Letters
July 31-August 4, 2000 / Mordad 10-14, 1379
Today
* Militia:
- Respecting soldiers
- Psychological help
- Punishing horrible crimes
* Art:
- Self-discovery
Previous
* Ancestors:
- Persians in China
- I'm not Arab American
* Millennium:
- Your wisdom
* Migration:
- American mind, Iranian heart
* Sex:
- REAL Iranian culture
* Politics:
- Poosteh kharbozeh
- Logic instead of anger
- Follow China
* Googoosh:
- Touched their lives
- Traveling in times
- Googoosh not for me
* Religion:
- Pahlavis should learn
* Militia:
- Don't teach hatred
* Art:
- Inspiring Neshat
* The Iranian:
- Slightly harsh
email us
Friday,
August 11, 2000
* Respecting soldiers
I read "At
war with your people" and thought to myself we should respect
our soldiers and volunteers who sacrifice their lives for our nation and
our county.
We may not agree on the war itself or how long it took. But, we should
not forget that there were more than a million men and women throughout
the war who did the sacrifice and they should not be mistaken with bunch
of thugs many of whom never have seen the battlegrounds.
The people you're talking about are bunch of young impressionable patsies.
They are basically used by a group of power hungry who have a lot to lose
if things are to change.
Masoud
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* Psychological help
I want to compliment the writer of the article on the soldiers who can't
let the war go ["At
war with your people"]. It's time for them to get some psychological
help, so they can stop bullying their countrymen and countrywomen. Let
the old wounds heal and let the country move into the 21st century.
R. Mehdipour
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* Punishing horrible crimes
In his reply to Najmieh Fakhraei's "At
war with your people", Mr
Navab writes: "In any event I wish Ms. Fakhraei would come to
the point to agree that the individuals she has written about are victims
of our society and they need treatment. Insulting is a very old approach.
I liked it when Mr. Khachatourian, in the recent Saturday gathering in
front of the Federal Building sent a message to these victims: we will
forgive you, we won't try you in our courts when we win."
I very much disagree with him . There should be fair and open trials
for individuals who have been responsible for all sorts of horrible acts
during the last 20 years, whatever many years we have to wait until true
democracy prevails in Iran. Mr Khachatourian , whoever he is,"az kiseh-ye
khalifeh mibakhshand". If anyone has been just a "victim"
let that be proven in a lawful and open court.
Bahar Bonyan
* Self-discovery
I wish to thank The Iranian for featuring Nina Habibi's "Many me".
I appreciate her sharing a creative form of self-discovery and expression,
and I will now await her next set of thematically organized images. Her
work colorfully remind us that each one of us is indeed "many"
images integrated into a whole. We simply choose which image(s) to show
the world and which ones to conceal.
Haleh Vaziri
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Thursday
August 10, 2000
* Persians in China
This is a wonderful website. I enjoyed reading it. There is no mention
of Persian Zoroastrian immigrants to China. I am Chinese from China. My
family lives in Xuajiulan county, about 28 miles west of Xian (formerly
Chang'an) city. Chang'an was the capital of many Chinese dynasties in the
past. Many foreigners once lived there, especially from Iran. Some came
as merchants, entertainers and religious missionaries.
In 651 A.D., King Yazdgerd III was captured by Muslim Arabs in today's
Turkmenistan and beheaded. His son, Peroz survived and fled east to China.
He gathered and assembled other powerful Iranian clans: Garen, Suren, Spabad,
Varazpor, etc.
They all passed through the snowy Pamir mountains in today's Tajikistan
and made it into China to seek the emperor's help. The Chinese king had
a wife who was the sister of Peroz. So, the court of Peroz was allowed
to set up in exile in western China. Many villages today in northwestern
China (Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan provinces) bear marks of
Persian ancestry or influence >>>
FULL TEXT
Frank Wong
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* Your wisdom
To Fereydoun Hoveyda: I rarely have the chance to read The Iranian
Times due to my very busy schedule at work. This morning I got tempted!
Your article ["Still
an optimist"] was a joy to read.
I wish that you could inject a little of your wisdom and ability into
the minds of others like my father and others who refuse to understand
and adapt/adjust.
It would be wonderful if you could translate and publish your article
in Farsi, especially in NY and LA Persian papers or even appear on TV or
radio.
Nasrin
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* Touched their lives
I read the article by Ms. Termeh Rassi and must say that I truely agree
with her ["Like Holding my pillow"]. I too went a long way to
see Googoosh in Toronto from San Jose, California, and my friends and family
were also in total astonishment of why I would do such a thing.
Surrounding me were people holding cellular phones for their friends
and loved ones at home. Every song bringing back memories and every song
causing someone to break down and cry. remembering, forgiving, forgeting,
but mostly reliving a piece of their history that touched their lives >>>
FULL TEXT
Bob Danielzadeh
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Wednesday
August 9, 2000
* Traveling in time
If anyone was to ask me to describe Googoosh's concert in Toronoto I
would have to refer them to Louis Armstrong's "One of Those Things".
We all experienced her in our own way. But the one common experience
(one that perhaps Googoosh shared as well) was traveling in time. We went
back 20 years to the days we associate with comfort and home, but we also
went ahead twenty years with a dosage of hope and optimism >>>
FULL TEXT
Sara Atrvash
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* American mind, Iranian heart
Our peaple never experienced leaving their homeland to find another
land to settle down. At least not during the last four or five centuries.
Propably the last mass migration was during the bloody invasion of Mongols.
After that most migrations were sporadic and for political reasons (members
of Toudeh Party during and after the 1953 coup) and other political activists
during the Pahlavi government.
Our generation is now experiencing migration with all the bittersweet
complications, such as nostalgic thoughts and homesickness. Crying for
Googoosh and Shamlou are symptoms.
Let's be honest: we have AMERICAN brains but our heart is still IRANIAN.
We love our culture; our real artists.God bless us and keep our minds sharp
and our hearts pure.
Mehdy
Norfolk,Va
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* REAL Iranian culture
In response to Al-Amin's
response "Get a grip, yourself", it is so ironic in this
day and age, when the Iranian people are struggling so hard to achieve
true democracy, to find people with perceptions such as yours!
Does REAL IRANIAN CULTURE mean to put women down and taking their rights
away from them? Doesn't REAL IRANIAN CULTURE support mail chauvinism? Does
it pay any attention at all to the issues of women?
Why can't we take the good parts of our culture and throw away the old
fashioned and backward parts? What's wrong with being progressive thinkers?
What's wrong with changing the angle that you perceive life, so perhaps
you can comprehend at a deeper level?
And as for the West, even if it does have cultural problems, it treats
women the same as men and doesn't deprive them of their civil and sexual
rights.
Babak
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Tuesday
August 8, 2000
* Poosteh kharbozeh
The maximum leader, the exalted Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, daaamat
barakaatoh, finally documented what he has been saying and doing all
along, namely that he knows better than the rest of the nation ["No
brainer"].
Iranian history is chuck full of these kind of leaders who at the pinnacle
of their power lose sight of the uncompromising judgment of history. The
aphrodisiac of power has such an intoxicating effect on them that only
the sound of Gabrielle' bugle brings back some belated semblance of sobriety
and a smidgen of sanity >>>
FULL TEXT
Shahriar Zangeneh
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* Logic instead of anger
The attitude implied by the editorial entitled "No
brainer" is dangerous in its ability to undermine the reform process
-- perhaps as dangerous as the actions taken by the conservative clerical
elite. Indeed, the situation demands all the "brain" available
to counter the equally threatening potentials for either a furthering of
the conservative clampdown, or a chaotic upheaval.
Further interconnectedness and transparency are steps toward a situation
of relative integrated peace. Only in such a situation will pragmatic reform
be allowed to flourish in Iran, and such pragmatism inevitably seeks to
undermine the inefficient, ad hoc nature of the conservative clerical elite,
with no excuses for them to cling. This is what is meant by the triumph
of logic and reason, as advocated by Khatami >>>
FULL TEXT
Cyrus Samii
New York City
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* Follow China
I was surprised that Mr.
Kadivar thinks the system has made progress by not killing opponents.
He must have forgotten the recent attempt on Hajjarian's life, and the
previous serial murders.
But I agree with him that any change will be slow in coming. The so-called
reformers will do themselves a favor not to get carried away into extremist
reactions; which will give the rulers the excuse to do what they did in
1983. They should focus on economic reform, i.e. follow Communist China's
model for change.
Reza
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* Googoosh not for me
I am not, particularly, a big Googoosh fan. I am the only Iranian I
know of who is not. Every member of my family and Iranian friends are asking
me if I want tickets to the Googoosh Concert, but I decline.
I fail to see the "artistry" behind Googoosh. Behind all the
glamour of Googoosh, there lies nothing more than a Pop icon, incomparable
to the contemporary Iranian musicians and artists.
The second part that compromises the "mirage" that we know
as Googoosh is the obsession of the expatriate society with all that is
pre-revolutionary. This is not just musical nostalgia, this is the personification
of an era. Googoosh is the symbol of all that was the later Pahlavi Era
in Iran.
For those who want to see a Pop music icon, should quickly acquire tickets
to the next Googoosh concert. However, for those who want to see true Iranian
music as the art form that it is, this concert is not for you (and I).
Arya Abedin
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Monday
August 7, 2000
* Don't teach hatred
Reading the piece by Najmieh Fakhraei surprised me ["At
war with your own people"]. It reminded me of the type of insults
and disrespect that is used by the not so respectable elements of our society.
I am surprised that you approved the publication of this writing.
Modern and progressive understanding considers those individuals that
Ms. Fakhraei writes about as social victims. We live in a time that we
don't get our frustration and hatred out by bad mouthing >>>
FULL TEXT
Mohamad Navab
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* I'm not Arab American
Where I grew up, there were an abundance of Arab Americans, and as I
was beginning to meet new friends( Americans) when they started to ignore
me. I was wondering what was going on because the Arab Americans started
to group together and the other kids were hesitant to talk to me.
Then a few other actions occurred. The American students began asking
me why I won't sit with the Arab American students during lunch. I told
them that I wasn't an Arab American, and they looked at me with a state
of confusion. I told them that I am an Iranian American >>>
FULL TEXT
Alex Hooman Gorjidooz
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* Slightly harsh
This
picture is taken where they kill chickens before selling them to customers.
Considering the fact that most of us eat chicken or beef, the whole idea
of killing a bird or an animal for the purpose of eating sounds understandable.
I still agree there is something slightly harsh in picturing it in a
photograph and I strongly believe in animals rights too.
Faramarz Kaviani
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