Time to wake up

Irrational anti Americanism is not only unique to Iran. Other undemocratic governments have done that too. Some examples are China, Russia, Venezuela, N Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. These countries have portrayed themselves as “anti Imperialist”, and “freedom fighters”, and “justice promoters”, and “hope for human beings!!”! That brings up an important question: what is these so called “Anti American” regimes are talking about and what have they done for their own country? Well, numbers don’t lie! Below, I have gathered data that shows the above mentioned governments’ ranking in critical issues such as human rights and economic prosperity>>>

عطر خوش بختی

به فروشگاه عطرهای چینی سر زدم تا شاید عطر خوش بختی را پیدا کنم .جیمز فروشنده جوان فروشگاه هر چه گشت عطری را که با نام صدایش کرده بودم پیدا نکرد .دیگر خسته از جستجوی چند ماهه شده بودم. ساعت کهنه ی دیواری پنج بار نواخت و جیمز خودش را برای بستن مغازه آماده کرد. وقتی عقربه ی ساعت شصت ثانیه را گذراند در تارو پود کنار پنچره عطر را پیدا کردم. خودش بود. با همان نام و با همان مشخصات! دو بسته ی گلبرگ گل سرخ هم خریدم تا وقتی بیایی روی سرت از بالای تخت بریزم. خودت بهتر از هر کسی می دانی چقدر گل سرخ دوست دارم. بویش همیشه مستم می کند. مادر قبل از اینکه به خانه ی آقای خدا برود گل های تازه در باغچه ی خانه کاشته بود! >>>

Who is “Religulous"?

Bill Maher is clearly uninterested in engaging authorities on religion. No cameos of Houston Smith or Karen Armstrong here. Instead, he targets the humble and the unsuspecting: a lay pastor of a store-front church with folding chairs, an Imam in a mosque under construction in Amsterdam, and a peacenik Rabbi in a cramped Brooklyn synagogue. He then goes on to badger them with irreverent questions and clever asides. You can’t help but feel for these folks who have been framed—in both senses of the term—as ignorant fanatics. One must have a twinge of sympathy even for the Christian fundamentalist senator whose verbal gaffes Mahr flashes across the screen lest the viewers miss the extent of his ignorance>>>

Cinema Paradiso

Somewhere in the night
The moon in the gutter
The magic flute
Wings of desire
Heart like a wheel
A man and a woman
Made for each other
Falling in love. >>>

Revolution is not dead

No shame in saying it. We carried out a revolution with everybody else in the country. We became humans just like everybody else. We did our fighting and got our butts kicked. The fight is not over, though, and will not be any time soon. We are still here and still doing what we can, and the next generation of socialists inside the country has picked up beautifully where we got beat, imprisoned, executed or driven out of the country. But, we learned and proved something that cannot be taken away. It is a lesson that puts the deepest fears in any dictatorial regime. We proved that it is possible to get rid of tyrants>>>

Democracy and Natural Right

In his recent opinion piece on the recently-announced candidacy of Mohammad Khatami for the upcoming presidential elections in Iran, Trita Parsi proscribes the steps he believes the purportedly reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami should take in order to fulfill the broken promises of his previous stint as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. What most stands out from Mr. Parsi's article however, is his characterization of the elections themselves: "The Iranian presidential elections will not be democratic by Western standards," he writes, "but they won't lack excitement or fierce competitiveness.">>>

Pure mercy

Today as on almost every day since seven Baha’is were arrested in Iran, I check for updated news on the situation. Someone has sent me the final list of the signatories of the open letter “we are ashamed” that was published by Iranian.com. An open letter that expressed remorse on behalf of its signatories, writers, intellectuals and human rights activists of Iranian background for the way the Baha’i community has historically been persecuted in Iran; Persecution that continues with the unlawful arrest, detention and alleged trial set for next week of seven Baha’is whose only guilt is their adherence to the Baha’i Faith>>>

1953 to 1979

Unfortunately, Mosaddegh’s second year in the office unravelled all the gains of his first! He proved to be much better as the speaker for opposition than the leader of government, and much more resourceful in weakness than tactful in power. His emotional and authoritative style (my way or no way) soon upset and aggravated most of the nationalist and Islamist allies, who gradually turned into sworn enemies. Finally, when Mosaddegh lost the majority support in Majles, he simply dissolved it, in order to prevent the parliament from voting him out of the office! >>>

یقه روشنفکر دینی

مدتی قبل مقاله ای در شرق نوشته بودم تحت عنوان "روشنفکر دینی سه نقطه باید گردد" که دفاعی بود از روشنفکری دینی در برابر گروههای سکولارکه میگفتند اینها باید تکلیف خود را مشخص کنند. کوسه و ریش پهن نمیشود. بیایند یکی را انتخاب کنند: یا روشنفکر باشند و یا دیندار. این دوستان روشنفکری و دینداری را طوری تعریف کرده اند که با هم نمیسازد و تاوان تعاریف خود را میخواهند به روشنفکر دینی تحمیل کنند. به آن مسائل نمی پردازم زیرا بحث آن به تفصیل رفته است. ولی ظاهراً دو موضوع در ایران هیچوقت کهنه نمیشود. یکی بحث رسالت روشنفکر است (که فعلاً مطمح نظر این نوشته نیست) و دیگری مسأله نقد روشنفکری دینی. معلوم نیست اگر این پروژه اینقدر که میگویند ورشکسته است چرا یقه روشنفکران دینی را رها نمیکنند؟ >>>

One Cannot Have Love

I want your gaze
Not your eyes.
I want your kiss
Not your lips.
I want your hug
Not your arms. >>>

Who should apologize?

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks of "60 years of US crimes in Iran” and the coup against the nationalist regime, he sounds less than authentic. He and his regime have never uttered the name of the man responsible for the oil nationalization, whose government was in fact toppled for that reason. Ahmadinejad keeps using old-style rhetoric to enflame people's sentiments against the US and to rally them behind his failed economic and social programs. His pre-election campaign rhetoric, “a man of the people” is now just an empty slogan. His administration has included some of the most corrupt and criminal people since the inception of the Islamic regime.>>>

حضور خاتمی در گفتگو با آمریكا

اعلام نامزدی خاتمی درست در روزهایی صورت می‌گیرد كه مقامات ایرانی و آمریكایی برای اولین بار در طول سه دهه حكومت اسلامی از آمادگی بدون قید و شرط خود برای گفتگو با یكدیگر سخن می‌گویند. این اعلام آمادگی از سوی آمریكا البته نتیجه یك تغییر فاحش در سیاست خارجی این كشور پس از روی كار آمدن رییس جمهور اوباما است. در مورد ایران، اما به تازگی تغییری در حكومت صورت نگرفته است. در واقع، حكومت فعلی ایران تا همین چندی ‌پیش هرگونه گفتگو با شیطان بزرگ را نفی می‌كرد و آقای خامنه‌ای كسانی را كه خواهان گفتگو با آمریكا بودند «بی‌غیرت» می‌خواند. اكنون چه اتفاقی پیش آمده است كه تابوی گفتگوی با آمریكا را برای جمهوری اسلامی شكسته است؟>>>

Voting from the heart

I lived in Iran until I was 14, which meant I was too young to vote. In 1987 we moved to England. During my 17 years there, I never voted. This was because I was either too young, or moving around too much between Universities. Also, on a personal level, I didn't feel connected to the political system. The UK is a wonderful country, but politically, I never felt that I belonged. This all changed when I moved to Israel in 2004. Politically speaking, I felt very connected here. After having left Iran, this was the first place where I felt at home. This country is no paradise by any stretch of imagination, however as an Iranian Jew, I was welcomed and treated as an equal>>>