Insects infect cultural understanding

Research has shown that in most cases Americans’ attitude toward other nations is a reflection of our government’s foreign policy. This is ever more the case when there are hostilities between two countries and the lives of ordinary people are affected by such hostility. Media frenzy and sensationalism can further reinforce such hostilities and adds fire to the flames of stereotyping, stigmatizing, dehumanizing, and even war-mongering. Unfortunately, this has been the case for the United States and Iran since Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students took American diplomats as hostages and held them for 444 days.>>>

Life in two nations

While I found myself concerned about this being another nostalgic look back at Iran through the eyes of an Iranian woman’s memoir, instead I encountered A Mirror Garden as a bildungsroman—a tale of growing up and self-realization—and of the ways that a woman’s perseverance, vision, and good fortune, lead not necessarily to a fairy tale ending, but a rather, a clear sense of being and acting in the world. This is a narrative that indeed runs against the notion what has been so regularly drummed into Americans—that women of Middle Eastern cultures — whether Iranian or Arab — are merely being acted upon and have no agency.>>>

نیاز

دوستت دارم
اما تنها به اندازه ی آن نیاز سراپا مستی
که در رگهایم هست سرشار
به قدر آن شعبده ی ظریفی که در لبخنده ات پیداست
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My real Iranian

Forty-three days ago, my wife and I buried our only son. Although he was a teenager, he was our baby. He was his mother's bright and shining angel and he was my best friend. I feel so broken and empty because now that I have had time to replay his short life in my mind a hundred thousand times, I don't think that I told him enough just how much I loved him and how very much he meant to me. The thing that hurts the most is that I know that there's nothing I can ever do to change any of that now. If God would give me just an hour to sit with my son and tell him goodbye, I would be willing to pay any price, but I know that is not going to happen.>>>

End of the world

I asked the young Russian woman who was my translator whether they were saying anything about Ahmad Shah Massoud’s health after the explosion. She listened and said: “Some say he is still alive. Americans say he is dead.” In the afternoon, as we were driving back into the city, I asked her again if there was any news about Ahmad Shah Massoud. She listened and said: “No news about Shah Massoud. But they say an airplane ran into the World Trade Center in New York.” I didn’t believe her. She had made some mistakes with her English earlier that week, and I was sure she didn’t know what she was talking about. She was quiet and I kept quiet, too.>>>

خیال بهار

اینجا هنوز
زمستان در هوا موج می­زند
دست­ها
سرما را
تا مغز استخوان رسم می­کنند
قاصدک
گویی خیال رساندن پیام بهار را ندارد
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Your wish has come true

You need the greatest amount of freedom for the greatest possible diversity. So I am happy to announce that from this moment on EVERYBODY can leave a comment below articles, photos, cartoons, etc. You do not need to register. We were hoping that most people would see value in registering. But since the launch of the new design, it has become apparent that the registration process has not appealed to average users. I got lots of feedback about this and the number one complaint was the need to register. >>>

Then and now

Much has happened in the world since September 11th, 2001. For one the terrorists seem to be winning the war on terror. They are more prominent, more popular and more active than before. They now have a new base in Iraq and “the liberation” of Afghanistan and Iraq is nothing but a joke. Iran was the only victor in the war with Iraq. The U.S. did such a bad job of occupying Iraq that anyone, like Ahmadinejad, who resists her in the region is deemed a hero. The Americans learned the hard way that it was much more difficult to bomb an ideology or a belief system than cities, towns and villages. The U.S. and her allies found out that unlike Saddam Hussein, fundamentalist Islam cannot be chased out of its entrenchment with guns.>>>

Separation of mosque & citizens

Today, September 11th 2007, the Committee of Ex-Muslims is officially founded in The Netherlands. Ehsan Jami (22), a young Iranian member of the city council from Leidschendam, wants to raise awareness about apostasy in Islam. He is worried about the human rights of those who are born into the religion of Islam, but who no longer wish to believe. In Islam apostasy is not accepted and is punished with the death sentence. In The Netherlands where the number of Muslims is growing more than any other religion, there are growing numbers of honor killings and violence in cases when Muslims chose to turn their backs to the Islam.>>>

هم آغوشی در وقت آمدن ارتش آزادی بخش

خیلی ها داشتند نماز می خواندند.زن بغل دستی ام روسری را در دستانش داشت می پیچید و می گفت آقا تا میدان آزادی خیلی راه مونده .به دست هایش نگاه کردم و روسریش را از پنجره به بیرون انداختم و گفتم تا چند دقیقه دیگر می رسیم خانم !راننده ترانه ی شادی را گذاشته بود و خیلی ها داشتند می رقصیدند . سربازان امریکایی داشتند در خیابان جیجون عده ای را تیر باران می کردند .سربازان انگلیسی و اسرائیلی آن طرف تر داشتند مسجدی را آتش می زدند .دسته های مردم در میدان آزادی جمع شده بودند و خیل عطیمی از روحانی های ریش دار را دار می زدند.

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Numb

I clearly remember the moment I heard the news on the morning of Sept 11th 2001: I didn’t feel anything. It didn’t strike me at all. I could have heard “The stock market has crashed” or “There is shortage of flu vaccine,” and my reaction would have been the same. I couldn’t understand why Americans were shocked. Hadn’t they been warned by those angry men parading in the streets on the other side of the world--the part of the world from which I escaped? Hadn’t they heard over and over, the shouts of “Death to America?” Hadn’t they felt the heat of hatred burning from those grieving women draped in black chador, the heat so intense it turned to ash any illusions of peace?>>>

Remembering the unforgettable

It is said that "powerlessness frustrates and absolute powerlessness frustrates absolutely; absolute frustration is a dangerous emotion to run a world with." Sometimes I wonder why I am so restless, why I cannot cease thinking! It seems like the world we live in reveals to us incessantly, at certain moments or in certain circumstances, just how little we are and how vast the universe is. This world of ours is a very complex world. The world we live in is a world of many brutal voices. It is a world of heavy blows and delirious trances, but it is the only world that we know.>>>

Not important

The world has changed dramatically ever since the 9/11 attacks because of some changes completely irrelevant to the causes or consequences of the attackers or the Western reactions to the attackers. The world has changed over the past 6 years in a very good way, technologically, materially and in many other ways, and some of changes have not been that great. The 9/11 attacks and its consequences have been nothing but news in fact. It has not been like World War II when people's lives were affected and the whole world suffered and changed becasue of the war.>>>