Life

Simplistic and shallow

During this highly emotional and volatile period in our history “Stoning of Soraya M” is released and what a timely arrival as if Hollywood had possessed a looking glass into the future. At the first glance, a movie that exposes the brutality of theocratic regime and its repressive laws and customs must be welcomed by all freedom loving Iranians, but the whole project reeks of an odious distortion. Presumably, in pursuit of freedom and justice we must embrace any document that exposes the brutality of evil and dark forces that extinguishes life and liberty. But the film makes rather spurious presumptions, and that is precisely the problem with the film; Iran is an arid land dominated by forces of darkness and evil doers>>>

از چنگالش خون باز هم

حقه‌ها در حقه ها
مردان زنان حتا کودکان
را لحظاتی بی حس
اما آفتاب فصل بیداری
و مردمی مقاوم باز هم
ایران زنی با ندای آزادی
در هم میشکند
اسارت از رژیم تازی
>>>

یک هفته قبل، یک هفته بعد

یک هفته قبل از انتخابات رفتم ایران. سالها بود که در ایران سوار قطار نشده بودم. در واقع از چند سال قبل از انقلاب که بچه بودم و همراه مادرم چندین بار با قطار از آبادان که محل تولد و زندگی من بود به تهران رفتیم و برگشتیم. البته آبادان که ایستگاه قطار نداشت، باید میرفتیم خرمشهر که چسبیده به آبادان بود. حالا بعد سالها دوباره در ایران با قطار مسافرت میکردم. مدتهاست به خودم یاد داده ام که مقایسه نکنم. مخصوصاً مقایسه چیزهایی که میبینم و تجربه میکنم در ایران با سوییس. این یک قیاس مع الفارق است و اصلاً جایش نیست. چون غیر از ناراحتی و عذاب چیزی عاید نمیشود. سعی میکنم که هر چیز را با شرایط محیط خودش و امکاناتش مقایسه کنم تا کمتر غصه بخورم. بگذریم که در این حالت هم کم نیست شرایطی که غمم میگیرد.>>>

"نِـدا"ی آزادی

همه ناقوس های جهان بـا هـم
تنها  نامِ  تو را  می نوازند ...
که این
آفتابِ امیـدهای توست
که روزنه های ریزِ بشارت را
در شبهای تمامیتِ تلخِ تاریخ
و در نبضِ پُر تپشِ هر خُرداد
به تداوم می تپد ... >>>

Raw at Red Rock

I escaped. I left June gloom behind and took to the road, chasing the unknown into the desert. The music is at full blast; a feeble attempt to obliterate the sounds and the images of a world that has gone mad. And now on this balcony of a new fate I stand drowned and raw to the bone, staring at the Red Rock which is glowing in the afternoon Arizona sun. The iPod ear buds deliver the high and low decibels to my core, so that every cell, sinew and muscle is soaked in the music. I feel my hair stand on end. The heat, the rage and the utter helplessness join forces and pound at my heart; fistfuls of deep and dark guilt deliver explosions, one after another, to my soul. The dam opens; tears cascade down my cheeks, drenching my face, dripping on the steno pad where my thoughts scream out of my pen>>>

Dark Mythic Flames Of History

Dark Mythic Flames of history
Sweep far across an eastern sea
Seething through society
Destroying all tranquility
Chronicles from ancient lands
Gripped tautly by medieval hands
Black the red hearts which they fan
Turn the world back into sand >>>

Brutal finale

In 1986, French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s car unexpectedly stalled on the steep, narrow roads zigzagging along Kupayeh’s austere mountain ridges, stranding him in the wind-whipped village. Walking among the sand-dusted brick houses, Sahebjam was accosted by a desperate woman, Zahra, who feverishly related a terrifying true story of a village conspiracy involving blackmail, misogyny, and murder. Zahra told the journalist that she, as a woman in Iran, no longer had a voice and she pleaded with him to “take her voice” and tell the world her story. Speaking into Sahebjam’s tape recorder, Zahra recounts the tragedy of her 35-year-old niece, Soraya, who was stoned to death for the crime of adultery, a crime that she did not commit>>>

Seyyed Ali Shah

In your carefully chosen words, there is no sign of weakness. You were present in 1978, when the Shah gave that awkward speech and you know how it works. Give "them" a finger and "they" will ask for your whole arm. After all, then, you were one of "them". Now you are at his place. You are the shakhs e avval e mamlekat. And you are not going to repeat his mistake. No revolution is going on here. Just a number of loyal people having some difficulty with arithmetic and with admitting their defeat! You refused to give a fingernail! Nothing! Hichee! Rien! Nada de nada! Any sacrifice would only sharpen the appetite of the beast. There is no way for those future schoolchildren to mix you up with Mohammad Reza Shah, that wimp. You got guts>>>

سئوال اينست، چه بايد کرد؟

در شرايط کنوني طرح اين سئوال از آنرو حياتي تر شده که بنابه گزارشاتي که از داخل کشور مي رسد، بيش از پانصد تن از نخبگان فکري و روزنامه نگاران، و عدهً زيادي از جوانان و دانشجويان معترض در داخل کشور بطور بي سابقه اي دستگير شده اند و مردم عادي، گروههاي مرجع اجتماعي، و گروههاي سياسي بيش از هرزماني با اين مسئله مواجه اند که واقعاً چه بايد کرد؟ اين نوشته تلاشي است براي يافتن پاسخي درخور به اين سئوال حياتي. براي شناخت شرايط کنوني لازم است نخست به اهمّ رويدادهاي چند روز اخير نظري اجمالي بيافکنيم: اول، خامنه اي بعنوان ولي فقيه مطلقهً نظام، در دعواي بين دولت و ملت، جانب دولت را گرفت. او با اين کارش، ماهيت دروني خود را بارزساخت، پرده از رخ کشيد و برخلاف خميني که مي گفت من به کمک ملت توي دهن اين دولت ميزنم، به حمايت از دولت انتصابيش شتافت تا به خيال خام خود به دهان معترضيني، که اکثريت ملت ايران را شامل مي شوند، بکوبد. >>>

For Neda ...

I too saw Neda, the brave Iranian young woman who went out on street to show her face and protest and yes I too saw hor brutally and savagely slaughtered by a sniper right in her heart to be taken away from the midst of all that is happening across Iran but more importantly from the friendly warm and secure arms of her father and the rest of her family, along with all the other Fallen Angels. I look at her, see her eyes wide open, looking to the sky, not knowing or even realizing what was happening to her, I feel her eyes, I feel and hear her thoughts, her last silent scream for help and for hope to live. I hear her voice, I see her eyes, see her blood and am hurt, deeply, deeper than ever I could 've imagined, in my heart, in my trust, in my beliefs and in my dreams and in my future and in that of all of us>>>