HALLOWEEN
Photo essay: Annual YABOO! parade
by
kfravon >>>
WOMEN
"The Glass House" shows disadvantaged girls’ passion to live and find hope
The Glass House (Fictionville, 2009) is an amazing movie reveals what goes on at Omid-e-Mehr center in Tehran, Iran. Founded by Marjaneh Halati, Omid-e-Mehr, or “Hope for Kindness”, is a non-profit organization helping disadvantaged young women of Iran to get back on their feet and learn the right skills to independently function in the society. As painful as it may sound, this movie was not about the pain these young women go through, although the story evolves around their problems and challenges
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PEOPLE
Photo essay: Surviving civilian victims of the Iran-Iraq War
by
Mehdi Monem >>>
POINT
We must establish a society where life has more significance than death
Thirty-one years ago, a few months after the 1979 Revolution, the generals and close associates of the Shah, including his long time PM Amir Abbas Hoveyda, were shot to death without trial. The crowds cheered. When the father of the Rezai brothers, was asked to fire the shots, he refused. He was not a killer even though three of his own sons, members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, had been killed under the Shah. One of those generals was Hassan Pakravan who had long been retired at the time of his execution
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IDENTITY
This is what scares me the most as an artist in the Diaspora, pigeon-holing me
I started writing plays and doing theatre long before I had heard the term Diaspora. To me, the most important motivation for doing theatre was being part of the efforts to build a community in Berkeley. A few years after the revolution, many of us in the Iranian community were politically active. We all met on a weekly basis to discuss political issues. Typically, close to 40 of us gathered in one of UC Berkeley’s classrooms to discuss an abstract subject, like how many stages the future Iranian revolution would have or what mode of production was dominant in the Soviet Union
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DESIRE
شکل ظاهریش مثل همجنس گراهای زن دیگری که می شناختم نبود
برای یک دورهء آموزشی یک ماه در شهر دیگری سکونت داشتم. یکی از همکلاسی هام یک زن لاغر و قد بلند و زیبا بود. اسمش زو بود. از روز اولی که دورهء ما شروع شد باهم دوست شدیم. خیلی شوخ طبع و با مزه بود و خیلی با هم می خندیدیم. صبح ها از هتل محل اقامتمان تا ساختمان شرکتی که کلاسها در آن تشکیل می شد پیاده میرفتیم و غروب ها با سایر هم کلاسی ها به شام می رفتیم. وقتی هفتهء سوم دورهء ما آغاز شد، اتفاق عجیبی افتاد
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TANZ
God created Iranian women to look good and to fix men
Once upon a time, a nice gal who was getting restless about running out of time for finding serious marital prospects went to Zan Oosta, her cynical but experienced friend who put it to her thusly: “Cast the broadest net that you can, aiming to catch the biggest and best but be ready to settle for the bottom feeders. For increased chances, string along a few, put them through hell and whoever lasts the longest is the one nature selected for you through its law of survival of the dumbest
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CYRUS
روز بزرگداشت حقوق بشر در فرهنگ خردمدار ايران خجسته باد
من فکر می کنم اعلاميه ی حقوق بشر، و شخصی چون کورش که اولين منادی حقوق بشر بوده است، جدا از همه ی ارزش هایی که با خود دارند، ارزشياب بزرگی برای سنجش زنان و مردان سياسی و اجتماعی زمانه ی ما محسوب می شوند و چون خورشيدی عمل می کنند که بر همه ی تاريکی های تبعيض ها و حق کشی ها می تابد و آن ها را برجسته و روشن می کنند. و با اين ارزشياب است که می توان به تماشای افرادی که اکنون مقابل ما ايستاده اند، چه به عنوان سیاستمدار و شخصيت اجتماعی و چه به عنوان هواداران گروه ها و احزاب مختلف، پرداخت و ديد که کدامين فرد نمره ی رد می گيرد
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SAINT
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – the 56-year-old “hugging saint” from Kerala – is in town
My ex-girlfriend Sandra got married. Last Saturday, she and her groom Joe vowed to look after each other “in credit and in overdraft” even “when you are grumpy”. It was a wedding filled with humour in a room – in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre – overlooking the River Thames, with a view of St Paul’s Cathedral, on a sunny (if chilly) day. I stood at the back, pondering how our lives had changed. Well, mine in particular – weddings are a time to navel-gaze. Twelve years ago finding a pair of socks that matched was difficult for me. Today things are no different
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COMMUNITY
Photo essay: PARSA Community Foundation's 2009 awards ceremony
by Payam M
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MUSIC
Fared is allowing the music in his bones to flow out in a language he knows how to communicate in
On Saturday, September 26th, I wandered into San Francisco’s gorgeous Palace of Fine Arts ten minutes late like any good Iranian. This was one time I regret coming even one minute late. Before my butt hit the red velour seat, my jaw fell down as I finally heard something I’ve been hunting for for years: the Iranian Jeff Buckley and his motley band of strings and drums that spanned the Old and New worlds with creativity, melancholy, and good ‘ol Iranian silliness. At intermission, while Fared was flocked by newfound fans to sign his CD
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REMINDER
It is a folly to consider the nuclear negotiations and human rights concerns as mutually exclusive
More than a hundred detainees have been on trial for the past two months in what have been widely condemned by human rights organizations as "show trials" without minimal adherence to standards of due process and fair trials. The defendants are a mixture of well-known personalities, regular street protesters, and a small group who were detained before the election and accused of connections with opposition groups. The inclusion of the latter group, arrested in April 2009, well before the June 12 election, in trials connected with post-election unrest has been somewhat of a mystery until now
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RETRIBUTION
مسبب فاجعه نه مادر احسان نصراللهی بلکه نظام قضایی حاکم بود
تراژدی قتل بهنود شجاعی دو رویه دارد. یکی سرنوشت جوانی است که به خاطر دست داشتن در یک نزاع خشونتبار در سن زیر 18 سال، به صورت خشن و فجیعی کشته میشود. دیگری وضعیت مادر داغدیدهای است که مجبور میشود (آری، مجبور میشود) برای تسلی خاطر خود دست به قتل بزند. و این دومی فاجعهای کمتر از اولی نیست. نظام قضایی ایران بر فرهنگی استوار است که به دوران بدویت بشر بر میگردد. در این فرهنگ، مجازات به معنای مدرن جایی ندارد و در برابر جنایت دو، و تنها دو، واکنش وجود دارد: عفو یا انتقام
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HOME
Photo essay: Going back to Abadan and Khorramshahr
by
Azam Nemati >>>
HOME
The unwavering spirit of my hometown Khorramshahris was humbling
The year 2009 had begun with so much hope for me because I was glad Obama was elected (I had prayed for 4 years that he runs and get elected). However; the bad economy cut in pay, and the overall situation in the world since 2008,affected me as well, so the possibility of going to Iran seemed unlikely. Well, the bacheye khoobe jonoob (the good kid from the south) in me had to find a way to go to Iran. I had cried hard while glued to TV during post election in Iran. I tightened my bell anyway I could, and even began to ride the train
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DERAKHSHAN
دفاع از حسین درخشان و اعتراض به حکم اعدام او وظیفه ی هر انسان آزادی خواهی است
by Mahshid Rasti
نزدیک به یک سال از دستگیری حسین درخشان میگذرد. ابتدای دستگیری اش در وبلاگشهر گرد و خاک زیادی به پا شد . بعضی او را خائن به ملت و بعضی او را پدر ملت و بعضی او را ناجی افسانه ای خواندند. من در دسامبر سال گذشته این مطلب را در مورد درخشان نوشتم. و امروز هم همان احساس را در مورد درخشان دارم. حسین درخشان نه انسان خوبی بود ، و نه دوست خوبی برای انسانهایی که به او اعتماد کردند. ولی حسین درخشان یک انسان است. و یک انسان حتی اگر بد کند و بدی کند و حتی اگر مثل حسین درخشان باشد ، باید از حقوق انسانی اش دفاع کرد.
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SOLIDARITY
Stand with human rights activist mothers worldwide
We may think this kind of protest is new in Iran, but Iranian mothers have always spoken out against violence, disappearance and the torture of their sons and daughters. Prior to the 1979 revolution, only two mothers’ organizations existed in the country. Both were affiliated with underground groups involved in struggles for democracy. They worked in opposition to the monarchy of the Shah’s regime, who’s policies had turned, at the end, to the jailing and torture of intellectuals, feminists, students, and labour union advocates
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CHANGE
We can’t stop the change that is happening, but we can help it go down the right path
Our parents’ generation had a question, or a dream: how to build a utopia. Different groups had different answers to that question; some thought the answer is Communism, or as a friend of mine always corrects me, Marxist-Leninism. Some thought the path to Utopia was going through the gates of civilization. Some thought religion was the only way to redemption. Some mixed up a couple of these and came up with new ideas, like Islamic Marxism! There was a common question that people were trying to answer, and even though they had different answers to it, they had something in common: believing in Utopia
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LONDON
Photo essay: Street festival & protest in front of Iranian embassy
by
Jahanshah Javid >>>