Archive - Oct 2007 - Article

Girls just wanna have fun

About this time last year, I was having tea with my teenage cousin Shirin in Tehran. We were celebrating the good news in the papers that day. Her name had been published among the list of admitted students to her “first choice” university. Her hard work had paid off and it was time to have fun. Iranian fun. She invited me to take part in some of the leisure she’d sacrificed to a yearlong preparation that was devoted primarily to studying and thinking about her future. Her offer impressed me - neither she nor her friends were the slightest bit embarrassed by my hot pink scarf with sparkly gold embroidery. I wore the Britney Spears of hijab. >>>

Emergence of a united front

As President George W. Bush is increasingly becoming alienated from the American public and internationally is turning into a pariah, the leaders of such independent nations as Zimbabwe, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Iran respond forcefully to his heartless and mediocre rhetoric and his ongoing search for finding terrorists inside the U.S. and overseas. Just like the authorities in Israel, he ceaselessly looks for new ìHitlersî and invents many if there are none, to justify the systemís thirst for territorial occupation and murderous campaigns against the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and maybe even Iran.>>>

Stop whining

We can’t force people to like us, nor should we be able to. There are millions of Debra Cagans living amongst us in America, and we cannot change all of their minds. Hating for them is as essential as breathing. Unless they have someone to look down on, they would drown in the misery of their own pathetic lives. Some people are just that way. They have got to have someone to kick around, belittle and demean, so that they don’t have to think about just how tragic their own lives and personal circumstances are. We just happen to be Debra Cagan’s whipping-boy.>>>

You can make a difference

Nazanin Afshin-Jam: I was ecstatic when I found out that not only was Nazanin going to be spared from execution but that she was also going to be released from the agony she suffered from being in jail for over two years. I was particularly inspired by all the individuals around the world, young and old, who used their talents and blessings to help free Nazanin. There were 8 year olds holding assemblies in their schools for Nazanin, there were artists who had painted pictures for Nazanin, created sculptures, written poems and songs for her, everyone played a role.>>>

Autumn Sonata

I greet the autumn
of blue I greet
the mantle of mist
that meanders through
dusky days
of waning lights >>>

چه کردم

چه کردم

از خستگی بی حوصلگی را گول زدم

از عاشقی بی تفاوتی را حاشا کردم

از غرور افسردگی را تحریم کردم

>>>

چشم طوفان

زنی تا نیمه در خاک
می بارد بر سرش
باران سنگ ریزه نادانی
دست کودکی،
به زیر چرخ های کامیون شریعت می رود
تا ندزدد گرده نانی >>>

اندر آداب حكمراني

بود يكی روزی و يكّی نبود
غیرِ خداوند نبودی وجود
حاَكمِ یك كشورِ بی بام و بَر
قدرت بی حد و نصابیش بود
در عوضِ عدل و بجای سخا،
بر همگان ظلم بكرد و حدود
آن ستم و شتم نه تنها به عام
بلكه به خاصان و مهان می‌نمود
>>>

مرد / زن / تنهایی

هیچ وقت شکایت نمی کرد که آخر چقدر مهمان داری – خسته شدم – این چه زندگی یست. هیچوقت صداش درنیآمد. هیچ وقت نق نزد تا روزی که مریض شد. دیوانه شد. از آن به بعد، کارهای عجیب و غریب می کرد. یا ساکت می نشست و ساعت ها به دیوار نگاه می کرد یا جیغ می کشید و همه چیز را پرت می کرد، می زد می شکست. یا لباس هاش رو می کند و برهنه وسط اتاق می نشست. یا می خندید، می چرخید و می چرخید تا خسته بشود و خودش را رو زمین پرتاب می کرد. ولی هنوز نماز می خواند.>>>

Artesh e Solh kojaast?

...>>>

Barking at the moon

On the ruins of Babylon

They howl an old vengeance

As pride and valor;

After having marched

Over a Euphrates of blood

To reside in a den in the Hanging Gardens

Than a nest in a heart.

>>>

ديگر قرباني نخواهم شد

زنان ديگر ‌، بدون آنكه لحظه اي بي انديشند كه اين حادثه هر لحظه در كمين خودشان است ،‌ با نگاهي قهر آلود به شخص مورد تجاوز قرار گرفته ‌، مي نگرند و اين در حالي است كه بايد توجه بيشتري به اينگونه زنان كرد . اينان هموراه لحظه اي را بياد مي آورند كه در آن زندگي شان از مسير طبيعي خود خارج گرديد. لحظه اي كه مي كوشيدند دستي را كه راه دهانشان را مسدود كرده پس بزنند . لحظه اي را كه عرق ريزان با دستاني ضعيفتر از بازواني كه سخت پيكرشان را در بر گرفته بود مي كوشيدند تا خود را رها سازند .لحظه اي را كه فرياد زدند اما كسي صدايشان را نشنيد ...>>>

Atomic Islamic Iran

To have or not to have nuclear weapons. This is the root of all arguments regarding Iran's nuclear programs. There is an argument among the people of the developing countries that while a number of countries have nuclear weapons, why should not the other countries have it? From this point of view, the rationale of depriving the third world countries from the nuclear weapon is that the US and the other main world powers wish to still remain more powerful than the other countries to continue ruling the entire world. This point of view suggests that the industrial and developed countries want to keep the rest of the world in the state of backwardness>>>

نسبت ما با احمدی نژاد چيست؟

[LISTEN]

بطوری که می بينيم، «سفر احمدی نژاد»، همچون «کاتاليزور» ی کارآمد، وجود اختلاف و تفاوت عميق در بين اعضاء همين گروه «مخالف» را بصورت دردناک آشکار کرده است بطوری که برخی از آنها، عليرغم ژست های هميشگی شان، يکباره و بعنوان افرادی ضرر ديده، ادعای خسارت و لزوم پاسخگوئی به جسارت رئيس دانشگاه کلمبيا را سر داده اند. بدينسان طرح اين پرسش نابهنگام نيست که: براستی چگونه برخی از آنها که عموماً مدعی مخالفت با حکومت اسلامی هستند، هنگامی که در برابر کاربرد سنجهء سخنان رئيس دانشگاه کلمبيا قرار می گيرند، از شمول «مخالفان» خارج می شوند؟

>>>

A logical energy strategy

In the fog of justifiable panic, some good comrades, friends and allies are prone to (and do) argue the following: Because the Iranian regime is under fire by the imperialists, we must support whatever the mullahs do, unconditionally. That regime is involved in a fundamental conflict with the imperialists, and all other conflicts (those involving the civil and social rights of the Iranian people vis-à-vis their state) must take a backseat to this supreme conflict... Refusing to do the hard work, some of us have consequently fallen back on 'my enemy's enemy is my friend, god be dammed!' type of thinking; a mentality that, when adopted previously by western leftists, led to their defeat in one battlefield after another during the Cold War >>>