The response to the first issue of The Iranian was overwhelming, but not unexpected.

It is an undeniable fact that Iranians abroad do not have a publication that can satisfy their broad range of views and backgrounds.

Even in the United States, Iranian media serve specific sectors of the community. Some are politically motivated, some focus on intellectual issues, some offer to entertain, some specialize in business and others cover local community issues.

I recently had an interesting discussion with a respected Iranian publisher in the United States. The topic was the lack of a publication for all Iranians.

We both basically agreed that there was a need for such a thing as an Iranian "Life" magazine. Something that every Iranian could pick up and read without being offended or disgusted one way or the other.

I believe that this is possible. The vast majority of your responses to the the first issue of The Iranian also suggested that it is possible. We were able to get more than 70,000 requests, from 2,500 hosts in more than 20 countries in less than two months.

I am not claiming that these numbers are phenomenal or that our magazine is the Iranian "Life" magazine. But with the first and current issue, I hope we have shown that there is a hungry audience out there and that serving their long-neglected needs is not an impossible task.

The Iranian, as our staff page exactly indicates, is a miniature operation. What you see is the result of the volunteer efforts of three people, plus the contributions of a few Internet friends. Last month, Omid Payrow and Bahar Jaberi responded to our call for articles. This month they are joined by "dAyi" Hamid Ganjineh and Elizabeth Malekzadeh.

Kare hazrat fil nist. With your help and support, plus more than a bit of honesty and open-mindedness, it's doable.

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