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Friday EDITOR'S NOTE: Personal attacks I think I have to make a clarification about the recent letters exchanged between Kerman01 and Setareh Sabety ["Taste of your own medicine", "Nothing to hide"]. When I first got Kerman01's email attacking Setareh, I didn't want to publish it. In the Letter's section you will frequently see people making outrageous statements and expressing judgements that are either highly subjective or completely false. That's fine. That's what makes this page exciting to read. But to attack someone personally just because they expressed a true or false opinion about a public figure or a government, past or present, is unnecessarily malicious. However, it was Setareh's own decision that Kerman01's email be published, because, as the title of her reply indicated, she has nothing to hide. So the purpose of this debate was not to "expose" Setareh Sabety, rather to show the lengths some people are willing to go to discredit a private citizen with an opposing view. * Akbar Ganji: A traitor I would like to comment about the Iranian of the year, Akbar Ganji. I personally disagree with all the people who did vote for Ganji for several reasons; but I just skip the details and mention one or two to make a long story short. Ganji and his so-called reformist friends and colleagues were the same group who worked wholeheartedly for and with the Islamic regime from the onset of the Islamic revolution. Ganji, Hajjarian and most of these so-called reformists, journalists and overnight writers worked with the intelligence arm or section of the revolutionary guards for more than ten years. That is the main reason for his knowledge or "vast knowledge" of what is going on behind the scenes in the Islamic Republic. His sources for writing a very resourceful book about Hashemi Rafsanjani comes from his years of working very closely with him! >>> FULL TEXT * Self-government Here we go again. By counting "Reza Shah's achievements" Babak is completely missing the point. The problem with Reza Shah and his son was not building railroads, schools and universities or saving the country from disintegration (the mollas have done the same). The problem with them, like the mollas, was that they put themselves above the law and above the people and believed they knew better than all. During the Pahlavi years Iran was a one-man country with no effort to educate people for self-government. Instead of teaching them the art of fishing, they tried to give them some fish (and stole many more themselves). This was their greatest failure. In contrast, in advanced countries, it does not matter who is at the top; the system runs the country. This should be our goal, not praying for a prince to arrive on a white horse and save us all again. Comparing Reza Shah with Ataturk, whom he tried to imitate is absurd. Ataturk never stole people's money, killed innocent opponents or establish a corrupt dynasty.Was Mossadegh, a dictator in the end, like all of the rulers of Iran ? Absolutely. Did he kill and steal and try to establish a dynasty?Absolutely not. We do not need more Reza Shahs or Khameneis. We need an educated nation who knows how to govern itself regardless of who is at the top. * Reza Shah was no Mossadegh Now they are comparing Mossadegh to the Shah ["Reza Shah's achievements"]! A Gandhi-like nationalist to a Marcus-like puppet dictator! Reza Shah was Ataturk's "Mini Me" - a bad diminutive imitation of Ataturk who admired Hitler and Mussolini and was virtually illiterate. He was, by all accounts, a thug with a voracious hunger for other people's land. He forced the unveiling of women. Civil servants' wives had to show up unveiled to pick up their husbands paychecks! Everybody's grandmother can remember that. So my forcing a phony modernization that was really mimicking the West, he contributed to the crises of identity that led to the Islamic Revolution. Women's dress is still a big issue in our society not only because of Sharia laws preoccupation with it but because it was politicized the minute Reza Shah made unveiling mandatory. Much of what happened after the Iranian Revolution is a reaction to these impulsive decisions of Reza Shah. Any student of history with a modicum of objectivity can see that >>> FULL TEXT * Persian heritage Your article on Persia, Iowa ["Found it"] indicated your love for the heritage we all share. A greater "fascination" is that most Iranians don't seem to recognize the difference between Iranian and Persian. Neither one is dead. Iranians are those who come from the land mass called the Iranian Plateau (Falaat-e Iran), which comprises all land from Caucasia to Pakistan, and from Turkmenistan to the Tigris and Euphrates, and all who live within it. It is named after the Indo-Europeans who migrated into the area, before further migration into Turkmenistan and India. Persia, on the other hand, is but one province (Fars), the seat of Persian civilization. Reza Shah was correct in 1935 in renaming Persia, Iran. So, we are Iranians with a Persian heritage. * Thank you Asieh Nowadays, most news from home is not pleasant. So whenever I hear the name of Iran from the radio or TV, spontaneously I say to myself, "Now what?" But this time it was completely different. It was pleasant and gratifying. On Sunday 24th of March, I was watching CNN World Report. CNN's well-known anchor, Asieh Namdar, at the end of a report said, "When we come back, we will take you to Iran, my home country." It had been a long time since I had heard an Iranian public figure in the diaspora so openly and enthusiastically proclaim his or her Iranian nationality. Since Asieh Namdar, a journalist and producer for the world's largest TV news network is not just anybody, and certainly not just any Iranian, she made me, and manty other Iranians who were watching the program, feel very proud . The report was about Noruz celebrations. It was prepared and narrated very well by CNN's Iran correspondent. My pleasure reached its height when, at the end of the report, Asieh wished all Iranians around the world a happy new year by saying "eid shomaa mobaarak". From what I have learned from other sources, Asieh Namdar, unlike some other Iranians in the same profession, seizes every opportunity a to proudly make her nationality known. Thank you Asieh. * Web site + dumb article= wasted time What lessons, exactly, do we learn from "Lessons about men and women"? Seems to me, this document just perpetuates the same archaic, one-dimensional stereotypes. And it's not even clever! The only references missing are sports, beer, and weight anxiety. Literary mathematics smart Web site + dumb article= wasted time * How much time? I have been told you are the owner of Iranian.com. I would like to ask you a quick question: How much time does it to maintain and manage this site per week. Is it more than 2,000 hours per week (five people full-time)? REPLY: I work on this site alone, for about 12 hours a day, every weekday, and a few hours on weekends. -- J. Javid
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