Life

Fathe Shab

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Moving appeal

This year, two great figures are absent at the International Film Festival of Cannes. The first is Roman Polanski, and the readers of Huffington Post know that I have spared no effort to plead and defend his cause over the past seven months. (Moreover, the pathetic declarations of Ms. Charlotte Lewis haven't made the slightest dent in my determination.) But the name of the second is Jafar Panahi; he is Iranian. Tim Burton chose him to be a member of his jury, and if he is unable to be there, it is because he is incarcerated in the terrible Evin prison, near Tehran, where he was thrown by the obtuse and criminal fanaticism of Ahmadinejad's police>>>

Back to the past

Five young Iranian Kurds were executed last Sunday in summary trials reminiscent of the era that immediately followed the fall of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Even according to government-backed press, the victims had been kept incommunicado for most of their imprisonment and had little or no access to lawyers — a violation of Iran’s own laws. Gone are the regime’s efforts at keeping up pretenses, at casting itself as the authentic but misunderstood regional democracy. The evolutionary clock, which the West briefly believed to have been ticking in Tehran, positively wound down last week>>>

Lucky Dog!

I could hardly wait to go back to Hashtgerd near Karaj for another visit with the beautiful dogs and the amazing staff at Vafa Shelter. Most of you may have read the story of my first visit there back in march of 2009 I was thrilled to see Mr. Karam and Mr. Gholam still looking after the dogs, cleaning up, welcoming the visitors and... I arrived in Iran early Friday morning. After settling in at my in-laws home, I called Mrs. Esna-Ashari, the shelter’s director to arrange a visit. I had collected many donations to deliver to them>>>

حربه اعدام

مخالفت با اعدام مخالفت با مجازات جانیان نیست (در واقع، می‌توان استدلال کرد که اعدام برای مجازات جانیان کافی نیست)، مخالفت با اعدام مخالفت با خشونت است، مخالفت با مجازات بی‌گناهان است، مخالفت با آدم کشی است، مخالفت با گروگان کشی است، مخالفت با وحشیت بدوی است. اعدام تنها اعدامی را از حیات محروم نمی‌کند و بلکه اعدام کننده را از انسانیت تهی می‌کند. اعدامی می‌رود، ولی اعدام کننده می‌ماند با همه آثار و عواقب روانی و فرهنگی و اجتماعی اعدام برای او و جامعه و محیط و نزدیکان او. اعدام مسئله اعدام کننده است نه اعدامی>>>

Don't kill your enemy

Have you entangled in an awkward moment when someone asks you a simple question that requires you to give an answer that can fill up a nine-volume book? It happened to me years ago. It happened when I was a ripe tomato out of college and got hired in a reputable American company. My colleagues as a gesture of professionalism towards new hires stopped by my cubical and introduced themselves. A foreign colleague, perhaps out of curiosity, came to my cube and said, “hi”. After a short introduction he asked me where I was from>>>

They want our silence

Farzad Kamangar died yesteday, hanged from a crane with four other political prisoners. I re-read a half dozen times the letter he wrote last month entitled, “Be Strong Comrades.” In that letter he asks, “Is it possible to carry the heavy burden of being a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to see the lumps in the throats of the students and witness their thin and malnourished faces and keep quiet?” I woke up yesterday morning to the news that five more political prisoners had been hanged by the Islamic Republic of Iran>>>

The Evolutionary Road

The Western legacy itself has had two contradicting effects in relationship to the host colonies. On the one hand, the Western ways are desired, for achieving the same level of advanced and civilized lifestyle. At the same time, the Western values are rejected, due to the ingrained mistrust and hatred invoked by the memories of colonial dominance. This love-and-hate relationship is more pronounced wherever the host culture is less robust and secure within its own merit and value system>>>

Art & Opposition

The first thing you notice about Farahani is her eyes. Big, intense, and a gaze that is at times uneasy. She wears almost no make-up—her only whim, a pair of fashionable sunglasses which she quickly removes after sitting down. I ask if she’s had time to enjoy the vibrant French cultural life, and she raves about a new play by Ariane Mnouchkine. But she also mentions being constantly on the road, working on a new film, her music or doing press meets. The conversation soon turns to the repression back in Tehran>>>

The Dual Burdens

Iranian men unfortunately are once again victims of stereotyping and this time not by the American Betty Mahmoody in a movie called “Not without My Daughter” but in Sadr’s article titled “What is Different between Tehran’s Friday Sermon Imam and the rest of Iranian Men?”. The image she has portrayed of Iranian men in her article is misleading. Without raising objection to the original comments and minimizing the Ayatollah’s statement she takes Iranian men to a kangaroo court and denies them all due process rights>>>

خيره‌سر

آنچه که من در دفاع از خود برای تبری از اتهام مورد اشاره دادستانی و رأی دادگاه انقلاب ذيل ماده ۵۱۴ قانون مجازات اسلامی به اتهام توهين به رهبری بيان می‌کنم اين است که اساساً لفظ «ديکتاتور» لفظی توهين‌آميز نيست. بسا اين‌که بسياری از نحله‌ها و جريان‌های سياسی و فلسفی به ستايش از اقسامی از ديکتاتوری پرداخته‌اند. چنان‌که در آثار افلاطون (و افلاطونی‌ها) به ستايش از حکومت‌های ديکتاتوری (استبدادی) فلاسفه و طبقه کارگر (ديکتاتوری پرولتاريا) برمی‌خوريم و حتی در انديشه اسلامی با انديشه فارابی درباره رييس اول در مدينه فاضله مواجه می‌شويم که همه اين جريان‌ها شخصی ديکتاتور صالح را بهترين حاکم و حاکم واقعیِ خير ِ جامعه و جمعيت آن جامعه می‌دانند>>>