مگی در تلاطم زمانه

در هوای پائیزی به بلفاست رفتن مزه ای دیگر برایم داشت .پل دوست ایرلندی ام به استقبالم در ایستگاه قطار آمد . چمدان کوچک سیاهم را به دنبال خود کشیدم .آخر های ماه سپتامبر بود .پائیز دوست داشتنی از راه رسیده بود .برگ های نارنجی درختان در سراسر راه به روی زمین ریخته شده بودند .خورشید کم جان تر از روزهای قبل بود .مقداری از راه سوار کشتی شدم و در تلاطم دریا امواج شکسته می شدند و باد سرد وادارم می کرد که کت مشکی ام را تنم کنم>>>

Touch the Sky

Blindfoled, hands shackled behind me, I stumble on the ripped hem of my chador. They laugh.

I am dragged by the armpits. My knees bang against each step of the gallows. The crowd cheers, "Death to the prostitute, death to the adulterer."

I've committed no crime. I'm still a virgin.

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No excuse

Canadian government has recently initiated a motion to censure Iranian government over its human rights record in United Nations after its successful work in same direction during last few years since the death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Ms. Zahra Kazemi in year 2003. More that 28 years after establishment of Islamic Republic in Iran, human rights continue to be number one victim of this theocratic government which still remains in revolutionary state to justify the unlawful punishments and human rights abuses even against those who never saw the revolution in their lifetime and did not have any role in it>>>

Something better to do

For those of you who don't know what Ghorme Sabzi is, it's a popular Iranian stew made of beans, chopped vegetables, dried lime and minced meat cooked in a certain order, mixed together and cooked again to be served with white rice. You may ask what does this stew have to do with bombing Iran other that the fact that eating too much of it feels like being bombed from the inside? A few years ago a friend in England sent me an email expressing his concern about the possibility of a preemptive American attack against Iran and thought this would be a disaster for both countries>>>

Forough and me

People here sometimes ask me how I came to things Iranian, and this is a difficult question to respond to. Because one never comes to things like this; these things always come to one. And if I explained how Iran came to me, those who had to ask me would never believe me, and those who would believe me never ever ask. Nonetheless, I shall single out two "events". The first one was September, 11, 2001, when I like many of my "hamvatans", looking deeply into the flames, began to ponder the "Muslim world." But my research led me inexorably to Iran, as though it were a road I'd trodden often long before>>>

Declamations

Humans have zeal
We are creatures
Who venerate
This is true even
For those who
Don’t know
What is worthy?
And find substitutes
In kings, ayatollahs >>>

«ايالات متحدهء ايران»

بنظر من، اصرار مدام بر وجود «ملت های مختلف» در برابر «ملت فارس» و، در همان حال، زير فرش کردن مفهومی به نام «ملت ايران»، نشانگر اين واقعيت است که جدائی طلبان اتفاقاً مشکلی واقعی با آنچه که «ملت فارس» می خوانند ندارند و مشکل اصلی آنها با وجود گسترده و فراگيری به نام «ملت ايران» است.>>>

Meet the resistance

The idea that US and UK would like to see Iraq break apart has valid historical precedence. In fact, this has been their standard strategy around the world and especially in the Middle East. All one has to do is to perform a simple experiment. Find maps of Middle Eastern natural resources and ethnic population distribution from the WWI era, and then superimpose them on top of a map of the current boundaries. When the era of independence came, the Western colonial powers did their best to divide up the resources as much as possible amongst nations with weak governments, which will always have to depend on external support for their existence.>>>

Number theory and lovers

Take the number of your lovers,
Multiplied by the promises you
Made or were made to you
Establish the expanse of your
Heart's vulnerability.

Take the number of days
You have cried alone;
Confirm, in its aftermath,
Your soul's exponential growth.

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More than Lolita in Tehran

We live in a world which still suffers seriously from an “us” versus “them” malady. Even in the absence of such bifocality, representing another culture is a hard thing to do. Now, add the fact that Iran and the U.S. have been embroiled in almost three decades of political conflict. In other words, no one will have a perfect solution. So far the villain versus the victim model has been the one applied most often. It provides something of an immediate relief for the burning questions we have “Why revolution?”, “How to make sense of some trends in present day Iran that seem backward looking?”>>>

God

Who is perfect? My software code is never immaculate. Its flaws confuse my users. Its flaws shatter their belief in who I am. Its flaws start a kind of suspicion in the justness of my design. They name it their suffering and failure. I name it my “bug”, almost like a bad infection. Anyone who is part of this small world feels the agony of my mistakes. If my users had chosen to follow only the pre-defined paths I had imagined in my handy software manual, without going beyond my mindset, they would have never felt desperate or lost.>>>