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HERITAGE
27-Oct-2010 (4 comments)
The Immortal (Anûšiya or Anauša) were an elite regiment of hand picked men trained from childhood into elite warriors; they were the imperial guard of the Achaemenid Shahs. According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus the reason why they were called the immortals was because “it was invariably kept up to strength; if a man was killed or fell sick, the vacancy he left was at once filled, so that the total strength of the corps was never less -and never more- than ten thousand.” Surviving Achaemenid colored glazed bricks and carved reliefs represent the Immortals as wearing elaborate robes and gold jewelry>>>
ASSASSINATION
25-Oct-2010 (3 comments)
In the latter part of September 2010, families of the three anti- government protesters who died in Iran’s Kahrizak prison by beating, have demanded from the Judiciary an “unbending and uncompromising” investigation and punishment of the “Political, Judicial and Security” involved in the deaths, instead of the two convicted of doing the actual beatings. The letter received wide publicity in Iran’s media. The intended parties are Saeed Mortazavi, former Tehran Prosecutor (put on the US blacklist recently), heads of current and former Intelligence Ministry, and head of IRGC>>>
IRAN - USA
25-Oct-2010 (6 comments)
We've all heard that the reason Khomeini first planted the seeds of hatred against the USA, demonizing it for all eternity by his followers, has been its support of Israel, and "capitulation rights". But did you know that Americans in Iran were subject to harassment and even murder, well before any Ajax operation, and well before Khomeini was even born? And this is while Americans were trying to help Persia. Do you know who the first Americans murdered in Iran was? >>>
RELIGION
22-Oct-2010 (45 comments)
Most of us have been taught to stay away from discussing politics and religion, so as not to disturb the dinner guests. Well, as most of you know, I've been covering politics for so long I can barely discuss anything else. And the freedom Time Goes By gives me in writing these little essays compels me to confess that I do not recall when it was that I came out of the closet. That's when I acknowledged that I'm an atheist, that I do not believe there is a God. In fact I don't know why I capitalized the "G." Although it may be blasphemous, I have had a bumper sticker that says, "I believe in Dog...">>>
DOCUMENT
22-Oct-2010 (4 comments)
During my visit to Tehran in the summer of 1999, Iraj Afshar showed me a series of letters between the great Iranist, W.B. Henning and the Iranian scholar and statesman S.H. Taqizadeh. He asked me what can be done with these letters and whether they were important enough to be published. After looking through the correspondences I realized that they are important as they shed light on a discipline that I was educated in. While there are many stories circulating about the great Iranists and Orientalists, very little has been done on the history of the discipline and the role of those involved in the progress of Iranian Studies>>>
LIFE
22-Oct-2010 (6 comments)
My son is a natural musician. Not like the ones who take instructions and occasionally stop their routine to practice, but the kind who are forced to stop their music so that they may tend to what the rest of us call life. Towards the end of senior year, he was overwhelmed to be admitted to Berklee School of Music in Boston, his dreamland. Following the example of concerned parents, and proud of our left-brain deficiency, we insisted that he earn his BA and major in a mainstream subject, just in case he should ever need a desk job>>>
OBSERVER
19-Oct-2010 (one comment)
It was eerie and unsettling to go through the rooms featuring the painters. I am still not sure why, but it was. There was exactly one piece by each artist. Another oddity was, barring for the artists already dead in the 60s and 70s, every single piece was dated somewhere between 1963 and 1975. And then complete stalemate! It was as if for this museum, where no one new enters and no one leaves, time had stopped in 1975. The irony was that this was a museum of contemporary arts, the key word being contemporary! >>>
TRAIN
19-Oct-2010 (2 comments)
کف دستم را باز می کنم در لابه لای شیارهای دستم آب جمع می شود به داخل قطار می آورم. به آرامی آب کف دستم را می نوشم. طعمش زبانم را بی حس می کند و روحم را نوازش! دفتر کاغدی ام را باز می کنم. مداد قهوه ای رنگ را از جیب کتم بیرون می آورم. دست چپم را سایه بان چشمانم می کنم تا آفتاب سفیدی کاغذ را نورانی نکند چون می خواهم از تو بنویسم. چون می خواهم از نوشته ام نور تو بتابد نه نور خورشید>>>
IDEAS
17-Oct-2010 (5 comments)
Neither Ayatollah Khomeini, nor his disciples Islamized Marxism. Instead, they derived exceptional benefits from it. During the 1960s as a result of the Shah’s systematic suppression of all political opposition, Marxism was pushed into two distinct directions: guerilla fighting and the intellectual sphere. It was in the hands of leftist Islamic intelligentsia, like Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Ali Shariati that Marxism blended with Shiʿism. The amalgam created a formidable revolutionary force in Iran. Shortly after, the militant-Marxists and the Marxist-Islamists in coalition with Khomeini overthrew the monarchy>>>
SHAMDOONI
17-Oct-2010 (14 comments)
به عادت سربازی، تا همین اواخر، سپیده صبح بیدار میشد و اصلاح میکرد. بعدش نوبت واکس کفش بود و اتوی کت و شلوار. نیم ساعتی نرمش سوئدی میکرد، تا وقت صبحانه شود - نون و پنیر با کمی شیر داغ. دو تا چایی قند پهلو، کنار روزنامه صبح، یکساعت بعد از صبحانه را پر میکردند. آخرش، همه صفحات را مرتب تا میزد و کنار می‌‌گذاشت و با اعلام اینکه، "نخیر، نشستن فایده نداره!" به سمت باغچه میرفت>>>
REMEMBERED
17-Oct-2010 (6 comments)
For most of her tragically short life, Ksenia Nekrasova lived in abject poverty without even a bed to call her own, totally dependent on the generosity of friends. She published only one slim volume of poems during her lifetime. Derided and dismissed by most of her contemporaries, she enriched the lives of a whole generation of poets in ways which only later (after her death) bore the indelible signature of her unique vision>>>
REFUGEES
12-Oct-2010 (80 comments)
In Athens, beneath the green rooftop, sit three Iranian college students who have escaped our homeland only one week ago. Around the same table under the asylum seekers’ tent, supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi are greeted by a veteran Kurd. A hot steaming cup of tea brewed Iranian style is placed in front of each guest. The Kurdish pishmarg of Democratic Party takes the seat next to the leftist Komala member while leaning to whisper an Iranian T'aarof in the ears of a newly arrived Pahlavi loyalist>>>
EQUALITY
12-Oct-2010 (one comment)
Iran's government recognizes and fears the broader power of the women activists who have been on the front line of reform in Iran for more than a decade. One can roughly draw an analogy between the women's movement in Iran to movements of religious groups in Burma or Tibet, or the labor "solidarity" movements in the former Eastern bloc and associated labor-Roman Catholic solidarity in Poland -- all advocating initially for the freedoms of a specific group but which provoked government fears for their transformative power to promote broader human rights progress>>>
DIARY
12-Oct-2010 (4 comments)
کی گفته به جز سرزمین ما هیچ جای دنیا آفتاب ندارد؟ آفتاب از این درخشان تر می خواهی دختر؟ روز از این زیباتر؟ عین بهشت می ماند. تازه نگرانم چرا کرم ضد آفتاب به صورتم نزده ام. روز دوم است که رسیده ام و هنوز از توی سمب و سوراخ چمدان ها پیدایش نکرده ام. عیبی ندارد دارم می روم خرید و توی فروشگاه چندان هم نیاز به ضد آفتاب نیست. خرید وسایل ضروری اولیه یک دو ساعتی طول کشید. خوشحال بودم که به یمن وسایل جدید زندگی از این که هست هم بهتر خواهد شد>>>
LETTER
10-Oct-2010 (8 comments)
Our people have made a pact with our students and the university. They have signed a pact for freedom of expression to survive, for joy and happiness to enter each household, for violence to be denounced so decisively that it will never again find any opportunity for expression, for the chains binding opinion and thought to be broken forever… for liberty and democracy and human rights and prosperity to be implemented. Our people have a hard pact and you, the students, have a hard task in front of you. But I know that your determination will prevail and dictatorship, even if it once again channels all its power into violence, will be defeated>>>
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IRANIANS OF THE DAY
| Person | About | Day |
|---|---|---|
| نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
| Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
| Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
| احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
| گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
| Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
| محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
| Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |