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Fantasy fatwa

When Salman Rushdie was whiling away the hours in hiding after his fatwa was issued, he could scarcely have imagined that 23 years later a)

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Living Dead

Two American rappers about to go on tour are considering reviving their colleague to join them in holographic form – because he’s dead. Earlier this

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Not one for breakfast

SHAHNAMEH The Persian Book of Kings by Elizabeth Laird (Shirin Adl, Illustrator) 2012 Frances Lincoln Publishers What do you get the little people in the

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For a better world

Last week, an Iranian musician posted the following statement on Facebook: “Music is my religion and I believe in keeping politics separate from my faith.”

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Feeling for Farah

Muhammad Sahimi, who writes for TehranBureau.com told : “Iranians are concerned about Iran. But, almost none commit suicide because of it.” He was referring to

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What would Cyrus do?

A Thai woman boarding a flight at Bangkok’s airport is caught with a sedated tiger cub in her luggage. Stuffed in a bag with, er,

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Has this woman gone mad?

Freedom of speech is a funny old thing. In the Islamic Republic it’s pretty much outlawed – yet in a leafy suburb of west London,

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Caspian Makan

The Neda ‘dokoon’ fashions her as a ‘martyr’ and in this regard, it’s better she’s a virgin. A man we suspect has had carnal relations

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The important jewel

“There used to be a rooster, right here,” says Afshin Kohinoor, slapping the counter at Britannia restaurant in Mumbai. It held court there from 1982

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All eyes on Neda

What does Neda Agha-Soltan, listed by Time magazine as one of 2009’s ‘25 people who mattered’, have in common with Saddam Hussein? One angel, the

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To Live and Let Die

Last Thursday two prominent Americans spoke about the recent unrest in Iran – President Obama and Kermit the Frog . In Oslo, Obama made a

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Friedman’s beliefs

  New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman is not a fan of Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan: “I’d prefer a minimalist approach, working with tribal

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Bad loan

Having won the Nobel peace prize in 2003, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi is now the first laureate whose medal has been confiscated by a government.

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The hug dispensers

My ex-girlfriend Sandra got married. Last Saturday, she and her groom Joe vowed to look after each other “in credit and in overdraft” even “when

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Scent of a woman

My grandmother had a big nose. In some ways, she was a big nose that happened to have a body attached to it. Her nose

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In search of Shantaram

Three hours off my plane, back in May, I decamped at the YMCA Colaba, south Mumbai’s tourist district, and made my way to the bar

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A matter of timing

It is too early now to publicly attack Messrs Khatami and Mousavi, two appalling political fraudsters hoisted on to the placards of masses who for

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Rebel with a pause

News that 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has received an eight-year jail sentence for being a US “spy” comes a month after 29-year-old blogger Omid-Reza

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Recession Mesession

1) Move to a third world country and come back when things improve This is by far the best way to improve your financial situation.

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Happy birthday ayatollah?

In coming weeks, the Islamic Republic, like anyone turning 30, will be wondering what it has done with its life and what its prospects are.

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Stop the bloodshed

Hossein Shahidi teaches journalism at the American University of Kuwait. In July 2006, when he was at the American University of Beirut, I asked for

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