Iran beyond Iranians

Architecture is the art of living which is documented sometimes in the heart of a rock or it is molded as a mud brick or raised in the shape of a dome. Studying the architecture of a nation gives one insights on its peopleís personality and their characteristics. Iranian architecture is humble, pragmatic, and progressive as much of its creators the Iranians. I am not talking about the bad copies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, or Le Corbusierís master pieces in northern Tehran. I am talking about the architecture of the old fabric of Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz, Boushehr, Kerman, Mahan, Semnan, Kashan, Zanjan, Tabriz, and so on>>>

What has happened to us?

Early Saturday morning, poured myself a cup of coffee lazily threw myself on the sofa and turned the TV on, Aljazeera’s news. One suicide bomb after the other had torn people into pieces in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. When the news got to Afghanistan, I felt sick to my stomach. This bomb had taken its victims among children. 6 kids were blown up. The faces of their mothers and fathers came in front of my eyes, crying, pulling their hairs, kneeling on the ground, their faces covered with tears, blood and mud. This is not any thing out of the ordinary any more. It is part of every day life in Afghanistan and Iraq. And exactly this is the problem. We have got used to it.>>>

The nature of freedom

Recently Dr. Parvin sent me a copy of his just-published novel, Alethophobia. Before reading it, I always assumed that the ultimate sanctuary of truth is the world of academia. Apparently this is not always so. The main character in Alethophobia, Professor Pirooz, tells how the fear of truth (alethophobia) affected the lives of a nexus of students, faculty and administrators on the seemingly serene campus of a midwestern university in the 1980’s, and how it threatened to compromise academic freedom as well as his own career. I offered to interview Dr. Parvin about the book, and he agreed. Since we have not yet met in person, this conversation was carried out via phone and email

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Fal-e-Ghahveh

Why are you scared of me?
You say it is my eyes
But my darling, my eyes are only a reflection of yours
Why will you no longer hold me?
You say it is my pain
But what pain I have, you have given me
It dripped from you and I drank it up
It sustains me
And as I look down into the cup from which it pours
At the dark residue it leaves burned at the bottom >>>

Late-night re-runs

The Annapolis summit is not about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It is about the Bush Administration wanting to show the Chinese and Russians and Iranians that it can still command other governments to a round table. The summit will sink because Israel and Palestinians cannot have peace. If they were capable of or desirous of peace, then they would have consummated something a long time ago, just like Jordan and Egypt did with Israel. This summit is designed to achieve nothing and it will not achieve a thing other than to let the participants say, “we tried.” Nothing ventured, nothing lost. >>>

The lost requiem

There are gaps in our history, lost episodes in our collective memory caused not by forgetfulness, but by the deliberate policy of governments and politicians. There are also courageous individuals who fight to bring such material back into the public light. Khosrow Sinai is one such individual. Author of "In the Alleys of Love", “The Inner Monster”, and “Bride of Fire”, Khosrow Sinai is internationally famous for over a hundred short films, documentaries and features. One of his works, “The Lost Requiem”, has never been publicly released. Sidelined and ignored for over a quarter of a century, its content has been deemed too politically sensitive to be shown. Now, at last, its official obscurity is coming to an end>>>

What happened?

There are millions of Iranians, inside and outside of Iran, who are still trying to make sense of what happened to them and their country almost 30 years ago. Some blame it on the British, some on the Americans and some on location of Iran being the crossroads between East and West and therefore more at risk of being the victim of the whims of external forces and their interests. There are also those who have a fatalistic view of this all being the will of Allah and it all becoming very clear soon, an “Aha!” moment in the future.>>>

Kharistan

Have you ever heard of planet Kharistan? Don't be fooled by the name! There are no donkeys in Kharistan. I doubt it anyway. I just recently heard about the existence of this very interesting planet. And amazingly it is also populated. Populated, not by aliens, but by human beings who somehow managed to reach this planet no farther than 1.000503108 trillion light years away. Or maybe it was the other way around and some of them reached planet earth! They mostly have dark skin but not too dark, dark hair, and some are also quite European-looking, almost blond, all of Caucasian race, with almost commonly large ugly noses, pretty much like average Iranians>>>

روشنفکری ایرانی و چهار لایه متناقض

روشنفکری ایرانی حاصل میل ایرانی ها به جبران عقب ماندگی های خود در دو سده اخیر بود. انقلاب مشروطه به عنوان اولین حرکت عظیم سیاسی در ایران عموما به عنوان نقطه عطف روشنفکری از یک جریان خاص به جریان عام گرا تلقی می شود. در طول تاریخ صد و اندی ساله خود روشنفکری ایرانی از مسیرهای عجیبی گذر کرده است.>>>

نهار روز " شکر گزاری"

"به به سلام، چه عجب از این طرفها آقا! خیلی خوش آمدین. مگه اینکه دیگرون دست شمارو بزور بکشند و بیارنتون اینجا، خودتون که اصلاً یادی هم از ما نمیکنین! نه باکفش بفرمائین، تورو خدا در نیارین، صفا اوردین، بفرمائید بریم تو ایوون همه اونجان، بفرمائین." و ماهم با عرض ادب، خضوع و خشوع معمول و چاق سلامتی با شیرین خانم و شوهرشان ایرج خان و چند تن دیگر از میهمانان ایشان که مثل بنده و دوستم مسعود قدری زودتر رسیده بودند دست دادیم و وارد منزل زیبای ایشان که در منطقه با صفائی بنام "پاسیفیک پلی صید" مجاور تپه های سر سبز "سانتا مونیکا" قرار گرفته است شدیم.>>>

Empty voyage

Ms. Rice tells us that George W. Bush has now decided to enter the diplomatic Texas Holdem poker sweepstakes, and that on his first hand, he's prepared to go "all in." She is assuring us that this time around Bush is playing for keepsies, with real peace chips; so that there won't be any question he's going all out to achieve reconciliation for Palestine. And he wants every Arab leaguer to commit, fully cooperate in this Annapolis effort, promising that there will be an open-ended agenda. Open-ended agenda, yeah sure; but meantime Hamas, and any other "unsavory" representation need not show up at Annapolis, for the midshipmen may tag them as "enemy combatants" and Shanghai them on a one-way trip to Guantanamo.>>>

Peace like a river...

Very soon the peace brokers are coming to meet in Annapolis. Men and women of different nationalities and faiths will sit down together by the water searching for peace in a conflict that seems to have no end. Their arguments have been in the making for more than a thousand years. Tonight I will go home to live in a peaceful sanctuary built by two people of different faiths that both cling to their one commonality - God, the One who makes all things possible. Who is full of compassion and mercy....and forgiveness. He holds no grudges to those who are truly regretful. >>>

Mothers and their sons: Secret whispers

Horse-drawn carriage
Skids the stone,
Cemetery's birds sing a
Redeeming but drunken atone.

White-haired woman
Bends on her hump,

From beneath the son says,

"I am safe and sound." >>>