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Alefba

Farshchian

Sehaty Foreign Exchange

    Letters

Wednesday
December 20 2000

Censorship, just like in Iran

Dear Nariman,

Your point of view of there being absolute censorship by iranian.com is validated and true. Many times I have written very nice responses to attacks against my points of view, only for them never to be put in the letters section.

Furthermore, because my initial view was supposedly controversial ["Real Iranian girls?"], when I decided to write a poem (see below), for instance it was never published by iranian.com. Yet I decided to write another poem, and had a friend submit it under her name, and guess what? The next week it was published by iranian.com.

I am usually one who accepts all different opinions and as a law student am most definitely used to two, three, or four sides of an issue. It really disturbs me that there are indeed people who call themselves "progressive liberals" yet who reject freedom of ideas and expressions WHEN THOSE IDEAS CONTRADICT THEIR VIEW POINTS. I know now that there is nothing redeeming in iranian.com, and I am saddened by this fact, because just like the censorship laws during the pre and post-revolutionary Iran, this gentelman has brought this archaic notion to something like this.

I am quite certain that he is very concious of this effort and while I will read iranian.com, I will always look for something else with a more open minded position. It is very hyper-hypocritical for one to assume that "saving face" to pursuade one's perceived outlook on life can happen, and then to remain silent and not apologising for this indiscretion to the readers is why people who are intelligent often make radical changes. In the end the entire issue of Maryam & Daryl ["Drawing the line"] is irrelevant when the very adversarial nature of the debate is stiffled. It is self defeating.

I am sure this will not be put up in the letters section and for now on I will have to send to friends my work to get a point of view.

Cyrus Raafat

To top

Poetry or philosophy?

....

people often get out of life what they put into it,

if they seek something and put the effort into getting

it then usually they can reach it....

....

sometimes those who have a hard time give up,

and others persevere,

even others change directions....

....

circumstances and external factors alter the way life

can deliver outcomes,

but so are the actions the person makes to defy or

defeat those difficulties....

....

examples abound when one looks for guidance

let it be known Rome was not built in a day,

nor destroyed in a day....either way it took

sacrifice, planning, courage, audacity, and yes,

even defiance....

....

no man is an island unto himself, and yet there is

something we can not explain, and that is love?

....

so what is love?

....

philosophers and poets have had a terrible time since

man could utter one profound word on this question....

....

none could answer, except question quizzically....

is it that Empire, Rome? Or is it something more like

the Romans used to say it was...

....

of the heart?

....

either way it can not be built in a day and it takes

all the same to be had.

Cyrus Raafat, 1 November 2000. Dedicated to T.B-A. of Tehran, Iran who inspired this declamation.

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