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Letters
Dec 7-11, 1998 / Azar 16-20, 1377

Today

* Immigrant: Can we accept the fact?

Previous

* Soroush: It should be remembered
* Marriage: Finally!
* Kerman: I wish I could go
* Lost & found: Purposely lost
* Politics: Where are the "strategic thinkers" now?


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Friday,
December 11, 1998

* Can we accept immigrant status?

I would like to discuss an issue which has been somewhat problematic for me and I like to see how other Iranians living abroad and particularly in the U.S. deal with it. The fact is that after living in the U.S. for almost 30 years I have not been able to fully Americanize myself and, as they say, melt in the pot. I do not know whether the problem is they way I look or my accent or maybe my name, but in either case, I still have not been able to divorce myself completely from the land where I was born. Should I even want to do that?

I still follow all the news and events happening in Iran very carefully. I see a lot of other Iranian immigrants having similar problems, those who came before the revolution and got their degrees stayed here and never went back, and those who came after 1979. The picture that they have in their mind is the Iran of 25 years ago. They cannot fully grasp the changes that has been taken place. Those who came after the revolution in search of a better life cannot let go of Iran in their minds and hearts. I wonder if we ever will.

I guess the big question is: Can Iranians accept being immigrants? like Italians or the Irish or so many other groups that have come to U.S. and have, more or less, melted in the pot. Maybe it is too soon to tell or perhaps our rich culture and ancestry prohibit us from accepting the immigrant life-style and always yearning to go back.

Masood Rad
masood@eatel.net

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Thursday
December 10, 1998

* It should be remembered

Although it is nice to see Mr. Soroush also joining the ranks of the disenchanted ["Beyond words"], it should be remembered that at the begining of the revolution he was one of its great advocates and tried to give it a respectable face. He mercilessly criticized people of other convictions in radio and television and held high office. How sad that we now forget and again give him room to speak on the same platform as those that he oppressed with his views.

D. Nikkhah

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* Finally!

I am so happy that finally somebody is explaining marriage laws in Iran to Iranian men abroad ["Tonboon-e faati"]. I don't think they have the right to criticize a mother who is thinking of nothing but her daughter's future. I wish there were more parents like that. As a wife and a mother, I thank you.

Nana Farshad
nana_farshad@hud.gov

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Wednesday
December 9, 1998

* I wish I could go

Thanks very much for sharing those beautiful pictures from Kerman! I now wish I could afford (both time and money) to visit Iran. I have always heard interresting things about the mountains there.

If you'd like to look, I have some pictures from my home state of California (USA) on my web page.

Tom Kenney
tkenney@bearcomp.com

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Tuesday
December 8, 1998

* Purposely lost

On the "Where on Earth" stuff, could you ask that people who do know where someone is just tell that person that they are being searched out and give them the name and phone/e-mail of the seeker?

There are people, especially women, who are purposely lost, escaping abuse. Whether you take my suggestion or not, I hope you take it seriously. In the wrong hands, this wonderful and needed resource can be just too easy.

C.D.

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Monday
December 7, 1998

* Where are the "strategic thinkers" now?

The tragic murder of Dr. Daryoush Foruhar and Mrs. Parvaneh Foruhar did not get any reaction from all those highly-educated "strategic thinkers" who regularly post their opinions on various issues concerning "Democratic openings" under Khatami and his "Dovom-e Khordad Miracle"!

It is indeed curious that those Iranian intellectuals, artists, professors, politicians, journalists, and what have you who are trigger-happy when it comes to condemning egg-trhowings at ex-hostage-taker-killer-of-political-prisoners-now-turned-into-democrats, are silent on this criminal murder!

Why? Because this is how you can play a double role in exile: you can play the role of a democrat who is for "dialogue" even with the likes of Assadollah Lajevardi; and at the same time, you can float in the heavens as a "strategist" who thinks in much bigger terms such as the "future of Iranian nation, of oil, of ping-pong diplomacy, of dialogue between civilizations" and a host of other such "khar rang kon" issues.

In short, these "democratic intellectual stategists" have bigger fish to fry than to care about the murder of the likes of Foruhars! Hafez said: chon nadidand haqiqat, rah-e afsaaneh zadand! (because they could not see the truth, they turned to fables!)

Roshanravan
roshanravan@excite.com

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