Letters
November 29-December 3, 1999 / Azar 8-12, 1378
Today
* Identity:
- Long live Iran
* Thanksgiving:
- Thanking Allah for this blessed land
Previous
* Census:
- Iranians in the U.S.: political power
* The Iranian:
- Persoanl agenda
* Politics:
- Lengesh kon!
* Thanksgiving:
- More thankful than Americans
- Top ten
* Sex:
- Erotic Sufi tradition
* Khomeini:
- Delplored life, glorified death
* Identity:
- Predictable behavior
email us
Friday,
December 3, 1999
* Long live Iran
I believe very strongly in where I'm from. Iran. And even though I'm
an American citizen influenced by many American views, that does not affect
my beliefs. I have one hundred percent Iranian blood!
As a fourteen-year-old I have spent four of my summers there. And my
expierence cannot be put into words. It was all just so beautiful; the
people, the places, the food. I know that the love of my country is more
than the love Shakspeare had for writng. And that this bond is here to
stay until the end of life.
What I do not understand is why my country is always being ridiculed,
and why I see so many Iranians hide their true identity. That's the worst
part. It hurts me so much to see the one thing I am so proud of, so cowardly
hidden by other Iranians.
I believe that these people, mostly teenagers, some adults, are afraid.
Afraid of not being what other people want them to be. But it is themselves
they should be afraid of. They can go through life pleasing everyone, letting
them hear what they want, and see what they want to see. But if they can't
look back into the eyes of the person in the mirror then they are no one,
they are a puppet, with no heart or feelings.
And another thing: Long live Iran!
Rahill Jamalifard
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* Thanking Allah for this blessed land
In response to, "What are you thankful for?"
"What am I thankful for?" the thought came to my mind as I
went through my pile of daily email on Thansgiving day. I couldn't help
remembering the collage of self-pity, searching-for-self-and-identity crap
I had read in the The Iranian Times in the past.
So we all found our way to North America at one time or other. Some
of us were young teens when we called our old country "home",
and some were old and needy. But the fact remains that we did end up here.
And the fact remains that we all chose to live here.
I found myself in south Florida this Thanksgiving. I had to be away
from my tribe and away from our annual Thanksgiving gathering north of
San Luis Obispo, California, this year. South Florida has very few Iranians
but all kinds of people from other cultures. Its culture is one step ahead
of the Third World and not quite America yet. Its people are almost as
diverse as San Francisco's East Bay and its climate is worse than what
I remember of the Abadan of my childhood.
I had Thanksgiving dinner with an American Jewish and Catholic family.
There were people fresh off the boat with a lesbian couple from New York,
an aging cross-dressing couple, a retired US army captain, a few long-haired
people stuck in the 60s, bunch of kids and I - the Iranian guy from California.
We ate turkey and stuffing, partied and drank. I taught them to say "Beh
salaamati " and I said "Lekha'im" every other time we raised
our glasses.
All of us newcomers came here for various reasons and this great country
accepted us with open arms and treated us like its own children. Thanksgiving
to me is all about thanking Allah for this blessed land.
Kamran Behzadian
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Thursday
December 2, 1999
* Iranians in the U.S.: political power
As Iranian-Americans - according to US government there are more than
a million of us - we have to begin concentrating on our identity and status
here, in our new home! On the eve of the 2000 US presidential elections
and the upcoming Census 2000,
we have to make a concerted and aggressive effort to declare our significant
existence to the political establishment.
We must begin developing our political power base in whatever party
we happen to lean towards. We should also prepare for Census 2000 and plan
to provide the type of racial information that will put Iranians on the
map as a legitimate and significant minority. This census will be our best
chance for being counted (for more information search for Census
2000 on the Web) ... FULL
TEXT
Ben Bagheri
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* Personal agenda
You know, Jahanshah, if you weren't such a fucking asshole who puts
his own personal agenda and views ahead of journalistic integrity and impartiality,
I (and I'm sure others as well) would actually feel comfortable writing
a letter or two to your magazine in response to something, knowing that
you'd post it. But NO, instead we must resort to writing individual letters
to people, which is fine. But I (as an ex-journalist myself) just wanted
to tell you what I think of you.
Sina Dadfarmay
Jahanshah Javid replies: I can and will have a personal agenda. I
think my track record proves I'm fair towards everybody. I LIKE being fair.
You don't think I'm fair enough, don't read it.
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Wednesday
December 1 1999
* Lengesh kon!
Mr. Qezelbash's commentary on recent events in Iran ["It's over"]
is very valid and lands a bull's eye! What a shame for the rest of us to
sit back here in the comfort of our new found homes and criticize the snapper-head
hard-liners in Iran. I have to admit that I am indeed one of those folks.
I continually wish for a better Iran for the Iranians who live there
and can't get out. I continuously wish for a better Iran for the rest of
us Iranians living abroad and have never been back to Iran since the revolution.
I continuously wish for a better Iran for me to return, visit and come
to a closure. I continuously wish to do something to make things the way
they were.
But, hey, what the heck, I'm the one living outside and saying "lengesh
kon!"
Alireza S.
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* Top ten
In response to, "What are you thankful for?"
I am thankful to be in the U.S. for the following reasons:
1. It saved me from seeing Ayatollahs on the TV everyday
2. I was not killed in the war, or arrested and tortured, or killed by
Emami
3. I can get together with friends and family and celebrate Thanksgiving,
etc.
4. I can drive in straight lines (mostly)
5. Officials are not rude to me; they don't call me "to" instead
of "shoma"
6. I can live by myself, being divorced, and not perceived as weird
7. I am not awakened by the wonderfully loud call to prayer in the morning
8. I don't have to believe in a logic that has not advanced beyond the
thirteenth century
9. I can go out in T-shirt and shorts
10. I can watch movies undubbed...
If you need more reasons let me know and I'll send you another ten reasons
immediately.
Mohtaj e Doaa
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* Integrity
I wholeheartedly agree with K.
Magardie's letter rejecting the notion that Khomeini collaborated with
the SAVAK as portrayed in the article "Lunch
with Khomeini".
I know many things went wrong when the late ayatollah was Iran's leader
but it's totally irresponsible to label him a dishonest man. Overly orthodox,
ardently religious yes, but dishonest or dirty never.
Like it or not, millions of Muslims around the world revere Khomeini.
A large majority of Iranians, in spite of disagreements with him, still
acknowledge the man's integrity and modesty.
Mehrdad
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Tuesday
November 30, 1999
* Delplored life, glorified death
In response to Mehrdad's letter:
Some people may think of Khomeini as a true fundamentalist who was acting
on pure Islamic values without any regard to human rights or interanationally
respected democractic principles ["Lunch
with Khomeini"]. But, the fact is that Khomeini knew the power
of religion over the unedcuated masses, and he used that to the utmost
of his abilities.
Altough mainsream Islam is based on self sacrifice and obedience to
religious authorities, the barbaric manifestations of vengenace killing
(qasas) and many other facets of these extremely reactionary rules which
belong to 7th century desert bedoiuns has lost its validity in most of
the Islamic countries.
Khomeini was able to revive the most backward, ill conceived notions
of shite religion. He used ex- SAVAK agents , hooligans, and many of the
mollas that used to be on the payroll of SAVAK to crush the legitimate
political oppositions.
Most political opposition groups in Iran refrained from criticizing
the extremely backward reactionary teaching of Khomeini. They thought that
such a criticism may isolate them from the masses. Iranian history has
seen many dictators, and bullies, but no one has been as blood thirsty,
hateful, unashamedly hypocite as Khomeini.
To call Khomeini as a man who only acted upon his fundamentalist view
is a critical mistake; he delplored life, he glorified death. A man who
initially claimed he did not want to have any role in politics, established
one of the bloodiest and violent religious dictatorships in the world.
Engscience@aol.com
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* More thankful than Americans
In response to, "What are you thankful for?"
You should be thankful that you are living in the United States, and
not anywhere else in the world.; thankful for the freedom that you are
provided to breath freely; thankful for walking in the streets without
fear of paasdaars, thankful for being able to look at hundreds of beautiful
women of all ages; thankful that your daughter doesn't have to wear the
chador and can get an education and have a future; thankful that you can
publish your thoughts and ideas on the Internet without having to get permission
from anyone; thankful that you can turn on the TV and radio and hear music;
thankful that there is a huge bookstore in every neighborhood that you
can go and browse hundreds of thousands of subjects; thankful that you
can go to a bar and order a beer without fear; thankful for abundance in
stores; thankful for cheap food of the highest quality; thankful for security...
Actually, come to think of it, as immigrants we have more to be thankful
for than the natives. We were not born here, but we are extremely lucky
and blessed to find ourselves not only out of Iran, but in the U.S., land
of freedom and prosperity, like no other on earth.
B.
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Monday
November 29, 1999
* Predictable behavior
So far as procrastination is concerned, there has not been a more powerful
tool invented. I read your article ["The
search"] with some interest as I, like many other young products
of our time, have been coming to grips with assorted questions of identity.
Although your article read well, it sounded more like an introduction to
a thesis (a long-winded abstract perhaps) than a sharp inquisitive article.
You suggest a hypothesis, which although sounds trendy is hard to define
or justify, and then you fail to refer to it again...
... There is no specific handbook for being an Iranian or an exiled
Iranian. However what you have failed to grasp here is that there is a
pervasive pattern in each set which is easily defined based on various
parameters including socioeconomic background, education and alike. So
as you see, in most cases there is a predictable pattern of behavior which
is governed by the competing and dominant forces in an individual's life
... FULL
TEXT
Dariush Rafaei, PhD
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* Erotic Sufi tradition
In response to Rasool
Nafisi's letter:
There are a few specific themes that I wish to explore in Sufi mysticism.
The Prophet Mohammad was the starting point of Islamic mysticism; Rabi'a,
as the founder of the theme of Sufi love; al-Hallaj, whose writings are
the locus classicus of impassioned union; al-Ghazzali, as the clear-headed
systematizer and reconciler of mysticism with orthodoxy; Ibn al-Farid,
as the composer of what is perhaps the greatest erotic love poem in all
of Sufi literature; Ibn al-'Arabi, as the supreme philosopher of the erotic
in the Sufi tradition; and Rumi, as the exponent of love best-known to
the West ["Let's
not talk about sex"].
The earliest foundation of the theme of the erotic in Arabic poetry
predates Islam. Poetry was the primary form of literature, indeed, the
main form of artistic expression, of the jahiliyya period, circa 500-622
C.E. While there were a few different types of poetry, the qasida, or ode,
was the only finished type. The qasida tended to have a fairly invariant
structure: a nomad would stumble upon the remains of a desert camp and
sing of its desolation. His loneliness would inspire him to recall his
fondness for those who had once encamped there, and he would describe with
great nostalgia the strength of his affection for his beloved and not infrequently
would describe her in detail. This section of the poem is called the nasib,
"erotic prelude." ... FULL
TEXT
Dr Fereidoun Abbasi
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