Life

Equality vs. Justice

About 40 years ago as the feminism around the world raised to a visible phenomenon, a heated dialogue came up with a question posed as, what is it that the feminist are eagerly going after? Answering some difficult questions such as, if the justice equates to equality for women’s right, or women are equal to men, was set to the top of feminists’ agenda. Is happiness the key? We should know by now that changes and advancements in our lives are motivated by an underlying and mysterious physiological effect in our body and soul called happiness>>>

Good New - Bad News

First the Good News: We – The Iranian Immigrants of all ages - just made a great showing in New York, of representing our much oppressed countrymen inside Iran. I was there for both days and certainly saw enough to know the majority of Iranians will build on their cumulative showing and will do even better in the future. I am certain of that – especially now that I see so many of our youth, breaking the old taboos and getting involved in politics relating to Iran.>>>

Akmed Strikes Back

I was getting on a flight to start my vacation. When I approached my seat, a nice Texan lady in the seat next to mine started eyeing me with a bit of suspicion. "What's wrong with you?... Your hair is all... dark and ethnic. Your eyes are so... not blue... so demonic. You look so... unlike us. Oh my god! I'm scared." Before I could react she began screaming frantically: "Marshal! Air marshal!" A mean-looking large man and a tiny one trying to look mean by chewing a toothpick jumped out of their seats, pulled out their Tasers, approached and assumed shooting postures. "Don't move, scumbag," yelled the large one>>>

The Men of the Islamic Republic

I was one of the thousands of protestors who gathered in front of the United Nations on September 23 to say NO to Ahmadinejad and yes to democracy in Iran. We were not 400 people as CNN claimed. There were thousands of us, from different groups that had gathered at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, from the Mojahedin and the royalists to the green movement supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi and independents like me, who came together or rather, appeared at different stages to show our support for a righteous cause, to support our people’s quest and struggle for democracy>>>

Starstruck

Since they were children in Iran, the sisters Shirin and Nasrin Asgari dreamt of becoming opera singers. They spent their playtime pretending be Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Later they made friends with Kamelia Dara, who had also been training to sing since early childhood, and practiced together. Yet hard work and ambition could only take the aspiring artists so far. They quickly realized they needed better training than they could find in Iran. Opera is rooted in Europe; you can’t perfect it in Tehran any more than you can perfect the Persian radif of music in Vienna. So the three came to Austria on tourist visas, hoping they could pass the auditions to be admitted as students>>>

Who should lead?

The Mojahedin (MEK), Saltanat Talab monarchists, the Tudeh Party, etc. — would like to believe that they are the ones who after thirty years of impatiently waiting, now finally have a chance to go back and rule. They have lived in foreign lands and witnessed the Western democracy in action, and have access to foreign capital as well as free media which can be beamed to Iran—so they are the ones, they hope, who are best positioned to win power after the Akhoonda. In my opinion, none of them are fit for this purpose>>>

What Women Don't Want

I was at a party when I was rushed to the roof of the building to save this beautiful Iranian woman who wanted to jump because another lady in the party was wearing the same exact dress as her. "Don't jump!" I screamed as I finished my beer and hid the empty bottle behind the air conditioner as you're supposed to. "Give me one good reason," she said as she gave me a sad, distraught look. "Look, I didn't think there would be a quiz when I was volunteered to come up here to play suicide prevention or else I would have studied. I can't think of a good reason. Can I give you 2 bad reasons instead?">>>

Big Green Apple

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