CARTOON
یک سری از اونها رو از روی بیکاری تو هواپیما کشیدم
by
Pendar Yousefi >>>
WOMEN
A laugh at a chaotic situation
by Raheleh Asgarizadeh
When Lyda left, we were all quiet... We were thinking about her ill-fated marriage and her silence in facing the separation... When we passed Haft Hoz Bookstore, we saw the members of the security forces surrounded by a crowd of people. Ehsan told me jokingly: "They are going to arrest you now." I was wearing no make up and I was distressed, my mind still occupied with Lyda’s black eye. So, I laughed. A chador-clad policewoman came charging towards me and said: "Come with me for a few moments."
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VIEW
An Iranian's view of America
Farhad is not just an ordinary friend. I have known him since high school. We were also roommates at college in Iran in the early 1970’s. While a Junior at college, he was arrested by Savak (Shah’s secret police) for distributing political pamphlets, put into prison, and sent to the Army to serve a mandatory 2 years service. I lost touch with him for over 25 years. A few years ago while visiting Iran , a mutual friend invited me to a college reunion in Tehran and it was there that I saw Farhad again. He told me the story of his life and how he was able to finish his engineering degree after completing his term in the army, how he was briefly detained again after the revolution, and how he began working like a ‘normal’ person, as he puts it, in the engineering and construction field.
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POETRY
I am traveling north
Leaving Tehran in a car
With my family
On a snaking road
I am going up and through
The craggy mountains
The air is cool and refreshing
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LETTER
بگوييد که چگونه توانسته ايد از دست
استعمار خلاص شويد؟
by Abdi Sadri, sender
از اين گوشه آسيا شما می تواند به ملت خودتان اطلاعات بدهيد،
تا آنها بدانند در اينجا به طوری که انگليسی ها ايران را معرٌفی کرده اند،
يک مشت آدمخوار زندگی نمی کنند، و از طرف ديگر به فارسی، به عقيده من خوب
است که در صدای آمريکا، طرز آزادی ممالک متحده آمريکا را در جنگ های
استقلال، به ايرانيان بياموزيد و بگوييد که چگونه توانسته ايد از دست
استعمار خلاص شويد؟ و تشويق کنيد که واشنگتن ها و فرانکلن ها در ايران،
برای حفظ استقلال از همان طرق بروند.
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IRAN
If these mountains and fields could talk
by
shahireh sharif >>>
POINT
The Washington Post Declares War on Iran
The Post's unquestioning service to empire is all too familiar. Back in the 1980s, the paper made a habit of playing stenographer to the Reagan administration as it justified its murderous intervention in Central America. Reagan falsely claimed that the US had to train and arm the despicable Contra rebel army against Nicaragua because the country's leadership was channeling Soviet weapons to neighboring El Salvador in a bid to destabilize U.S. client states in the entire region. The Washington Post editorial writers never wavered from that fabricated line, not even when they feigned outrage at the scandalous Iran-Contra scheme by Reagan's subordinates to fund the war on Nicaragua in violation of a Congressional ban.
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SCRIPT
A one-woman performance art piece
I stopped wearing a hejab at twelve, and at thirteen my clothing style
gradually grew shorter. I thought that the entire point of hejab was to
blend a woman with her surroundings, and if my surroundings exercised
their right to bear skin, shouldnŒt my hejab follow in pursuit? For a while it worked, but the longer time passed since I wore my
hejab, the more and more I felt like a sore thumb. I felt displaced,
homeless, and when I sought safety, I would crawl onto my bed and drape
my blanket over my entire head and body. Even today, when I remember
the empty act of praying, I don't remember the foreign words or the
unexplained movements so much as I remember the light, see-through
cloak that enveloped me, embraced me, and if I had any faith in God
during my five daily prayers, it was in the feeling that as long as I
was engulfed by his hejab, I was safe.
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LOVE
يکی از نام های شناخته شده در فرهنگ ما «مجنون» است؛ هم به عنوان نام ديگر «ابن قيس» ی که عاشق زنی به نام «ليلی» می شود و قصه ی عاشقی اش بر سر زبان ها می افتد، و هم به عنوان صفتی برای آن ها که عقل درستی ندارند. اين کلمه از عربی به فرهنگ ما آمده و در آن فرهنگ به معناي «جن زده» بکار می رود و به کسی نسبت داده می شود که حرکات عجيب و غريبی انجام دهد که با رفتارهای عادی مردمان زمانه اش همخوانی نداشته باشد.
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CRUEL
Destruction of the Bahai cemetery in Yazd
by Anonymous
I know not what it is that has overcome this land and nation. With the passing of each day, one notices more and more manifestations of weakness and desperation amongst those who reign powerful. It is as though a wellspring of the uttermost degrees of anger and hatred is gushing out of the depths of their beings. They are lost in a frenzy of bewilderment as to the manner in which to employ all that rage and fury. Their animosity towards the Bahais goes back a long, long, way: they captured the Bahais; killed them; looted their homes and belongings; and fancied that they could extinguish the Divine Light of Truth. But, they did not succeed!
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FOR SALE
And how much for a grave?
Recently I read an interesting article about Iranian security forces
discovering a tunnel that apparently lead to the British Embassy in
Iran. I found the whole affair extremely interesting, not so much
because of the cloak and dagger stuff, but because the Iranian
authorities among other things, accused the Brits of using the tunnel
to bring in prostitutes into the embassy. I was naturally
flabbergasted by this insolence of the British embassy staff. How dare
they doing this in the Islamic Republic? Don't they know that
prostitution is illegal in Iran? Don't they know that the wise rulers
of the Islamic Republic allow temporary marriages (from a few hours to
many weeks or months, depending on one's stamina)? But what can you
expect of these foreigners? They don't know much about the country. So
I have taken it upon myself to educate them on how the Islamic Republic
functions.
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FILM
A screenplay by Ren A. Hakim
Interestingly Hollywood may well discover a new and interesting version of the legendary tale of Xerxes and Esther thanks to a script written by a beautiful American actor/writer of Iraqi heritage: Ren A. Hakim. All the more interesting is that Hakim's script is titled
Xerxes and tries to take a look at this story from the perspective of the King whose reign saw the expansion of the Persian Empire to its pinnacle and during which the Palace of Persepolis was to be completed as an architectural Imperial legacy for future generations before its fatal destruction and burning centuries later by Alexander the Great.
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STORY
Whoever I may be, I know that now I’m the precise and perfect meaning of my name
I don’t know the meaning of my name. But I know one thing: my name is entirely what I am. Already, I’ve forgotten the name that’s given to me. Maybe if I think harder, I’ll remember it. Yet I feel no urge to look for it: it was like all those things that must have been lost, those that must have been gone and set free in formlessness. I shaped my new name on my own, though. First, it was simply an insignificant speck of pollen among thousands of other specks, drifting around in the air, searching for the pistil. I waved at that very spec and it floated toward me. “Just don’t forget to water me everyday,” it whispered.
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MOSSADEGH
Going to bat for Mossadegh
In moments of statistical introspection, I wonder if LA Dodgers fans are generally Pahlavi supporters. The occasional Shah picture posted on huge Westwood billboards, and the handful of TV stations time capsuling pre-revolution Tehran are tempting bits of data. San Francisco Giants fans, on the other hand, are likely pro-Mossadegh, though I lack the evidence of billboards. Needless to say, Giants rule and Dodgers suck, but it is nice occasionally to brawl with facts and reason. Two meticulously researched books by Oxford scholar Homa Katouzian hit the ball right out of the ballpark for the Giants.
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