ACTING
Photo essay: Houshang Touzie's play in Toronto
by
Nader Davoodi >>>
FICTION
I hated most this uncertainty, this desire, this absence
I always knew so well how to hate. I hated being a child and being ignored. I hated being a teen and waiting, wondering, doubting. I hated Shah, I hated Khomeini, I hated Saddam the way their ideological differences changed all of us for the worse. The way the war locked me in my room, listening to the silence, listening to the noise, missing joy or temerity, missing the light seeping through sheer curtains. I hated missing one small volume of space in time when opening my window or listening to loud music, or painting red on my bloodless lips and nails wouldn’t have been called an act of bravery
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STORY
“Ah well” she sighed to herself “Where will all this cloak and dagger stuff lead me in the end?”
When Roxanne finally got back to her hotel room, she realized something was amiss as soon as she entered. To a non-observant eye, the room looked just as she had left it: Her suitcase open in the corner with half the clothes still inside, unpacked; Her laptop open on her desk, with some papers and pens strewn around; and her handy coffee mug and ashtray full of cigarette butts still on the windowsill, her favorite spot in any room to have a quiet smoke. Roxanne looked around and she was sure that someone had been in her room. She could not put her finger on it but she just knew it was a fact. Had someone searched her room in her absence? Searched it looking for… what?
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IDENTITY
هويت اسلامی جديد ماهيتی صرفاً ايدئولوژيک دارد
باری، بنظر من می رسد که در بيشتر جوامع پيشامدرن، يا جوامعی که نيش مدرنيت را چشيده و از نوش آن محروم مانده اند، يکی از جدال های انديشگی در بين متفکران وابسته به گروه هائی که بر سر مدرنيت با يکديگر دارای تضاد عقيده و هدف هستند پيش از آنکه جنبهء سياسی داشته باشد، گاه حتی بی آنکه خود بدانند، به مسئلهء «هويت» بر می گردد که ظاهراً پديده ای فرهنگی است تا سياسی. در واقع، در صحنهء حيات سياسی و اجتماعی، هر گروه، ضمن انجام فعاليت های سياسی خود، داعيهء آن را نيز دارد که «مردم» دارای هويتی هستند که گروه مزبور بهترين معرف و مؤيد آن است. در عين حال، مبارزه گروه ها عليه يکديگر نيز، بجای اينکه مبارزه ای مبتنی بر «برنامه» باشد، کارش به مواضع فلسفی و فرهنگی آنان در مورد «هويت» می کشد.
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PARTY POLITICS
نظرات مهندس احمد زیرک زاده در باره دموکراسی و تحزب به مناسبت صدمین سال تولد وی
کتاب خاطرات مهندس زیرک زاده معرف تاریخ و فلسفه نهضت ملی است. او از تکان های شدیدی که نهضت مشروطیت به فرهنگ و زندگی مردم ایران داده بود آغاز می کند و مینویسد: "حرکت به اندازه ای شدید بود که امواج ضعیف و فرسوده آن باز هم سال ها بعد از خاموشی هسته مرکزی هنوز صدها کیومتر دورتر از مرکز جنبش، اثرات تکان دهنده و تحول انگیزی دارد" . "نه تنها من بلکه هر بچه ایرانی به مجردی که حرف زدن یاد می گرفت با اسم باقرخان و ستارخان آشنا می شد. اولین درسی که در مدرسه به او می دادند شرح انجمنها، کمیته ها، قرائت خانه ها و کتابخانه هائی بود که با خون دل مردم ایران تهیه می گردید و مبارزات و اقدامات رجل و سرداران مشروطیت سرلوحه تمام کتابهای درسی مدارس بود".
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DOCUMENTS
Archiving political documents and publications from critical years before and after 1979
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POETRY
I knock my head against false ceilings
I have not found the key to myself
the one that will get the high gates
to swing wide open and the lights
to come on all at once
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BAGHCHEBAN
در هر چهار شنبه سوری از تابش سرخی ی آتش بر چهره های کودکانمان گرمی و جانی نو خواهند گرفت
نامه ای است تلخ و غم انگیز.......نمی توانم خودم را نگاه دارم.... یعنی کسی که این همه عاشق بهار و نوروز بود می بایستی در آن روز به خاک سپرده شود؟ نه ، بر عکِس برادرم من نمی خواهم که هر شب چهارشنبه سوری و هر روز نو روز باشد. اصلا می خواهم بهار را پاره کنم و بریزم دور... و باز فکر میکنم که آیا ثمین این را می خواهد؟ او که آرزویش زنده نگهداشتن چهارشنبه سوری و نوروز است این را از ما می خواهد؟
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CLINTON
Vote for me and I will fight for Senator Clinton
I am not a politician, but I have decided to run for a seat in the Democratic National Convention in Denver. While Iranian-Americans have been successful in academia and in business, they have not focused on politics. I seek to fill this gap and work towards giving a voice to the Iranian community in the Bay Area. As a loyal supporter of Senator Clinton, who has traveled to campaign for her in Nevada, Texas and soon in Pennsylvania, and helped to raise campaign money, I have been a dedicated volunteer in the coordinated effort to elect a Democrat to the White House
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SPRING
Photo essay: Life is visibly budding again
by
shahireh sharif >>>
NUCLEAR
Iran’s independence and sovereignty is threatened with false allegations made by U.S. and Israel
How can a morally bankrupt nation induce the world to punish a law-abiding state and by so doing, violate not only international law, that of the nonproliferation treaty (NPT), but the Geneva Conventions? Sanctions are warfare. It cost Iraq over half a million innocent lives, a genocide, in preparation for the ‘shock and awe’ that was to come. America and her co-conspirators violated all Geneva Conventions when the sanctions were imposed – lives were snatched -“collateral damage” they called it. This rogue state, America, in violation of all laws, God’s and man’s, is dictating to the world
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POINT
What is the truth about Muqtada al-Sadr’s connections with Iran?
On Tuesday April 8 General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, made the latest in a long string of accusations against Iran and its “destructive” role in Iraq, including its financing of militia groups. He implied Iran had supported the Mahdi army in the recent battle for Basra, conveniently failing to mention Tehran’s support for the US occupation government in Baghdad. Ironically the same false claims are being used by Tehran apologists to ‘prove’ Iran’s credentials as an anti-imperialist force supporting the Iraqi resistance. However, the realities of the current inter-shia conflict are more complicated
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STORY
Those damn gharb-zadeh, westernized, women. Sharif had never liked them
The phone rang and Peyman gestured to Roxanne to stay while he answered it. After a couple of minutes, with her friend still on the phone, engrossed in what seemed to be an important conversation, Roxanne got up again and waved. She mouthed the words “I’ll be okay!” on her way out, despite Peyman’s frantic hand gestures pleading her to wait for him. It was around ten o’ clock and the streets were deserted. The click-clack of Roxanne’s heels on the pavement sounded aggressively loud in the silence of the night. She had parked her car a couple of blocks away
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POETRY
I think I am thirsty
before I start begging
give me a glass of kindness…
Do you think love is like thirst?
that if you fulfill me with your sips of affection
I will no longer drink your love?
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