Life

Morality & marriage

The 1979 Islamic revolution was not a wholesale return to the past; rather, the new state reinvented and expanded certain retrogressive cultural practices and presented them as what Foucault has called a “regime of truth” through modern technologies of power. As part of its commitment to modernity, the Islamist state continued the literacy and health campaigns of the Pahlavi era. It also created, alongside the army and the police force, a parallel series of paramilitary forces. As soon as the regime attained some degree of authority, it established a new juridical discourse on sexuality, whose underlying theme was granting more power over women’s sexuality and reproductive functions to the state and to men, while also reversing modern trends in love and marriage.>>>

امنیتِ انسانی

رئیس جمهور بر اساس سوگندی که یاد می‌کند، از جمله وظیفه دارد از آزادی و حرمت اشخاص و حقوق ملت حمایت کند، پاسخگو باشد و از خود‌کامگی بپرهیزد و قدرتی را که ملت به عنوان امانتی مقدس به او سپرده، همچون امینی پارسا و فداکار به کار برد. من بر این اساس و بنا بر اختیار و تمایل قلبی خود، پیشا‌پیش با مردم پیمان می‌بندم که چنانچه برای تصدی مقام خطیر ریاست جمهوری مورد اعتماد و حمایت اکثریت قرار گیرم: استقرار حکومت قانون را به عنوان شرط لازم تحقق حقوق بشر و حقوق شهروندی، یکی از اهداف اصلی خود قرار دهم و اصلاحات حقوقی لازم را به عمل آورم تا قانون توسط همه مقامات و سازمان‌های حکومتی مورد رعایت قرار گیر>>>

مانی

این ترم درس جدیدی بنام "مذهب و جامعه" برای دانشجویان مبتدی رشته جامعه شناسی گفتم و این بهانه ای شد که بار دیگر در مورد الهیات شُرور مطالعه کنم. توجیه بیعدالتیهای مشهود در عالم را در الهیات مسیحی "تئودسی" میگویند. کلام ادیان ابراهیمی پاسخهای جالبی به این مسأله داده است که صورت ساده یکی از آنها را در کتاب خواندنی "عدل الهی" اثر مرحوم مرتضی مطهری میتوان سراغ کرد. ریاضی دان و متألّه مسیحی لایب نیتس در بحث مفصلی ادعا میکند که خطا بر قلم صنع نرفته است واگر نارسائی در عالم میبینیم اشکال از قامت ناساز بی اندام ماده است و نه تشریف زیبای خلقت خداوند. بعبارت دیگر ِاشکال از آفرینش نیست بلکه این نقص ذاتی ماده است که قابلیت پذیرش خیرمحض الهی را ندارد. پس شرور عدمی اند یعنی خدا فقط خیر و نیکی آفریده و جنس همه بدیها از نیستی است، همانطور که ظلمت نبود نور و مرگ نبود زندگی است>>>

Farimah's Story

Farimah was late to the wedding. By the time she showed up the Aghd was over and the guests at her friend Sima’s daughter’s wedding were drinking merrily in preparation for the dinner reception. She found Sima with the bride and handed her small package containing her present to the beautiful bride. Sima told her she looked exceptionally lovely tonight. Farimah appreciated the rare compliment from her fashion designer friend! The photographer was busy flashing pictures at the clusters of guests surrounding the bride and the groom. She joined in a pose with Sima and the newlyweds, flashing her smile at the photographer. She felt his gaze on her before her eyes could see him and her brain started a somersault of puzzlement and slow recognition>>>

The Moon-Maker of Khorassan

"The Moon of Nakhshab" was the most famous creation of Hashim ibn Hakkim, the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, known sometimes as Mah-sazanda (the moon maker). Twelve centuries after he set himself alight in his mountain fortress to evade capture, his name remains a potent symbol of political and religious excess. A deranged charismatic prophet, a seducer of men’s minds (and women’s bodies), the leader of a failed revolt against the Abbasids, an illusionist who bound thousands to his cause through trickery and false promises: few figures in Iranian History have exercised a stronger fascination over the western imagination than the celebrated Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, more commonly known by his epithet “Mokhanna” (the veiled one)>>>

Victimized

Give me any episode of Ironside, Law and Order, or Murder She Wrote and I’ll happily turn into a couch potato. Courtroom scenes have always fascinated me. What does it feel like to be innocent yet be dragged into an incriminating situation with no apparent way out? Well, I recently was in such a position and, let me tell you, none of that TV watching had made me the wiser for it. Last week, on a boring hot afternoon, I was checking my E-mail when I came across this message: “Ladan Khazai wants you to be her friend”, which I thought was not a problem. Ladan is my sister, she is already my friend, so what’s another click worth to me?>>>

Life in Iran and America

Reza Varjavand arrived for the first time in the United States from Iran - a country with a long and rich history of accomplishment - in 1973. He attended the University of Oklahoma and received a Ph.D. in economics. Reza came from humble surroundings in what he describes as the Misery Alley. He had seven siblings and was the youngest of four brothers. Their father was a farmer and mother taught Quran to a few girls in the Reza's neighborhood. Fortunately, because he did not have to work alongside his brothers and father on the farm, Reza was allowed indulge his curiosity and desire for an education>>>

مسئولیت شهروندی

مسجد جمکران که در روستايی به همين نام در نزديکی شهر قم قرار دارد بر پايه خواب يکی از اهالی اين روستا ساخته شده است. در این مسجد چاهی وجود دارد که برخی مردم با طّی مراحلی، عريضه خود را به امام زمان به درون چاه می فرستند، به اين اميد که وی آنها را بخواند و حاجت آنانرا برآورده کند." آنچه پیرامون این مسجد و چاه می گذرد خبر از بروز و گسترش فاجعه ای دردناک در جامعه ما دارد. در قرن بیست و یکم، قرن کامپیوتر و اینترنِت، قرن آگاهی، انتخاب و مسئولیت، تعداد قابل ملاحظه ای از هموطنان ما هنوز غرق خُرافات، منتظر معجزه و دست غیب هستند. آیا لیاقت مردم میهن ما غلطیدن در چنین ورطه ای است؟ و چه کسانی مسئول بروز این فاجعه هستند؟ >>>

Joint lesson

The importance of education is stressed from a young age in Iran and the United States. However, in both systems it is the pursuit of a degree rather than education that is often considered as significant. It is more important to have proof of a college education rather than the ability to apply what was learned. With the exception of certain trade oriented fields of study, such as education or medicine, many students from both nations do not necessarily pursue careers directly related to their degrees. Iranian and American students alike have grown frustrated with this disregard for process and dominant focus on end results. Many students are entering fields of study based on what they see as financial security, rather than passion>>>

Happiness in Uncertain Times

When I was an intern completing myPh.D. in Clinical Psychology, I worked in a large general hospital in the Psychiatry ward for the most indigent populations. Almost every patient struggled with chronic medical illnesses, grief, chronic pain, depression,anxiety and some form of post traumatic stress. Many of the patients had been homeless at some point in their lives. It was hard for many of the interns to take on the suffering of people day after day and not internalize it and bring it home to our own families. One patient I encountered, we will call her Patty, seemed to defy all expectations>>>