We, the Short People

Once I told my female students wittingly if you want to get married, make sure to find a short man. A short man makes an ideal husband. He is not only more economical to maintain, but also you have the upper hand in case you get involved in physical altercations with him. You can hit him on the head with your shoes very easily! Furthermore, you don’t suffer much emotionally if he leaves you! You see, the best way to avoid costly lawsuit is to let others laugh at your expense! For years, we thought that socioeconomic status and opportunities are awarded by the society based on established criteria such as, education, skills, productivity, experience, lineage, wealth, name recognition, etc. >>>

Simply dazzling

Ferdowsi packs so much literature in his verses that storytellers, singers, percussionists, and painters have traditionally helped unpack his work for us. For a thousand years, this collaboration of the letters and the arts in ghahveh khaneh (coffee house) settings has upgraded and refreshed the Iranian national identity. To commemorate the Shahnameh millennium, the Seventh Biennial Conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies will include a multi-media concert combining Shahnameh storytelling (naghali), Shahnameh-inspired orchestral music, and visual presentations of scenes from the epic>>>

Fresh addiction

Last weekend I met two (wonderful) 127 band members Sohrab Mohebbi and Salmak Khaledi at the home of BeyondPersia.com's Lalé Welsh and Amir Salamat near San Francisco. We listened to their entire new album "Khal Punk" and I was quite devastated by their musical range (mixing rock, rap, jazz, Iranian... ) and powerful lyrics. Their songs are addictive, and smart, and fun, and full of energy and lots and lots of plain truth. Ladies and gentleman, we have another super band! >>>

Open intolerance

Considering Iran's clerical establishment believes the existence of religious minorities undermines official Shiite orthodoxy, these latest arrests are just another black mark on Iran's long and dismal record of protecting individual human rights and religious freedom.... The Ahmadinezhad government argues that according to the constitution, Bahaism is not recognized and therefore is not protected in Iran. The president's tougher stance toward Bahais is probably also motivated by his apocalyptic views and his special attachment to the idea of the Hidden Imam. Ahmadinezhad, who believes that his government is under the supervision of the Hidden Imam, cannot tolerate a religion that denies the Imam's existence, even as the Bahais keep out of politics. >>>

C’mon Senator Barack Hussein Obama

Dear Senator Obama, These are some of your quotes I have collected in my head on Iran. You see, I am a bit sensitive on Iran as my grandmother’s house is less than a block from what will probably be one of the first targets against the Iranian “nuclear facilities” in a precision targeted bombing attack, and seeing how imprecise some of them worked in Iraq, it worries me. It is actually just a university, but most of their research is done there and I really love my grandma. You have said: “[T]he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures [to stop its nuclear program], including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point, if any, are we going to take military action?” >>>

انتظار تا انتخابات

صرف نظر از اینکه کدام یک از نامزدهای باقی مانده در انتخابات ریاست جمهوری آمریکا در ماه نوامبر (آبان) به پیروزی برسد، سه موضوع محور سیاست ایالات متحده در مورد ایران خواهد بود. این سه موضوع عبارتند از: گزینه نظامی همچنان روی میز قرار خواهد داشت، ایران هسته ای تحمل نخواهد شد، و پیش از انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران هیچ گفت وگوی موثر و جامعی با مقامات این کشور صورت نخواهد گرفت."هنری وکسمن" رییس "کمیته نظارت و اصلاح دولت" یعنی اصلی ترین کمیته تحقیق و تفحص کنگره آمریکا، از افراد نزدیک به رهبری حزب دمکرات در کنگره به شمار می رود.>>>

سنجش در ظرف زمان خود

اگر از دو گانه "خوب/بد" ی که از دیرباز برای تعریف شخصیت افراد به کار رفته و می رود عبور کنیم می شود شخصیت امام را با دیدی نسبی نگرتر و واقعی تر نگاه کرد. امام هم چون هر رهبری سیاسی دیگر اشتباهاتی را در مسیر زندگی سیاسی خود انجام داد. از سویی شخصیت کاملا بدی که از سوی عده ای از گروههای سیاسی خارج از کشور از امام ارائه می شود نیز بی شک کمتر نشانه ای از حقیقت دارد. کلید اصلی به شناخت شخصیت امام کنار گذاشتن دیدگاههای سطحی نگر و متعصبانه ای است که بر بخش وسیعی از صاحب نظران ما سایه افکنده است. گرچه مقام فقهی امام بسیار در خور توجه است اما کمتر کسی این واقعیت را انکار می کند که امام به خاطر فعالیت های سیاسی خود بود که به "امام" تبدیل شد.>>>

تحسین زرنگی

از قدیم رسم بوده که وقتی صحبت از زرنگی و زبلی کسی میشه، میگن "زرنگ زنبوره که فلانش رو کیلویی چهارصد تومن میفروشه!" (خوب منظور همون عسل هست ولی بنده هنوز نمیدونم که عسل ترشح دهان – تف- زنبور خانه یا مدفوع – ان – ایشونه؟!) و البته قیمت کیلویی چهارصد تومن روهم برای مثال نوشتم! ایمیل نزنین اعتراض کنین که قیمت عسل در زمان فتحعلی فیلکوس رو نوشتی ها! اصلا نمیدونم عسل تو ایرون کیلویی چنده این روزها. ولی تو مملکتی که برنج قیمت یه کیلوش از پنج هزار تومن بالا بزنه، و گوشت گوسفند دو کیلوش با یه پیکان کار سال 50 برابری کنه،خوب حتما عسل هم یه کیلوعسلش کوهپایه سبلانش با قیمت یه گالون بنزین تو لوس آنجلس نباید زیاد اختلاف داشته باشه دیگه! >>>

Iranian neocons go after Obama

It deeply saddens me that two women from my native country of Iran have chosen to degrade feminism. Under the misconception that their gender will shield their hatred and deception, Manda Zand-Ervin & Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi hope that even with flawed logic they can dissuade you from seeking dialogue with Iran. Sir, I reach out to you not as a woman, but as one humanitarian to another with a common goal: the imperative for peace. I have to wonder if these hyphenated women and others like them who so loosely use the term ‘appeasement’ are sufficiently familiar with history, or is this a mindless repetition of a word ill-understood? Perhaps these two ought to seek education and reject propaganda>>>

Leave Lebanon to the Lebanese

Lebanon breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief last week with the long-awaited election to the presidential office of army Chief of Staff General Michel Suleiman. After a rapid series of diplomatic toing and froing in the Qatari capital of Doha, a number of commentators opined the Levant was saved from relapsing into the clutches of another devastating civil war by a meager hair’s breadth. In hindsight it doesn’t appear that another civil war was on the cards, the domestic balance of power stood overwhelmingly in Hizbullah’s favor, and therefore allowed the vast majority of conflict zones to be quickly subdued and handed back to the army>>>

The big cheese

As I enter the fifth week of my diet, I look back and chortle smugly to myself at how simple it has been and how I haven’t had a single craving since I started dieting. But true to form, my brain springs into action with a gentle reminder of the many occasions I have gazed longingly at the cheese sections of various supermarkets, reading and re-reading the labels to see which one has the least fat. Alas, I have come to the conclusion that there are no low-fat cheeses, it’s actually a contradiction in terms. And before I am inundated with comments from people telling me about any type of half-fat, low-fat or fat-free variety, I would like to just say “THAT IS NOT CHEESE!” >>>

بی خانه در ونیس

منم حسن تبری
با لبخند آفتاب بر دوش
و مویه ی باران در گوش.
از کوچه های گل آلود اصفهان
می آیم دوان، دوان
پابرهنه و نیمه عریان
با رقص دو تبر بر شانه
و شور یک دیوانه: >>>