم. می ترسيدم که گريه کنم. نه اين که از گريه کردن می ترسيدم. نه. هيچ وقت از گريه کردن نترسيده ام من. امّا آن که زهرا را کشت، می خواست که من گريه کنم. و من نمی خواستم. درست به خاطر اين که او می خواست. اين اندازه را امّا در سرگذشت زهرا خوانده ام که او همسن انقلاب است. انقلابی که آخوند آن را نربود؛ بلکه خود ما آن را به او تقديم کرديم.

>>>

Hands on

Meet political campaigner Benjamin Lewis. On Saturday, the 23-year-old Sheffield university graduate will be taking part in the launch conference of Hands Off the People of Iran (Hopi) in London. Hopi is being set up in response the fact that there is currently no anti-war organization in the UK that stands opposed to the policies of the US government and the Islamic Republic. In an age where the naming of teddy bears causes a national outcry, a sober, secular peace organization has its place. And Hopi's list of supporters is impressive>>>

No-nonsense revolution

The graphic novels, Persepolis and Persepolis 2, now combined into a movie, do not look back to the classics. Satrapi’s self mocking style is ultra-modern. It combines a Disneyesque cuteness with the author’s Hedayat-like anguish. At first the work appears to lack subtlety, protesting the Islamic Regime’s repressions too directly. Later we realize this straight shooting is just another manifestation of the no-nonsense way in which the artist conducts her life. Satrapi’s uninhibited tendency to speak her primal mind has been the driving force in the events of her life.>>>

عمه , عمو , دايي , خاله

 خاله
------
معناي لغوي : خواهر مادر
معناي استعاره اي: هر زني كه با مادر رابطه ي گرم و صميمي داشته باشد .
نقش سمبليك : يك خانم مهربان و دوست داشتني كه خيلي شبيه مادر است و هميشه براي شما آبنبات و لباس مي خرد .
غذاي مورد علاقه: آش كشك .
ضرب المثل : خاله را ميخواهند براي درز ودوز و گرنه چه خاله چه يوز. خاله ام زائيده، خاله زام هو كشيده. وقت خوردن خاله خواهرزاده رو نمي شناسه. اگه خاله ام ريش داشت، آقا داييم بود .

>>>

Fractured unity

In Sarajevo, I walked to the Old Town from my hotel, the Holiday Inn. The bright yellow hotel had been familiar to me from the days of the 1990s inter-ethnic war. “This is where the war began, when snipers from the rooftop shot two deputies in the Parliament building across the street.” I was now so reminded by a designer who sold her fine wool sweaters from a table set up in the dim corridor connecting the hotel lobby to its restaurant.>>>

Try gratitude

It was disheartening to read Curious Joe’s, "Don’t Immigrate to the US". I have felt sad for him since reading of his regret about immigrating to this country. Like Joe, my mother moved to the United States several years before Iran’s revolution. Perhaps, if there had never been a revolution she would have returned to the country she has always loved first and foremost, but since there was a revolution, we can never know for sure what she might have done. One thing that is for certain is that I have never heard my mother utter a word of regret about her decision to come here, originally as a student, or her decision to remain here and make this country her home>>>

محمد مختاری در امریکا

" چشم مون روشن" را شنیده بودم اما"گوشمون روشن" را اولین بار بود می شنیدم. محمد مختاری اَنسوی خط تلفن بود، حال و احوالی کردیم و بعد ازیاد اَوری خاطراتی دور ، در باره ی سفرش به امریکا و اروپا گپ زدیم. چند باری دیده بودمش ، در دفتر کانون نویسندگان در خیابان مشتاق، در انتشارات توس و خانه ی یکی از رفقای سازمانی. با سازمان جدا شده از سازمان فدائیان اکثریت که به "۱۶اَذری "ها شناخته می شدیم در زمینه های فرهنگی همکاری ای جانبی داشت.>>>

A teddy bear named Mohammad

Islamists have become good at their own kind of PR. Every once in a while they find something to raise hell over and threaten the world. The charade over Cartoons of Mohammad is still lingering on in the Media, now they have started another bizarre show of offended feelings and indignant masses over a teddy bear called Mohammad in a Sudan’s class room of 7-8 year old kids. The timing of this teddy bear show puzzles me greatly. Is the concurrent teddy bear saga and Annapolis conference merely a coincidence or does the timing tell us something?>>>

We don't need your money

We pay out of pocket for trips to other cities. We print the booklets with the $5 membership fees. Nobody asks for compensation for the articles on the website. We hold the workshops in the homes of volunteer women. We also get donations and prayers from women who have lost hope and have put their faith in our work. What would we need 15 million euros for? Our workshops don't need video projectors. To cut down on cost, we do not print nor photocopy our notes and displays; they are handwritten with markers. We have bought a few different colors of markers to make the notes more visually appealing.>>>