Diaspora

Motherhood Sucks

So your are a highly educated and highly paid director and you want to have a baby. Your body is screaming BABY, BABY. Every baby you see either pisses you off or makes you teary eyed, because you want your own. Finally, the time comes and you and your husband are ready; Planned parenthood, what a concept. You are settled financially, mentally and in all other ways. You've been there, done that and so now the time is right>>>

من راضی ام

در اين کنفرانس من توضيح دادم که از نظر ما انحلال طلبان «گذار به دموکراسی» نام ديگری جز برانداختن حکومت اسلامی بهر صورت ممکن، انحلال ساختار آن و لغو قانون اساسی اش ندارد و در مسير مبارزه برای اين هدف ما همهء اصلاح طلبان و اقمارشان را تخته سنگی فرو افتاده در راه خود می دانيم>>>

Persian for Peace

Usually on the night before a marathon or an ultra-marathon race, we eat early and try to go to bed early. To relax and ease ourselves into asleep, we often read something inspiring or the information materials given to us at the race expo to make sure we have all the necessary information. The night before the 2010 race, I was doing just that. In the middle of the official publication of the Boston Marathon Association I came across an article that woke me up completely, and indeed distressed me>>>

Collateral victims

A recent federal case against an American charitable organization, (United States of America v. Mehrdad Yasrebi and Child Foundation, 05-CR-413 KI (Oregon)), reveals the unfortunate state of Muslim-Americans, the potential of peoples’ diplomacy, and the legal and practical problems with economic sanctions>>>

"رفیق بد" و بی تاثیر نبودن " ذغال خوب"

 زمانی که در منطقه "انسینو" ی لوس آنجلس زندگی می کردم, به ورزشگاه "هالیدی اسپا" می رفتم، گاهی سری هم به "حمام بخار" می زدم,  چهره ها محو در بخار بود ولی صحبت بفارسی را می شنیدم. که بدون اشاره به "رفیق بد"، اشاراتی به " ذغال خوب" داشتند. دوستانی که بتازگی از ایران بازدید کرده بودند و داستانهایی شنیدنی برای همپالکی هایشان تعریف می کردند و صحبتهایشان همچون همان ذغال مطروحه "گل" می انداخت>>>

Shash of Sunset

You've all had your chances... Now it's my turn. SOS is a good moniker for the new Shah's of Sunset. But maybe we should modify it to SOSAS Because clearly, desperately, someone certainly needs to Save our Ship, and Souls to boot. In spite of everything that is wrong about it, the Shah's of Sunset is likely to stay. [Daram Cheshmesh Mizanam, beh Amrikai-ha Nagin!] The more we scream about it, the more everyone watches, and the more the producers are inclined to keep it going>>>

Castle In The Sky

Last night I had a fabulous dream, though it couldn’t have had a more bizarre setting. While the location seemed suitable for a wedding, I knew it was the San Diego Museum of Art, a magnificent building in a floral garden. However, unlike other times, on this visit only one section of the museum was open for viewing as the rest prepared to receive hundreds of guests. The entire event seemed to be about my homeland Iran, its glorious history, and even NoRooz>>>

30 Years Later

This writing is not about my life but about a generation of Iranians between the ages of 45-55 who left Iran around the revolution. It’s the naked truth about an entire generation of exiled people who have lost their identity, their hopes and dreams, feel alone and lost and for the most part live in severe undiagnosed depression>>>

Shahs of Tehrangeles

I watched two very different Iranian worlds depicted in the powerful medium of film: one reality meticulously masked as fiction, one semi-fiction frivolously packaged as reality. Bear with me. 1. The first is the 2012 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film -- A Separation -- written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. 2. The second is episode 2 of the reality TV show Shahs of Sunset: It's My Birthday Bitches produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions for Bravo>>>

Get a freakin' life, people!

The problem with Iranians is, number one, that we are a very critical bunch. We're very quick to criticize one another and point out inadequacies and deficiencies. Secondly, we are so image conscious (and, frankly, pompous) that we think that a reality show about our community must necessarily feature doctors, lawyers, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. After all, we're one of the most highly educated and successful groups in the US>>>

We are Persians… Hello!

What upsets us most about the Shahs of Sunset is its accurate depiction of the Iranian psyche. The Shahs are real. Like many of us, they are a group of fun-loving, hard-drinking, backstabbing, money-worshiping, showoffs who spend every minute of the day reminding each other how much they know about everything. The only difference between Shahs and the rest of us is that we fake the funk and they hump the trunk. Shahs are vain and unapologetic. They do not seem to be constrained by a typical double life that the rest of us lead>>>

The bad, the worse and the ugly

To say that the “Shahs of Sunset” is “bad” would be a redundancy, given that it’s a so-called “reality show.” These days, even the most trusting television viewer knows there’s nothing “real” about reality TV. As Time magazine put it six years ago, “Quotes are manufactured, crushes and feuds constructed out of whole cloth, episodes planned in multi-act ‘storyboards’ before taping, scenes stitched together out of footage shot days apart.”>>>

Knock Ourselves Down

“A Separation” is the story of a typical family going through normal life issues, a sentiment any culture would appreciate. The film is about the struggle of a mother wanting the best for her daughter, the struggle of a son taking care of his elderly father. These are the issues most Iranian American families are concerned with every day; kind, upstanding and respectful sentiments. Enter “Shah's of Sunset," produced by Ryan Seacrest. There we go again knocking ourselves down>>>