Iranian of the Day

Arzoo Osanloo.........well I was going to get the ...........

 Well, I had intended to get any of your scholarly articles through the university website at UHD. I have just been a little busy. So that I can read your work myself.

Natalia Nadia

My nomination

Thank you for the nomination. I just learned of it today as I was in Iran for the past month working on a new research project. I would like to respond to those who accuse me of being an "apologist" by asking them to simply read my work. Perhaps you are not aware of the organization, Campus Watch, and their reputation for slandering faculty whom they deem to be "liberal". The comment was drawn from a false account, by Campus Watch representative, of my talk at Stanford in May. It is not clear to me that the author of the piece, Ms. Cinnamon Stillwell, was even in attendance. Despite the fact that my talk was videotaped, she misquoted me and paraphrased my words to give a meaning that she attributed to my talk. She never spoke to me. She then circulated her article on right wing internet sites. I hope the Iranian community is willing to consider first hand evidence rather than 4th and 5th party hearsay to make assessments about academic scholarship. I am happy to email my articles to anyone who writes to me. Thank you again for nominating me.

Best wishes, Arzoo Osanloo

Bachech Porroo: Many thanks :o)

 Many thanks for the nomination but if I could I would nominate one of the women who volunteer with me at the Women's Shelter Center. They are my inspiration. Sadly, they do not qualify due to not being Iranian.

 I did not realize at first that you thought I was a man, which would explain one of my very offended comments.  :o)   In my Hispanic community Sasha's are normally women. Actually there was one very famous actress named Sasha Montenegro.  I just did not want to use my real name. You see, I was named after both my paternal and maternal grandmothers. My parents felt I was meant to have their name, after all what are the odds that they would both have the same name. I just could not bare to see their name dragged through the mud as they tend to do so on iranian.com. Sasha and Natasha are two of my childhood nicknames. So I have decided to combine them in my comments from now on to avoid any further confusion.

I did enjoy the debate and thank you for taking the time in  writing an intelligent and detailed response (s). I must say you have such passion for the subject matter. I must also note and thank you for not using any bad words toward me as they also tend to do on iranian.com. Very well done. :o)

One more thing and I just could not resist in mentioning it. You forgot to say"She does all this while keeping her clothes on". Ha! Ha! :o) Which may be a disapointment to the men but they shall have to survive. Ha! Ha! 

moraghebe khodet bash dooste man

khodahafez

Natasha

Natasha: Iranian of the Day

Natasha, You are my choice for the Iranian of the Day! You have many positive attributes. You are: honest, good humored, humble, well read, inquisitive, realistic, compassionate, and equally importantly, interested in Iranian affairs. I am sure that there are many more positive attributes to your credit but these are good enough to qualify you as my nomination for he Iranian of the Day.
JJ! Are you taking notes?
By the way, all along, I thought that Sasha was a man (I can name at least two male Sashas). So, no offense was intended.

Reply to bacheh porroo: Clarification needed

 Salam

A friend of mine just explained a few things to me. So now it is my turn to explain a few things to you. First of all I am not Iranian, I am Hispanic. You want it more specific, I am a Mexican. Second of all I am very much a woman and very much attracted to men. Thirdly,  I am a 1/2 generation American and was raised in a very traditional Hispanic home, in which the daughters were raised to be passive in their actions and speech. I have done my best to break from being very passive but when it comes to my writing I just cannot seem to break free from it. Now, you will understand why I was easier in agreeing with you on some points. I am at iranian.com to gain knowledge and not to attack anyone. I have been doing my individual study of Iranian culture and I have found this place very interesting and amusing at times.

My apologies in that I did not realize that anyone can submit a photo to JJ as their vote for the Iranian of the Day. I thought it was JJ who researched, thought carefully about it and then made his choice. Which begs the question, have you ever turned in a name and photo of your choice for Iranian of the Day? Hmmmmmmmmm. I would certainly love to see, who you deem worthy of praise and admiration.

I will admit,  if you do not chew me out again. I honestly thought that Ms. Osanloo was a more modern thinker. I want you to know that I will look into what research papers she has published to detemine better what her views are on the matter of women.

So your debate was not in vain, as it has enlightned what you considered a closed mind. I can assure you that my mind has a voracious apetite for knowledge. By the way my specs are crystal clear now. I gave up my rose colored specs in childhood.

Have fun with your pin up porn stars.

moraghebe khodet bash dooste man

khodahafez

Natasha

PS:  I did read that link you provided earlier. I will concur that my women Iranian friends that live in Iran do wish to have the freedom that I am experiencing in the US.

Interesting comment bacheh porro

First of all you accuse me of changing the line of argument when in fact I never questioned your sexual orientation in any way, form or manner. Secondly, I never said I agreed with her ideology. She was not selected for Iranian of the Day because of her ideology. Perhaps you should put on some objective specs. In no way or form do I agree with the backward treatment of women or homosexuals in Iran. You are free to argue your point until you turn blue in the face, after all iranian.com is in the US where people have the right to speak their mind. Many have said that the US also does not hold nothing sacred this days, which fits right in with iranian.com.  I do not change the topic in the debate because I am losing an argument. I am not here to argue but to make a logical observation and hopefully logical comment. I know that there are other Iranians with more impressive academic credentials and more worthy of the title Iranian of the Day but like you and I mentioned before JJ decides who it will be. His definition is askew because now you do not even have to be from the Iranian ethnic group to be Iranian of the Day. You don't even have to have morals. So go ahead drag my good name through the mud if it makes you feel better but that does not change the fact that JJ will do what JJ wants. Do you feel much better now that you called me a lesbian? Are you swelling with pride because you insulted the little Latina? Big, brave and strong man?Hmmmmmmmmmmm ..........Give your self a pad in the back.

A mullahs apologist nonetheless

Sasha you obviously have trouble following a straight line in a debate and change the topic when you feel you are losing the argument. There is no problem with Osanloo being the Iranian of the Day. There are many new-born babies who are Iranians of the Day. You don't seem to get it that Iranian of the day can be ANYBODY. It ranges from the Islamic republic's Ahmadinejad to the porn dancer whose great grand father may have been Iranian or simply has an Iranian sounding name. But you are clearly one of those guys who wear a rose colored glasses and think that everyone who is the Iranian of the day is immune to criticism. Well, sorry to have to disappoint you buddy, this is not what Iranian.com stands for. Remember: Nothing is Sacred!

Now you concede that she is imperfect. Big deal! There are thousands of young, middle aged and elder Iranian women all around the world who have more impressive academic degrees and achievements than Osanloo BUT do not make such flagrantly non factual she makes, e.g. "under the Sharia laws, women in Iran have made great strides since the mullahs revolution"!! Really? Is she referring to the marriage law that gives the man the right to take up to four wives or is she alluding to the right of the man to stop his wife from traveling out of the country as well as the right to refuse divorcing her? Perhaps she is suggesting that stoning an alleged adulteress and simply lashing the adulterer is a great stride for the women of Iran whose legal testimony is counted only half credible as that of a man's testimony! But I am not the only one who sees it that way. Take a look here: (from Campus Watch Research //www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3496):

Discussion about the plight of women in the Muslim world was marred by anti-Western sentiment. University of Washington anthropology and law professor Arzoo Osanloo picked up on this theme by decrying "Western, paternalistic attitudes towards Muslim women." Osanloo was concerned that "Islamic liberalism" would be "obscured by Western involvement," particularly in Iran.
Osanloo tried to focus on "Islamic feminism," but her insistence that women had made great strides in post-Islamic revolution Iran through the use of Sharia law was a stretch. It didn't help that she omitted any reference to the Iranian regimes' current crackdown, including brutal beatings, on unveiled women and their arrest and detention of Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Osanloo's stated desire to "move beyond the binarism of East vs. West" was belied by an attitude of stubborn opposition to everything Western. There was no acknowledgement by any of the women present that Western culture has given them lives that would be the envy of their counterparts in the Middle East.

Similarly, the willful blindness of a group of scholars and students denouncing the West from their positions of power and privilege in the favored surroundings of Stanford University came across as utterly hypocritical.

This is the trouble with a bunch of titish maamaani kids who thanks to their well off education provided to them by their parents have studied some theories away from the realties of life under the mullahs in Iran and now from the position of comfort in some American universities still bark their genetically inherited biases against the very system that allowed them to earn that so-called education.

Sorry to have shaken your rose tinted specs off your face Sasha. I am more than happy to have Ms Osanloo as the Iranian of the day as it gives us a chance to have her exposed for what she truly is. If you are sexually attracted to her, like Ali, it's your right but personally I find the porn actresses nominated as the Iranian of the day far more attractive and far more honest than Osanloo!

Ali you are a funny man

What a beauty

Please forgive me for being a jerk, bur I can get over it. You are so gorgeous. I don't mean to step over your academic achievments and your committment to the cause, but... you are a dream, I wish I could meet you or know you. You are the perfect 10, someone to fell in love with, someone to dream about. What a smile..... sorry for being so shalow minded, but my god, you are gorgeous!!

Reply to Bacheh porroo

As to where have I been all this time?  I am beginning to think I have been living a sheltered life. Ha! Ha! :o) Excuse me but I am not the one that is clueless here. One name comes to mind Soraya the singer, she is not even Iranian and she was selected as Iranian of the Day. Give me a break. I think the woman is a Spaniard. Let me see....hmmmmmmmmmm.........yeah it was not I who picked her as Iranian of the Day.

I know the woman is not perfect but she is an Iranian, scholar and probably a good woman (she is keeping her clothes on). Just because she differs in ideology with you does not mean she is not a good candidate for Iranian of the day. Like you pointed out,  there have been worst choices. I am not sure what JJ was thinking but I can assure you I would have done a better job. As I mentioned before, Iranian of the Day to me, should be  held to a higher standard. Being able to strip your clothes off does not meet those qualifications.

So tell me now who is being the realist and who is being too unrealistic. Where have you been all this time? :o)

Best wishes

Sasha

Popularity? at what price?

Where have you been all this time Sasha? Iranian of the Day can be ANYONE! Ironically you are right: "... Iranian of the Day is a recognition of the work and self sacrifice the individual undertook to overcome obstacles in their life to reach their level of success. Look at these examples for self sacrifice and the levels of success:
//iranian.com/PhotoDay/2006/April/ahmadi....
//iranian.com/PhotoDay/2005/August/khatam...
//iranian.com/PhotoDay/2005/April/larijan...

And as for "turning it into something wicked":
//iranian.com/PhotoDay/2005/December/pers...
//iranian.com/PhotoDay/2004/August/aylar....
I prefer the wicked ones don't you?
Popularity is perhaps good BUT at what price? Obviously you have no clue.

To Bacheh porroo: Why?

I want to know Why?  Here you have a hard working, highly intelligent and determined Iranian selected as the Iranian of the day and you have to turn it into something wicked. I do not understand. To me the Iranian of the Day is a recognition of the work and self sacrifice the individual undertook to overcome obstacles in their life to reach their level of success. Not everyone can attend the prestigous university she graduated from and actually graduate without being brilliant. Once again proving to the Iranian community and the World that Iranians are highly intelligent.

Professor of Islamic Apologetics

She is just another regime apologist. See this:

"Apologetics: In May at Stanford, Arzoo Osanloo of the University of Washington decried "Western, paternalistic attitudes towards Muslim women," and asserted that Iranian women had made great strides since the 1979 revolution that brought the mullahs to power and implemented Sharia law."

source:
//www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3891

How cool!

How cool!

I totally agree

She is definitly an Iranian of the Day. Truly an inspiration to Iranians and women of all ethnic backgrounds. I wish her the best for her present and future endeavors.