Archive - Mar 2008

Committee with a cause

According to the World Encyclopedia, cultural genocide is a term used to describe the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage of a people or nation for political or military reasons. Since coming to power twenty-nine years ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been in a constant battle with the Iranian people as well as her culture and heritage. Over its life span, the Islamic Republic zealots have tried innumerable times to cleanse the pre-Islamic Persian heritage in the name of Islam. First, they declared war against the Persian New Year or “Nowruz”, and then, they attacked other Persian traditions and customs>>>

Ken Leeeeeeeeeeee

My favorite new singer was discovered on Bulgarian Idol... >>>

ای لبت لعل لاله‌گون دلم

«استاد شهریار این شعر را كه با صدای خودش روی نوار كاست ضبط كرده بود به آیت‌الله‌ هاشمی رفسنجانی هدیه كرد.  استاد در این شعر استواری و زیبایی خطبه‌های نماز جمعه ایشان را ستوده است.»
ای غریو تو ارغنون دلم
سطوت خطبه‌ات ستون دلم
خطبه‌های نماز جمعه تو
نقشه حمله با قشون دلم

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It is Rough Out There

There is tremendous uncertainty about this county's financial well being.>>>

Prayer and Jump

What true Iranians say and do >>>

DEATH PENALTY: New Arab Charter deviates from the CRC

The Arab Charter on Human Rights contains provisions that do not meet international norms and standards, including the application of the death penalty for children, and the treatment of women and non-citizens >>>

Heavy Norouz

I shed tears
Centuries old,
Tears of my ancestors.
All those women
Who cried,
Not so much for their
Loved ones,
but
For their own inability to move >>>

Safest place in the city

Canadian photojournalist Rita Leistner travelled to Baghdad in 2003 as a freelance reporter determined to get behind the front lines of the war

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Sailing In The "Gulf" - "Persian"

"Self Explanatory".

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No future for nokhodis

The Iranian parliamentary pseudo- quasi-elections are finally over and, surprise, the “moderates” did not do well. The spring is a few days away and Norouz is around the corner. Here are a few sayings that I find very seasonally a propos regarding the recent non-electoral experience in Iran and the moderates' aspirations One saying is bozak namir bahar miyad, konbozeh ba khiyar miyad. It is a promise to a goat that with spring will arrive the watermelon and cucumber that he desires. The poor “moderates” keep hoping that one day their turn will come at the goodies of power, only to be reminded of another saying. This one is a bit more elaborate: shotor dar khab binad panpeh daneh, gahi lolof khorad, gahi daneh daneh >>>

Joy of cooking

This year, by sheer luck, I came across something wonderful, an item that could make a great Nowruz present for young parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and anybody who is in touch with young Iranians. It is Najmieh Batmanglij’s new book, Happy Nowruz: Cooking With Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year. In the tradition of Batmanglij cookbooks, this book offers excellent presentations of beautiful pictures, historical background, nostalgic memories, and of course pretty robust and fool-proof recipes. It is filled with decorating and cooking ideas we can share and do with children, celebrating our traditions and creating new memories. I should say that though I enjoy cooking very much, I have never warmed up to the idea of baking, feeling like a miserable failure every time I have tried it! >>>

اين خران خرما نمى‏رينند خاطر جمع دار

شهريارا اين مديحت‏خوانى ِِ بيجا چرا
هتك حرمت‏كردن از خود اين چنين رسوا چرا
تو كه عمرى شعرهاى نغز و شيرين گفته‏اى‏
حاليا اين گفته‏هاى پوچ و بى‏معنىٰ‏ چرا
خودفروشى در جوانى باز هم حرفى وليك‏
تو كه يك پايت لب گور آمده حالا چرا
آبرو بردى ز شعر و شاعرى با ياوه‏هات‏
آبروريزى چنين بى‏درد و بى‏پروا چرا
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Man of dialogue

In addition to our shared interest in world peace and global dialogue, Alikhani and I shared something else in common: we had both suffered grievous injustice in America, and we had both brought civil rights law suit against the perpetrators of human rights abuse against us, in his case the US federal agents who abducted him and chained him to a bed for weeks, and in my case the rights abusers at Harvard University who framed me with a fictitious crime story in order to silence me. "We are comrades in suffering," I told Hossein one day and he chuckled, and I always felt he was one of the few people who knew the depth of my emotional pain caused by the blindness of American justice to my cry for justice>>>