Letters
August 31-September 4, 1998 / Shahrivar 9-13,
1377
Today
* Language: Farsi alphabet
is easy
* Men: Not all are pigs
Previous
* Baskerville: Finally,
the film
* Privacy:
- Respect the laws of
your motherland
- Bamouthing
email us
Friday,
Sept 4, 1998
* Farsi alphabet is easy
I noticed several
letters in your magazine regarding the question
of using transliteration rather than Arabic script for the benefit of those
learning Farsi.
In my opinion, it does not take much effort to
master the Arabic/Persian characters for the purposes of reading Farsi.
The hard part is learning the language and building vocabulary. As the
Arabic/Persian characters are inherently phonetic there is no benefit to
using the contrived transliteration schemes except for ease of printing
documents.
The excellent "Elementary Persian Grammar"
by L.P. Elwell-Sutton (Cambridge University Press) pounds the alphabet
into the student from the get go.
Brad Hernlem, Ph.D.
alihernlem@hotmail.com
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* Not all men are pigs
I was really moved by reading this very emotional
article ["Mommy's
Boy"]. If Shahin claims he is not a writer,
may be he should become one. It was very refreshing to hear an Iranian
male admitting to be a "mommy's boy." But the fact is no matter
what age we are or who we are deep inside, we all are "mommy's boy"
or in my case "daddy's girl." That is if their characters had
a big influence in our mind or soul and we have learned things from them
all through of our lives.
It is obvious that Shahin's mom had a very strong
character and she is going to live in Shahin forever and probably even
in Shahin's future children. I am so glad men like Shahin exist. He appreciates
her mother's important role in the family and admits even though she was
a simple woman, she was able to give him the support and love he needed
and taught him the art of living.
If I were Shahin I would leave everything and
would rush to Iran too. Because I think nothing is worth more than the
time you spend with your loved ones.
I always thought all men are pigs and I thanked
god for not having any sons, but today after I read your true and honest
emotions about your mother I think differently. May be I shouldn't be so
pessimistic about all men. Thanks for your wonderful article.
Fariba
FARIBijan@aol.com
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Thursday
Sept 3, 1998
* Finally, Baskerville the film
I am very happy to see that someone finally is
considering a film on Howard Baskerville ["Iran's
American Martyr"]. I have been pleading
for years with filmmakers and have found no takers.
I published a book on the Constitutional period
two years ago, "The Iranian Constitutional Revolution" (Columbia
University Press, 1996) and the book includes a chapter on the Civil War
of Azerbaijan which you might want to read.
Your piece had one problem: the conspiracy theory.
Baskerville was an officer of a group of elite young men in Tabriz, while
Sattar Khan and Baqir Khan were commanders of the whole resistance army.
No one, to my knowledge (including M. A. Moore)
has ever suggested that Sattar Khan and his men deliberately shot Baskerville
to get Western attention. This is contrary to all he and others stood for
and it is a grave injustice to the memory of these men and women who steadfastly
protected the lives of the Westerners among them to the end.
The controversy is that in one of the last battles,
when the city of Tabriz was starved, many were dying from hunger, and Russian
forces were about to invade, Sattar Khan did not send a second back up
force to protect Baskerville and his men and some have blamed him for that.
Janet Afary
Associate Professor of History
Purdue University
afary@purdue.edu
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Wednesday
Sept 2, 1998
There were no letters posted today because of technical difficulties.
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Tuesday
Sept 1, 1998
There were no letters posted today because of technical difficulties.
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Monday
August 31, 1998
* Respect the laws of your motherland
I'm writting to you regarding Mr. Namazi's article titled "If you
must know". It does make it easier to travel with a U.S. passport.
Therefore you have a valid point. Personal experience: I visited Iran after
close to 20 years in the U.S. All I can say is that going through immigration
and customs was much easeir and friendlier at Mehrabad airport than it
was at J.F.K (i.e. New York airport).
The forms that are required by the Interests Section of Iran in Washington
are very well justified and appropriate. Didn't you have to fill out any
forms to obtain your Green Card? Don't we all have to tell our life story
to the Internal Revenue Service every April 15th?
Conclusion: If you consider yourself Iranian and love your motherland
you should have no problem respecting the laws of that land. I'm sure there
are improvements to be made. But we should be fair and objective rather
than complaining all the time.
Amir Wagheei
AWAGHEEI@aol.com
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* Bamouthing
Dear Mr. Namazi, bravo on your article regarding
the Iranian Interests Section in Washington DC ["If
you must know"]. I'm sure you, like many
other Iranians who are ashamed of being Iranian, have once again succeeded
to badmouth your own people, your own land, and your own government (whether
good or bad) in front of people who really don't give a hoot about you
or I.
Joe
Ocmike1@aol.com
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