The Iranian Times

Monday, November 2, 1998 / Aban 11, 1377, No. 596


Sehaty Foreign Exchange

Shahin & Sepehr

CDnow


    Baba Taher


Cover story

The education of Mahdiyeh
From bubblegum to Bahais

By J. Javid

A few weeks ago I was talking to my daughter Mahdiyeh on the phone. She lives with her mother in Tehran and I'm in Washington, DC. I said, "Mahdiyeh...?" and before I asked my question, she said, "Jaanam..." I paused for a moment.

She used an expression that's usually heard between adults. Generally the English equivalent would be, "Yes dear," or "Yes love." More often adults say it to children as a show of affection. Or when they grow up, children say it to their parents when their name is called out.

Mahdiyeh will turn 16 next month. And I guess she has grown quite a bit since I last saw her three years ago. Just recently she told me she had cut her hair.

- "How short?"

- "Very short."

- "How very short? Like Sinead O'Connor?"

- "Who's Sinead O'Connor? I barely have any hair left. I sort of look like Maddonna when she had short hair." ... GO TO FEATURE


    Outlook

* The Post-Khomeini Generation

By Elaine Sciolino
The New York Times

November 1, 1998

In February, Iran's revolution will turn 20 years old. And among the country's many problems, what troubles Iran's clerical leaders the most is that they are losing -- or have already lost -- the generation that has come of age since then.

Sixty-five percent of Iran's population is under the age of 25. Many of them have no particular love or hatred for the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi or even for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the cleric who led the revolution. Universities are so crowded that only 1 in 10 applicants get in. With jobs scarce, young people must defer marriage because they cannot afford a proper wedding and a place to live. Despite episodic easing of some restrictions, socializing with members of the opposite sex, holding hands in public, listening to certain kinds of music, watching foreign television and of course, drinking alcohol, are forbidden.

''The younger generation has no attachment, no feeling for the revolution,'' says Sadeq Ziba-Kalam, a political scientist who was imprisoned by the Shah's regime. ''When I teach the revolution, many of my students just look out the window and watch the clock. They say: 'What about us? You had your revolution and your war. What's in it for us?' And I can't tell them the answer.'' ... FULL TEXT


    Anyway

    Hallelujah

    "Nejat Productions is an independent Farsi Christian Music Production organization. We are a small group of Iranian musicians who have decided to serve The Lord in a new way. Our mission is to produce the kind of music that would speak the love of God into the heart of every Iranian. And would bring joy, hope and Jesus Christ power into the life of every Believer. NEJAT means "salvation", and we are making it happen - The Rock & Roll way! -- Hallelujah."

    I wonder if there's bandari gospel music?


    History

    Revolution: 1979-1999

    Soldier joins demonstrators


More Letters

* Good amount of shamelessness

"Aroosi Khooban" writes in reply to Ali Khalili's "Farewell cherry tree": The reason why you don't see any trace of things similar to what you have written in your article throughout the internet is probably because it takes a good amount of shamelessness to talk about the pain you and people like you went through, once one remembers the pain of a nation who was sacrificing its best children, while you fled from the country to save your lives.

I find it quite oxymoronic when you mention patriotism among the reasons why you were unhappy when leaving Iran; please make sure to look up the word "patriot" in your dictionary. Nobody had forced you to leave; you left to save your life, which happens to be not a bit worthier than the lives of true patriots who died for saving their country.

* Poetry: Lecture on Malek-o Shoara Bahar, Berkeley

"Center for Dialogue" presents: "Malek-o Shoara Bahar and the Issue of Modernity", a lecture by Professor Abbas Milani, Chair of Political Science Dept., College of Notre Dame.

Milani is the author of Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir (Kodansha 1997) and Encounters with Modernity: Fragments of the Iranian Experience (Baztab Verlag 1994), among others.

Time: Friday October 30, at 7:30
Place: 2060 Valley Life Science Building
University of California, Berkeley
Lecture in Persian


Book of the Week

Scent of Saffron:
Three Generations of an Iranian Family

By Rouhi Shafii

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More news

Islamist students offer olive branch to U.S.

TEHRAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iran's biggest student movement, heirs to the activists who seized the U.S. embassy 19 years ago, marked the takeover on Monday with an unprecedented show of conciliation towards the ``Great Satan.'' ``In the heat of revolutionary fervour things happen that cannot be fully contained,'' read one banner -- tantalisingly close to an apology to a country still routinely denounced as the Great Satan... FULL TEXT

Khatami to visit France - newspaper

PARIS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami plans to visit France in February, his first visit to a European country since being elected in 1997, the newspaper Le Monde said on Monday. The daily said it was told of Khatami's plans by Iran's new ambassador to France Ali Reza Moayeri, who retains his status as a special presidential adviser despite his posting abroad. The Iranian embassy was not immediately available for comment on the report ... FULL TEXT

Iran hits mock enemy to end Afghan border war games

TEHRAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Some 200,000 Iranian troops staged a final attack against a mock enemy on Monday at the end of war games near the tense Afghan border, Iran's state media reported. Iranian television showed infantry forces and tanks advancing after air force bombers and an artillery and missile barrage softened up ``enemy'' positions... FULL TEXT

Iran's Kharrazi to visit Saudi this week - envoy

DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi is to visit Saudi Arabia this week, the latest of several visits between the countries as relations have warmed. Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Reza Nouri, said on Monday that Kharrazi would arrive in Jeddah on Thursday from where he would make a pilgrimage before going to Riyadh two days later to meet King Fahd and other senior officials ... FULL TEXT

Iran says best route for Caspian oil

CAPE TOWN, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday renewed its claim to be the best export route for Caspian oil and gas, saying sanctions were delaying regional energy development by promoting unviable pipeline routes. ``All sanctions on crude oil swaps, investments and political considerations on pipelines should be cleared so that the region could realise all its potentials,'' said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh ... FULL TEXT

Youth win Asian karate title

Tehran, (HAMSHAHRI) - Iran's youth karate team win top Asian title with four gold, one silver and one bronze medals... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN


$ Rate

The dollar now offered at up to 675-680 tomans

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Business news


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Quote Unquote

Looking ahead

"Regarding relations with America, we must look to the future and not to the past."

Ebrahim Asgharzadeh
A leader of militart students who took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran 19 years ago, speaking at a rally in front of the former embassy.

Reuters, Nov 2, 1998


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