The big shift

The prospect of war over Iran's nuclear plans seemed to recede in mid-July 2008 after a marked change in United States attitudes to the country. This was signalled by the decision to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic for the first time since the revolution of 1979 and the subsequent hostage crisis that did so much to embitter relations between the two countries. The outcome of the discussions held in Paris on 19 July was disappointing to western hopes of concessions from Iran over its uranium-enrichment plans, but the fact of the meeting has been hailed as a positive step that diminishes what had seemed to be the escalating risk of armed confrontation>>>

Raising expectations

The IRI’s biggest survival tools are: One, is the fact that the IRI has a tremendously strong propaganda machine, much stronger than any Western nation’s, including the U.S. Like Khomeini himself said, the revolution was a “cultural” uprising before anything. That discredits the argument some Iranians, who don’t want to listen to the regime itself, make, that the revolution was about the injustices the U.S did towards Iran, or the Palestinian conflict, or to give Iranians freedom, or dignity, or to build our country, and things of that nature. Two, is the fact that the IRI has convinced some Iranians to be happy with the “minimum”.>>>

The Mandamus Actions

A mandamus is a writ that is used to compel an administrative agency to act. For instance if your adjustment of status or your citizenship is pending for a long period of time, you can opt to file such an action. The Mandamus Act authorizes the court to order a remedy. It does not provide independent, substantive grounds for a suit. In other words, what the court is going to determine the reasons why the decisions are pending not the outcome of the decision. Therefore by forcing the agency to make a decision can also result in a denial. At that point appeals or motions to reopen can be timely filed. >>>

دوزخ روی زمین

من در دهه‌ی ۶۰ خورشیدی، ده‌سال در زندان‌های اوین، قزل‌حصار و گوهردشت به سر بردم و نه تنها خود مورد شکنجه‌های سیستماتیک قرار گرفتم،‌ بلکه از نزدیک شاهد اعمال آن بر دیگر زندانیان نیز بودم. علاوه بر تجربه‌ی شخصی و ارتباط نزدیک با صدها زندانی سیاسی زن و مرد آزاد شده، از تجربه‌ی پنج ساله‌ی همسرم در زندان‌های جمهوری اسلامی نیز برخوردار بوده‌ام و تقریباً تمامی کتاب‌های انتشار یافته درباره‌ی زندان‌های جمهوری اسلامی را خوانده‌ام. در این تحقیق من با اتکا به پیشینه‌ی مذهبی و شناخت نسبی‌ درباره‌‌ی کارکرد مذهب و چگونگی عجین شدن آن در تاروپود فرهنگ مردم ایران، تلاش کرده‌‌ام آن‌چه را که نظام جمهوری اسلامی ایران تحت نام اسلام، قرآن و مجازات‌های شرعی در زندان قزل‌حصار بر روی گروهی از زنان زندانی اعمال کرده، به قضاوت عموم بگذارم. >>>

ديگ بخار

طبعاً و منطقاً، نوک پيکان فشار ناشی از نارضايتی اجتماعی متوجه اعمال کنندگان و پاسداران «وضع موجود» ی است که به سوی «نامطلوب» شدن حرکت کرده است. و از آنجا که اين اعمال کنندگان و پاسداران در زمرهء کسانی هستند که نيروهای پليسی جامعه را در اختيار دارند و بوسيلهء آنها اعمال اراده و زور می کنند، نارضايتی رفته رفته از سطح فردی حرکت کرده و، پس از اجتماعی شدن، شکلی سياسی بخود می گيرد. در اينجا بکار گيری واژهء «سياسی» از آن جهت موجه است که نيروی حاصله از فشار نارضايتی اجتماعی در جهت از ميان برداشتن حاکميتی (از پدرسالار گرفته تا خداسالار) عمل می کند که منشاء و نگاهبان بی عدالتی و تبعيض، و دارای دستگاه های سرکوب است.>>>

Oldest Living Iranian

On the Silk Road from Yazd to Shiraz, in the desert city of Abarkuh, stands the oldest living being in Iran (perhaps in the whole world) . It is at least five thousand years old, and some say eight thousand. Ancient and mysterious even to botanists (who cannot decide on its true age), the Cypress Tree of Abarkuh is surrounded by legends and revered by countless visitors. To anyone approaching it, the tree appears more mineral than vegetable. You are confronted by a wall of massive trunks - 19 meters thick - packed together tightly like the tentacles of a giant squid, each one vying with others for space and for sky>>>

The weak against the strong

“My own conviction is that the mere tyranny of an autocrat would hardly have driven the patient and tractable people of Persia into revolt had tyranny at home been combined with any maintenance of prestige abroad or any moderately efficient guardianship of Persian independence. It was the combination of inefficiency, extravagance, and lack of patriotic feeling with tyranny which proved insupportable; and a constitutional form of Government was sought not so much for its own sake as for the urgent necessity of creating a more honest, efficient, and patriotic Government than the existing one.” >>>

Before it's too late

Nemesis is Chalmers Johnson‘s third volume from his "inadvertent trilogy". Edith Hamilton, an expert in ancient Greek mythology, says Nemesis stands for “righteous anger.” The first of this trilogy was Blowback, the term, invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms>>>

چهار دیواری اختیاری

تمایل به داشتن خانه ی شخصی و اتومبیل شخصی و .... را در ایرانیان مقیم فرنگ بهتر و روشن تر می توان دید. اینجا بیشتر معلوم می شود که در تمایل ما به "داشتن"، انگار عامل دیگری هم غیر از "مصرف" به چشم می خورد! کمتر ایرانی مقیم خارج هست که در دکوراسیون داخلی خانه اش چیزی یا چیزهایی از صنایع دستی و کاسه کوزه ها و قاب های ایرانی نباشد. داشتن یک آنتن ماهواره ای و تماشای تله ویزیون های فارسی زبان. یک دستگاه عالی ضبط و پخش با آهنگ های ایرانی، کلاسیک و پاپ و اغلب هم ملودی های سوزناک! غم غربت؟ یادگار؟ دلتنگی؟ نمی دانم! شاهرخ مسکوب در "گفتگو در باغ" به تمایل فرهنگی ما به سبزی و آب و گیاه اشاره می کند، و نقش قالی که تصویری ست از باغ، گاه باغ بهشت! شاید این میل، از ذهن کویری ما بر می خیزد؟>>>

می‌خواهم بدانم

برای من مهم این نیست که راه امرار معاش تو چیست. من می‌خواهم بدانم تو چه چیزی را با تمام وجود میخواهی‌ و آیا جرات تصور رسیدن به عمیقترین خواستهایت را داری. برای من مهم این نیست که تو چند سال داری. من می‌خواهم بدانم که آیا تو حاضری به خاطر عشق، به خاطره ارزوهایت، برای تجربه کردن زنده بودن ریسک کنی‌ که افسر گسیخته و دیوانه به نظر بیایی. برای من مهم این نیست که اختر شناسان در آینهٔ اقبالت چه می‌ بینند. من می‌خواهم بدانم آیا تو مرکز حزن خودت را دریافته ی، آیا در رو یا روی با نا به حقی‌ زندگی پذیراتر شده ی به زندگی‌، و یا جم و بسته شدی از ترس درد بیشتر! >>>

Battle for the Soul of Turkey

A fortnight ago Turkish prosecutors indicted 86 secular Turks on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in plots to topple the governing conservative populist Justice and Development Party ( known as the AKP), led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Though lips across the ideological spectrum were for the most part restrained and tightly buttoned, Aykut Cengiz Engin, a chief prosecutor has stated that the suspects, believed to include at least one former general and an opposition politician, were charged either with belonging to a terrorist organisation, or of attempting to instigate a military coup>>>

Zerangi

“Zerangi” in Persian can be loosely translated as “cleverness” and to be “zerang” is to be “clever”. Most, if not all the time in Iranian culture and society, a zerang person is seen in a positive light for he or she is intelligent, resourceful and independent/autonomous and is thus what most Iranians strive to be. To be a zerang person can be applied in many situations, both positive and sinister. For example, a person who knows how the American legal system works and is able to work it to his or her advantage is zerang. A person who is resourceful in business and has made something of himself/herself is zerang. However, a person who is able to cleverly cheat his taxes and screw the system and government is also zerang. >>>

The First Iranian American

Mirza Mohammad Ali, better known as Hajj Sayyah (meaning the traveler), was born in 1836 in the town of Mahallat in Iran. His studies exposed him at a young age to modern and democratic ideas that were at the time spreading throughout parts of the world. The stark difference he observed between the treatment suffered by most Iranians under their autocratic rulers and the ideas he studied inspired him to see the rest of the world. At the age of 23, Hajj Sayyah embarked on a remarkable journey around the globe that would last for nearly 18 years. He began his travels by wandering throughout Central Asia and Europe for more than six years. Often he traveled alone and in poverty>>>