Letters

March 2005
March 2 | March 3 | March 5 | March 14

Mojahedin Republic of Iran?

In responce to ties between the U.S. and Mojahedin Khalgh organization:

The British and American govt have opted out for yet another fundamentalist Islamic group to come to power in Iran, after the coup in June this year.

We were so much hoping that they will go for Reza Pahlavi and saltanat talaban; helping them to make a coup in Iran, and bring back good old days of prosperity and freedom of thought. But no, Mojahedeen Khalgh have been the lucky org whose name has been pulled out of the hat of American and British coup makers: whose job we have been witnessing recently in Ukraine, Georgia, and right now in Lebanon.

The Americans and the British are hoping Mojahedeen Khalgh, with cooperation of the present Iranian govt will be able to carry out a successful coup, just as their native agents have been doing in Ukraine, Georgia, Moscow, eastern Europe and right now in Lebanon.

The Lebanees coup makers (agents of the British and American Imperialism) have been so successful that within two weeks have managed to get the govt of Lebanon resign and hand the whole thing over to the coup makers.

Sexy but brainless

In responce to Iranian-Norwegian porn star, "Diana":

I feel really disgusted to see such a degrading image of an young Iranian porn star questioned by an equally perverted minded American. If we are to replace the Tchador only to have our women prostitute themselves, I really do not see the progress the West is bringing in terms of Woman Rights.

It is true that Iranians and particularly woman have been suppressed sexually over the centuries and by Islam. That the sexual desires of woman should be taken into account is normal, But is prostitution a sign of emancipation?

Such Iranian girls are a disgrace not only to their country men and women but to their gender.

And then we are surprised when in Dubai Iranian girls are sold like prostitutes ...

This half Norwegian Iranian girl is beautiful and sexy but what she lacks is brains and that is a quality no money can buy.

Dariush KADIVAR

Don't you worry

In responce to Fuad Kazem's "Persian today":

Fouad our Arab brother,

You don't need to tell the Persians by being proud of their heritage indeed they are in fact ignorant in their history! They are not! If our ancestors would not have tried to save our heritage we would have been vanished a long time ago and displaced totally by your ancestors!

So, please leave us alone, and don't tell us how we must feel about our ancestors and culture! Thank you very much for your concern about our country and our well being! Don't you worry, we'll be all right!

Gol dust

Fuck-up acknowledged

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Don't be angry at yourself no more bro! You and I and millions like us did what we did influenced by how we felt given the circumstances of our time and our place. You and I and millions like us were... simply human.

It doesn't matter any more that the mullahs conned us. We collectively fucked up and we know it. The good thing, and by itself a measure of solace, is that we acknowledge that we fucked up. So there is hope for us.

And hope is what makes that next drag so fuckin' pleasing... eere... (violent cough...) I'd love to pass it to you some day for real.

F

Gives me hope

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Thank you for sharing your feelings... it gives me hope.

With best wishes,

Resignation to a truth

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Dear Jahanshah,

Even back in 1990, you were a gifted writer. I had to read a couple more times after the first. There was just so much emotion in it: disappointment, anger, and realization of a discovered truth and stoic resignation to a truth that was once clouded behind false hopes and dreams. Even as a student you wrote with a powerful voice.

In truth I tell you that I rarely compliment others, but when I do... I mean it absolutely. I teach writing at an university and I even have a number of young Iranian students in my classes, but I have only on an extremely few occasions seen a spark of brilliance in my students writings that I and your professor at the time saw in "Death and rebirth".

I am amazed at your command of English fifteen years ago. If I may asked a personal question, merely out of curiosity.... was your mother a native English speaker. There are Iranians who have lived in the USA for 25 years that have not attained the fluency and proficiency in English that you so readily displayed in this poignant essay.

Thanks for sharing it.

Peace,
Jim S.

Don't worry

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Phucking Awesome!

Don't worry, you are redeemed my boy! A 1,000 times over!

In good faith

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Dear Jahanshah,

The argument of your essay is great because it is heartfelt and your English usage makes for a good read. It is a great essay even if it relies on subjective imperical experience and is still convinced of the stability of its new insighta, but greater even is your mom's intervention and supplement, which seeks to open another way forward and brings paradox and art in to counter the weight of the convinced logical grammars, syntactical structures, and the law layed down with a specific new oppostitional pathos.

I am sorry about sometimes being impatient with the old revolutionaries, but must say that I love your courage to engage the matter in good faith, and this is what sets you apart. There is a famous line from a post-war German speaking poet who talks about the "death-bringing-speech" and holds that as the origin of the collapse of the so-called enlightenment project and the high culture into blatant barbarity.

The banners and mottos and slogans that call for death (in Iran and as relayed by compatriots,) must be critically read, before we can get over the collapse of logocentric reason at its height in German Idealism (and beyond) into death factories. Not eating meat remains in the existential isolationism only...

Iranian.com, despite its gravity for the dualistic discourses, remains the way forward.

Thank you again.

Repulsive wandering bird brain

In responce to Jahanshah Javid's "Death & rebirth":

Shame on you. You repulsive wandering bird brain. You and likes of you are responsible for our sufferings, my sufferings. You damned ungrateful meanderer.

Romantic perception of ourselves

In responce to the Iranian who feel they are Persian:

Hi. I'm a 22 year old Iranian born in the UK and it has oftern struck me and baffled me why as soon as Iranians step a foot outside Iran they start to refer to themselves as Persian. It's odd and certainly confusing. In Iran itself we never mention ourselvs as being "Parsi" but proud Irooni. So what makes someone loose that sense of Iranian identity as soon as they cross the boarder? It seems easy to block the association with the current government with one self by assuming they are Persian which is understandable. Yet by refering to ourselves as Persian we are falling into the Western ideal and romantic image of what our country is.

The ancient Sassanians refered to themselves as coming from the country of "Eran", not once mentioning coming from Persia.
I am 22 years old and was born here in the UK but not once refer to myself as Persian but Iranian. Persia is a western name for our country and people, not our own. The wonderful and beautiful thing about being Iranian is that it knows no cultural boundaries or religious conotations. There a Jews in Iran who call themselves Iranian, Armenian Christians who call themselves Iranian, Torks who call themselves Iranian and of course Zoroaster's and Muslims who are Iranian.

By stating we are Persian we are coming to refer to ourselves as a peoples which only includes a reletavly small majority of the population. For instance; I was born in the UK so that makes me British but no matter how long i live here and how long I absorb myself into this culture i will never become English. Yet i am Iranian, and this is the magical thing about being Iranian and not Persian. Persian is a group of people but Iranian is an entire Nation of Peoples.

Our Heritage and culture makes up so much of who we are as does our identity. But by falling into a romantic perception of our identity we loose face. The people who say they are Persian could be any number of different people. I myself say I am Iranian but when thinking about it I could be the offspring of a Greek army officer who on arrival on the Iranian plateu with #alexander the Great had children, so does my ancient heritage make me Greek? I could be Arab, Russian, Hindu or any other number of peoples. If you line up a line of French, English or Scandanavian people you can see and clearly identify the simularity between them as a peoples. But if you line up a group of Iranians you manage to find such a wide range of colours and features it goes beyond belief.

Yet that has nothing to do with being Persian (because geografically the true 'Persians' are in south-west Iran) but has to do with somthing far greater and even more glorious than the Ancient Persian Empires, it has to do with a nation of people, no matter what there religion, creed or cultural bacground, sharing the same land and living beside one another and being the true Indo-Aryians, the Iranian people.

Merci for listening and hope you can forward this to your web site.

Share your grief

In response to Persis Karim's "Baba's passing" for Zarand earthquake victims:

Dear Persis,

Your poem was touching and visual.

Reminded me of the loss of my father two years ago.

I share your grief

Kindest regards

The narcissist God

In response to Orkideh Behrouzan's "Bass kon ey zamin" for Zarand earthquake victims:

This poem so overwhelmed me that I couldn't help remembering all the crap about the perfect creation of a perfect god!

A mystic said,

"He was in love with Himself;
So a mirror house he built,
To see His refelection in it."

The narcissist God must have been purblind too;
His creation so miserably imperfect.

Misguided criticism of nuclear power

In response to Farhad Radmehrian's "Misplaced pride":

Mr Farhad Radmehrian seems to forget that Iran's reactor at Bushehr was not a project of "the mullahs" but was started under the Shah, as part of a broader nuclear program which envisioned the construction of several more such reactors, as encouraged by the US.

He also mentions that Iran has one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, but seems oblivious to the fact that Iran has to export the stuff to earn an income. Iran is already consuming half of its oil output at home. At current rates of population growth, Iran is projected to be a net energy importer rather than an exporter within our lifetimes. And without sufficient energy sources, Iran can't have a pharmaceutical industry, urban planning, or any of the other things Mr Radmehrian complains about.

And I am sure Mr. Radmehrian would then complain about the mullahs didn't build enough nuclear reactors.

Coming undone

In response to a photo essay (which one?) by Jahanshah Javid:

These photos are a map of a mind coming undone. It saddened me. I can appreciate his cries, tears, laughter, and looniness.

Much love to him.

Missing notables

On the coverage of the Bahai faith in iranian.com:

Dear Editorial Staff,

I scanned your index and lists of names important to Iran for evidence that you hold historical truth in the highest regard. I was extremely disappointed simply because the most famous of Iranian names worldwide -- those pertaining to the Bahá'í Faith -- were completely disregarded.

From the UN to Siberia, from Teheran to the remotest islands, the Iranian names Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, and others are revered by growing millions.

I understand Iran's official policy towards this Faith. Yet, denial of a critical component of Persia's relatively recent past can only lead to greater illusions about its future >>> Full text

James A. Williams

Muslims in our midst

In response to Massoud Noghrekar's "The day I became an Iranian American":

Dear Massoud,

I hope that you became an American citizen with a clean heart. Congratulations to you and welcome if you have.

Someday I hope to see my son become an Iranian citizen too - but not as a Muslim, never that. Islam is too much at loggerheads with American values: freedoms of speech, dress, of conscience, of joy; equality between genders, religions, races; human rights.... None of which are assured or even likely in any country or people dominated by Islam as Iran is.

I'm an American that was once married to an Iranian Shi-ite and lived for a year (1981-1982) in Iran. I liked the people and the culture - except for what was contaminated with Islam. I'd accepted Islam before going there, but the experience of living under it soon appalled me with the religion (especially as I read more of the Koran and haddith that supported the bad conduct of the IRI), though I didn't admit this to anyone at that time - not for about 3 or 4 years after I left, in fact. After my first child was born there in Iran, a son, my husband stole him from me and send me back to the U.S. He promised to rejoin me with our son in the U.S., but it was a lie >>> Full text

Must be the water

In response to Massoud Noghrekar's "The day I became an Iranian American":

Dear "twin homelander", wouldn't it be more accurate if you'd ended by saying "now I have a new homeland." Going round and round the "dancing women with the Star and Stripes knickers" and joyful tears of old women of the South to finally saying "up yours" to your invisible friends. It really must be in the drinking water of USA that produces Iranicans.

Shahriar
London

Putin's da man

In response to George Bush's visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin:

My hat is off to Vladimir Putin; finally a world leader shows some sign of manhood (balls).

As much as I hate/despise the current Islamic government of Iran and wish for it to end, I was ecstatic today to hear that Putin is going ahead with selling Uranimum to Iran and offering to put means for defending Iran's nuclear facility in Bushehr against any attacks.

No matter what, the days of the Islamic Republic of Iran are coming to an end and Iran will become a democratic society soon. But the fact that someone finally stood up to these SOB neocon conservative hypocrits in D.C. made my day today.

FF

Twisted and untrue

In response to Arshavez M's "Mujahedin-e Khalq's devolution":

I read this piece (Mujahedin-e Khalq's devolution) which was filled with flaws, half-truths and disinformation and still can't see what the author was trying to say except to express his displeasure that the MEK, as he calls them, might overthrow the Mullah's regime with the backing of the Americans. I am not a fan of the "MEK" either and personally I do not think they are an answer to the aspirations and hopes of the Iranian people. I too regard Mujahedin as a cult and very undemocratic as a political party/force/group. Having said these there are a few points I would like to mention which in my opinion were twisted and untrue:

- The author is blaming the MEK for getting financial and military backing from Saddam Hossien and then later he is pissed with the Americans for backing them after the fall of Saddam. They appear to be, based on authors writing, a well liked bunch who every body wants to help while the author likes nothing less than total destruction of the MEK and loves to see the Mullahs remain in power.

- He claims that "the MEK assisted Iraq's ground forces in critical infantry offensives during the eight year long Iran-Iraq war". The fact of the matter is that Mujahedin were amongst the first group of people who voluntarily went to the front to fight in the war against the Iraqi aggression until they themselves became targets of the Iranian regime while fighting the Iraqis. Secondly, Mujahedin as such went to Iraq in 1985 and formed the so called National Liberation Army (NLA) a year later in 1986 and started their own military campaign against the military bases of the Iranian regime. Note that during this time and long before it, the Iraqis had not organized any military offensive against the Iranian forces and actually it was the Iranian regime who "organized", if you could call these massacres as organized warfare, various offensives in which thousands of innocent, young Iranians were killed. So the claim of Mujahedin helping the Iraqis in their offensives is simply not true and in fact a lie since they weren't even in Iraq then as an army and there weren't any Iraqi offensives during the time they were. This fact about the Iraqi offensives can be easily checked by going through the journals of Iran-Iraq war. The Iraqi military received news of the offensives long before they were to happen from the Americans and other western governments >>> Full text

Open letter to Aghdashloo

This is an open letter to Ms. Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress, following her role in the TV series 24 and also her recent controversial interview which made her image even worse among Iranian community. In fact since then, there have been numerous unanswered questions in my mind and since in her recent interview she pointed out that she regularly visits iranian.com and enjoys molana poem translations here, I thought maybe I could use your wonderful website for putting forward my questions to her?

When I first heard about her acting in 24 I could not believe my ears. What happened to the lady who proudly announced to the press so many times that she would never ever play a terrorist from the middle east ? How could someone change colors so rapidly? And of all countries, Iran and Iranian suppressed women? In fact I, as a woman feel doubly betrayed. At home we are second citizens and suppressed systematically and now the picture that this woman is bringing to American families of Iranian women, is a cold-blooded murderer and bomber who does not show mercy even on her son's teenaged girl friend. Thank you ms. aghdashloo for making all of us feel so invaded and void deep in our hearts >>> Full text

Shirin
San Jose

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