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Baba Taher
Fiction
The Shadowboxer
By Bahman Towfighi
I'm sprawled across the ring flat on my back. There is a faceless man
standing over me. His arms raised to the heavens in a gesture of glory
and victory. As he is being pushed aside by the referee to a neutral corner
I sense they are both screaming at each other then at me. The canvas is
tumbling with vibrations of powerful waves. I hear nothing. Tonight, I'm
in the center of the most boisterous arena on earth but can't even phantom
a vile sound of silence. As I try to gather my senses I notice the referee
has moved directly over me. He appears to have his fingers moving in a
wanton slow motion while looking down at me with a gaze that's piercing
deep through my eyes. I tell myself, he must be counting over me!
What got me down on the canvas? The last thing I remembered was fighting
in the trenches. I figured that the best way to fight my opponent was to
meet him in the center of the ring. To move forward with every punch. To
bend at the waist and roll with every retaliatory punch. No more dancing,
feigning and circling around the ring. No more retreats into the ropes
where my foe delivered his most deadly combinations. No, I was going to
fight on my terms. I was not going to hold anything back. Remarkably I
no longer felt pain or fatigue. The burning in my longs from exhaustion
and heat subsided and nearly disappeared. My legs felt fresh and nimble.
My arms feeling heavy and weary with pain earlier now struck honest and
true. Swift and with precision. I was forcing my opponent back with every
strike in midst of my second wind. Then ...... GO
TO FEATURE
Outlook
Day of mourning for the Forouhars, Washington DC
When? Saturday November 28th, 1998, at 7:30PM
Where? American University, Ward II building, Washington DC
Iran National Front, USA hereby declares November 28, 1998 (7th day
of Azar, 1377), the 7th day after the assassination of Dariush and Parvcaneh
Forouhar, as a national memorial day in their honor. In Washington DC,
we invite all Iranians to participate in a gathering at the American University,
Ward II building, on Saturday November 28th, 1998 at 7:30PM. Your presence
will show the solidarity of all Iranians around the world with the people
in Iran, in disapproving terrorism. We express support for liberty-loving
people, who are horrified by this barbaric terrorist deed. We believe this
issue will not pass easily. It is up to all of us to take all measures
necessary to uncover the true perpetrators of these assassinations.
Iran National Front, for democracy (INF)
Dept. of International Affairs
Director: Shahram Kheyltash
P.O. Box 447
Falls Church, VA 22040-0447, USA
Tel: (703) 266-4114
Fax: (703) 471-1101
//jebhe.org
Always thinking big
HESPERIA, Calif., Nov 13 (Reuters) - Iranian architect Nader Khalili
dreams of building homes on the planets, and he knows what materials he
would use -- sandbags and barbed wire.
He is already using them on Earth to build houses so stable they have
won official approval from city building authorities on California's seismic
fault line.
Khalili is the founder of the California Institute of Earth Art and
Architecture (Cal-Earth) in Hesperia, 80 miles (120 km) northeast of Los
Angeles in the Mojave desert, where he and his colleagues are refining
a technique he calls ``superadobe.''
``Superadobe has evolved over 23 years of looking for the simplest way
to build, the simplest way needing the least time, the least money,'' Khalili
told apprentice builders at a recent workshop at Cal-Earth.... FULL
TEXT
More Letters
* Relative freedoms not enough
Reza Khalili writes: In response to Mr
K. Sani's letter I would like to say the following: If our dream is
to restore " the nice and rather free days of the first year of the
revolution," then I believe that we are destined to fail. In fact
those days were not very nice. Although Iran enjoyed some relative freedoms
at the time, let's not forget the kangaroo courts, executions, and false
and unfounded accusations... FULL
TEXT
* Seminar: Iran-Taliban seminar, New
York
The Open Society Institute's Central Eurasia Project invites you to
attend :
The Stakes of the Iran-Taliban Confrontation
Central Asian Open Forum
Thursday, December 3, 1998
9:00 am - 11:00 am
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street (conference room 4D)
New York, NY 10019
You must RSVP in order to attend.
RSVP to Katya Nadirova (212) 548-0612 fax (212) 548-4607
email: knadirova@sorosny.org
Book of the Week
Soon: Tales from Hospice
By A. G. Mojtabai
Zoland Books, 1998
The Boston Globe writes: Mojtabai had led an unconventional
but cosmopolitan life in New York, Iran, and Cambridge, where she held an
appointment at Harvard; in Amarillo she unexpectedly found home. For several
years she has been a volunteer worker in the hospice at St. Anthony's Hospital
in Amarillo, and the 17 miraculous stories in ''Soon'' come out of that
experience... READ MORE
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Iran arrests suspects over dissident murders
TEHRAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Iran's police said
on Wednesday it had arrested a number of suspects in the killing of a veteran
opposition leader and his wife, as supporters of the dissidents called for
a mass funeral. The official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted police spokesman
Colonel Ali Moqaddam as saying ``a number of suspects have been arrested
in connection with the slaying'' of Dariush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh...
FULL TEXT
Iran says will punish killers of opposition
veteran
TEHRAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Iran has said it
will find and punish the killers of a veteran opposition leader and his
wife, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported. IRNA quoted Intelligence
Minister Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi as saying on Tuesday that security forces
and the judiciary were investigating the weekend stabbings of Dariush Forouhar,
leader of the small opposition Iran Nation Party, and his wife Parvaneh...
FULL TEXT
Iran vows to bring bus attackers to justice
TEHRAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Iran has vowed
to bring to justice militants who attacked a bus carrying U.S. citizens
and other foreigners in Tehran last weekend, the official news agency IRNA
reported. Intelligence Minister Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi condemned the
``ugly act by unidentified assailants,'' the agency said late on Tuesday.
``Those involved in the incident will be decisively dealt with...We shall
decisively counter such an ugly and disdainful act and follow it up legally,''
Najafabadi told IRNA... FULL TEXT
Marchers condemn visit by U.S. citizens
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thousands of students from
Iran's main Shi'ite Muslim seminaries marched Wednesday to condemn a visit
last week by a group of Americans, whose bus was at one point attacked by
militants, Iranian media reported. Students wearing white shrouds, symbolizing
their readiness to die in the struggle against the United States, dragged
a U.S. flag on the ground as they led the march in the holy city of Qom,
south of Tehran, the official news agency IRNA said... FULL TEXT
Khatami says freedom is vital to Islamic
Iran
TEHRAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - President Mohammad
Khatami on Wednesday issued a strong plea for freedom of thought within
Iran's Islamic system, warning the country's newpaper barons that any other
course would lead to social explosion. ``Thought could be blocked for a
short while, but it would only be driven underground and eventually lead
to social explosion,'' said Khatami, a moderate Shi'ite Moslem cleric and
himself a former newspaper publisher... FULL TEXT
Iran says Afghan Taleban free last Iranian
captive
TEHRAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The Afghan Taleban,
involved in a bitter row with neighbouring Iran, released their last Iranian
captive on Wednesday, state-run Tehran radio reported. It quoted Iran's
Foreign Ministry as saying the Iranian, Manouchehr Amiri, was handed over
to a ministry representative in the western Afghan city of Herat for repatriation...
FULL TEXT
National team arrives in Bangkok
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - The national soccer team has
arrived in Bangok, a week ahead of the Asian Games. None of the practice
matches with foreign teams materialized ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN
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Quote Unquote
Revolution or freedom?
Those who are concerned about the revolution's values are correct, but
didn't our revolution take place in order to create a free society in which
human beings enjoy respect?
President Khatami
Reuters
November 25, 1998
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