Life

Feeling superior

Iranians can be extremely racist. I was first made aware that Iranians were perceived, by others in the region, as arrogant racists by a Pakistani professor of Islamic literature at Boston University. Professor Rahbar taught in the Religion department and most Iranians took his literature course for an easy grade. He also conducted the Farsi exams which, if passed, made the University wave the second-language requirement for Iranian students. The poor man, who was well-versed in Persian poetry and loved Saadi and Hafez, was routinely ridiculed by his Iranian students. This was mostly because of his Pakistani accent. Although his eccentric habit of cooking curry in his office, in the Theology building on Mass. Ave., did not help either. >>>

Pulse

At the office Christmas party, my boss told me about a new gym that recently opened in the area. On the way back home one day I drove past the plaza and looked up to see a big neon sign announcing the arrival of ‘Pulse’ to my neighborhood. I fell in love with the name. So I punched a reminder in my Blackberry to take my personal pulse to the one down the road sometime soon. We had been out the night before and hadn’t got home till late – the last of the holiday parties eke out every ounce of joy and goodwill. So when the alarm goes off at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of January, I am none too thrilled to remember my New Year resolution. His leg plops over mine – his code for “how about a little”. >>>

40-year-old dream

The Iranian nuclear enrichment program and its potential to create weapon- grade uranium that could be used for making bombs is the hottest topic of discussion among the western powers and international community. In order to better understand Iran’s intention, one must look back to its origin and study the history behind its current activities. Iran’s ambitious plan to acquire nuclear power is nothing new and dates back to the late Shah of Iran. It was his government’s desire to acquire the nuclear technology of the present time. During the past several years, a number of misguided attempts have been made to uncover the truth behind Iran’s nuclear activities>>>

Jews Own America

Jews rule America. America may be a Christian country, but the Jews own it. They own all major banks, control the factories and businesses, and run the stock markets. You name it, and the Jews own or run it. The Jews are out to rule the world. They do it by helping each other and show no mercy to non-Jews. With those thoughts deeply drilled in me before leaving Iran for America, imagine my shock as a total stranger Iranian Jew came to my cousin Jamshid and I in the lobby of the YMCA and asked us for help. Ask us two Iranian non-Jewish students to help him with work? We ourselves were desperate trying to find work. And here I was told how Jews own America and how they help their own. What about this guy? Why don’t they help him? Why would he have to come to us for help? >>>

Live with it

As long as we are alive (and alas, many are not), and we still have a functioning mind and heart, and good friends to remind us of that, we can still live a worthy life: Simply absorb the meaning of the characters inscribed on the Tsukubai (water basin) behind the Rock Garden in at the Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto: "I learn to be content". These five words can be understood in different ways, but when I came across them in January, I realized that we, Iranians, got it all wrong when we followed the carpe diem philosophy of Khayyam, when he claimed, a wine cup in one hand and the tresses of his beloved in the other:>>>

احقاق حق

سالها پيش که به ايران سفر کرده بودم، بحث داغ روز اعدام جنايتکاری بود که علاوه برقتل نفس، جرم ديگری داشت. بهمين دليل قبل از اينکه حکم اعدام را اجرا کنند، او را ۸۰ ضربه شلاق زده بودند. من نه تنها از کم وکيف جريان قتل اطلاع درستی نداشتم، بلکه بيشتر تحت تآثير فرهنگ مدنی غرب، اجرای حکم شلاق را قبل از اعدام محکوم، قبيح وغيرانسانی ميدانستم. نه اينکه امروز تغييرعقيده داده باشم و فکرکنم حقش بود و بايد از اين هم بيشتر مجازات ميشد، ولی نميتوانم آنرا قبيح و غير انسانی تلقی کنم. قبل از اينکه به مفهوم قصاص که درست در همين رابطه است بپردازم، بايد به اين واقعيت غير قابل انکار توجه کرد که اگر مجازات جنايتکار بنحوی اجرا شود که مردم بجای عبرت گرفتن، برای محکوم احساس ترحم کنند، يکی از اساسی ترين اهداف مجازات کيفری نه تنها پايمال شده، بلکه نتيجه معکوس داده است>>>

The good fortune

Two months ago I had an opportunity to see Claus Strigel’s film MOON SUN FLOWER GAME at the Iranian Film Festival in Chicago. It was a fascinating experience! I must admit that I have been deeply engaged and obsessed to learn about Hossein Mansouri's life -- a great poet living in Munich now-- since Forough Farrokhzad’s death. I wrote a review... then I decided to interview Claus... In 1962 the young poetess Forough Farrokhzad visited the lepers at the end of the earth to make a film about their world. Her film, “The House is Black”, was to become world famous, and, by and by, change a small world too: the world of a small boy who had the good fortune to meet her. >>>

سانسور را با بیش از یک "س" می نویسند

در جلسه ی کتابم شعرم شیرین و مرد نمکی آقایی که زمانی با هم بیشتر دوست بودیم در آنتراکت آمد با من حرف بزند. به عادت رفتاری معمولش دست مرا گرفت و با آنکه بدنم مقاومت می کرد به طرف خود کشید تا با زور در آغوش بگیرد و ببوسد. صدایی در سرم گفت بگو " دستت را از من بکش، آقا". اما زود این صدا را سانسور کردم و طبق عادت رفتاری معمولم هیچ نگفتم؛ حتی لبخند هم زدم. شنیدم بعد از من این مرد رفته بود دست روی خانم دیگری از دوستان گذاشته بود که آن دوست، آن زن نازنین، بر خلاف من جلو اش در آمده بود و گفته بود: ببینم تو اجازه گرفتی دست گذاشتی رو من؟>>>

The trouble with democracy

We have descended a long way from stated ideals of the original proponents of democracy. The great march of freedom has been replaced by national and international political discourses consumed with fundamentalism and extremism of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and even Hindu types. Lofty ideals about the nature of humanity, progress, and a bright tomorrow when racism, fascism,apartheid and sexism would be discarded to the dustbin of history to be replaced by a loving, green and peaceful world have been all but forgotten. The age of the Internet and the information highway, the collapse of totalitarianism, and intensified globalisation have rather surprisingly resulted in a greater and more severe pursuit of national interests and wars rather than the pursuit of happiness and international solidarity>>>

Seema (2)

I met Seema at Bellagio on one of my frequent runs to the ATM machine. Being a lousy poker player and not knowing my limit, I spent more time pacing to the ATM machine than at the poker table. One look at me and Seema knew she had a customer (sucker) for life. Now, make no mistake about it, though a high school dropout, Seema had a PhD from the school of hard knocks. In her profession she needed not to be book smart but street smart. Seema hustled the hustlers, cheated the cheaters and swindle the swindlers. She was such savvy negotiator that she could perhaps negotiate the Middle East peace, if she could find the Middle East on a map>>>

Shaadi's Story

Shaadi finally decided to do it. She signed up with the Iranian dating site, submitted her photograph, and answered the questions. She thought to herself, “I’ll be 100% honest in answering the questions. I don’t want any complications as a result of withheld information or half truths.” She wrote down her real age, her real weight, and answered all the questions fully and truthfully. Among the people she heard from, there was a man who seemed like a good choice. He was her age, had been married and divorced, didn’t have any kids and didn’t want any, and his picture showed him to be good looking, with a full head of hair, dressed in a nice suite. She and Hamid started chatting and corresponding online>>>

وقتی قانون جنایت می‌آفریند

آمنه بهرامی‌ نوا، زن جوانی است كه در شرایط سخت ایران توانسته است تحصیلات دانشگاهی خود را در رشته الكترونیك به پایان برساند و مشغول كار شود و با هزاران امید و آرزو به آینده خود بیندیشد. این آینده، اما، با حركت جنایتكارانه مرد جوانی كه ادعای دوستی او را داشته یكباره به هم می‌ریزد. این مرد خواهان ازدواج با آمنه بوده، ولی آمنه خواست او را رد می‌كند. مرد جوان به جای این كه با پاسخ «نه» آمنه راه خود را در پیش گیرد و برود، در بعد از ظهر روزی در آبان ۱۳۸۳ بر سر راه آمنه ظاهر می‌شود و ظرف اسیدی را كه در دست داشته بر سر و روی آمنه می‌پاشد. آمنه می‌سوزد، و تا به بیمارستان برسد و چند ساعت بعد تحت معالجه قرار گیرد دو چشمش را كاملا از دست داده و چهره زیبای او كاملا به صورت وحشتناكی دگرگون شده است. آمنه برای تمام عمر خود بینایی و چهره و زندگی عادی خود را از دست داده است>>>

Rebel with a pause

News of playwright Harold Pinter’s death arrived in primetime, Christmas – a religious date, in Britain, for watching telly. You couldn’t escape the news and the news couldn’t escape reporting on Pinter’s final years and his opposition to the war in Iraq, as well as his monumental literary achievements. His stance on the war demanded to be featured in the briefest of TV obituaries. Of course, in the BBC News bulletin I caught, there was no mention of the fact that, in accepting his Nobel prize for literature in 2005, he had called for Tony Blair to be prosecuted for war crimes. That would have been too much given the mince pies, turkey, pigs in blanket and booze viewers will have been digesting>>>

In Praise of Silence

There is a long standing tradition of voluntary silence in religious orders the world over. Silence is golden, so goes the saying; it teaches self-discipline and forces the individual to think and reflect. It’s believed that silence stimulates other senses that are often dulled by the ego’s eagerness to shoot its mouth so to speak. There are orders of trappist monks who spend their days singing hymns and reciting prayers and refrain from casual conversation except when given permission by their superiors. There are orders of nuns who having taken a vow of silence communicate mostly in a special sign language. By eliminating the unnecessary, they seek the essential. By looking past the clutter, they search for the “kernel of truth.” >>>