Archive - Nov 2007 - Article

My journey

After another hard-working semester at Miramar College, I figured my brain can no longer function, and after all it was summer time! I decided to go on a vacation, but it was not going to be an ordinary one, I had decided to go to Iran, my home, a country that I had left at the age of seventeen. As I was counting down the days to June 18th, a nostalgic feeling grew in me, “How has the image of Iran changed?”, “What if I find myself distant and cornered from the Iranian youth in terms of life-style and values?” It seemed though that the media had done its job in terms of influencing me!>>>

At least his whores are melancholy

At least, his whores are melancholy. Ours are beaten, underpaid, overworked, anguished, and subjected to all forms of torture on a daily basis. Ours passed the melancholy state long ago. I’m referring to a book by the Colombian novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, entitled “Memories of My Melancholy Whores.” It was banned in Iran, after selling out, because the censors discovered that the title was sanitized. The word “whores” was replaced with “sweethearts.” The prostitute in the book is a fourteen year old girl who is the object of a ninety year old mans lust, and then love. Iranians will not be offended by either the title or the 76 year age difference. We know of far worse. We have known far younger whores being the object of madness, for the lack of a better term, not just lust and love.>>>

In search of morning

Last spring I read Dar Josteju-ye Sobh (“In Search of Morning”), the memoir of Abdorrahim Ja’fari, founder of Amir Kabir publishing house in Iran. It is an unforgettable book...Driven by equal measures of intellectual curiosity and enterprising spirit Ja’fari built his own version of the great Amir Kabir’s legacy. He educated the public as he educated himself. He saw the potential of the market for new works and ideas and devoted his considerable energy to building and expanding it. He helped create a reading public. By giving decent contracts and royalty to his authors and translators, the former print house worker ended up supporting a class of professional intellectuals. As businessmen go he was a rare breed; he took financial risks on the market for intellectual pursuit. And, lo and behold, Amir Kabir grew and prospered.>>>

Let us back into the universe

As Iranian human rights activists we are fighting to restore to our nation those rights that are universal and inalienable. These rights are founded on the incontrovertible truth that all human beings are born free and equal. The constitution of the Islamic Republic is incompatible with this omnipresent reality. It is riddled with inconsistencies and discrimination. It stands contrary to all those hard won liberties secured by human beings throughout the ages. Human rights are not a product of the West. Neither are they the inheritance of one race or culture. They are the upshot of the accumulated experience and collective enlightenment of mankind as a whole.>>>

شکنجه‌های رایج

تمامی رژیم‌های سرکوبگر استفاده‌ی گسترده از شکنجه را به عنوان اصلی‌ترین و کارسازترین ابزار برای دست‌یابی به اطلاعات به منظور دستگیری، سرکوب، فروپاشی و نابودی نیروهای سازمان‌های مترقی و مبارز و مخالف خود می‌شناسند. آن‌چه که رژیم جمهوری اسلامی را از دیگر رژیم‌های سرکوبگر دنیا متمایز می‌کند، تداوم شکنجه، آزار و اذیت و اقدام‌های خودسرانه و غیرانسانی بعد از دوران بازجو یی و در دوران تحمل کیفر و حتا بعد از آزادی از زندان است. دامنه‌ی اقدام‌های سرکوبگرانه تا آن‌جاست که خانواده و کودکان زندانیان را نیز در بر می‌گیرد. در نظام جمهوری اسلامی شکنجه در سه مرحله و به سه منظور انجام می‌گیرد>>>

Old & gorgeous

- “Could you please give me a lift? The weather seems fine. I’m going on a date with my camera and don’t fancy wasting time trying to find a parking space.”
- “Another old and grey building to explore?”
- “This one is more brownish than grey. Anyway, how do you know it is going to be a building?!”
- “It usually is.”
- “It’s that magnificent, abandoned building on London road; you know the one near the Piccadilly station?” >>>

Now what?

It is now some 28 years from Huyser’s mission to Tehran. On Friday, November 16, President Bush’s emissary, John Negroponte, arrived in Pakistan to tell Mr. Musharraf what to do in order to save his country from turmoil. Déjà vu allover again! The 1979 Huyser mission in Tehran was to get the Iranian army to stay in one piece by standing down. The fear at the time was that the sophisticated weaponry in the hands of the Iranian forces would find its way into the hands of “enemy” elements (read Palestinians). In Islamabad, Negroponte probably sought to ensure that the Pakistani army stays in one piece so the country’s nuclear arsenal does not end up in “enemy” hands (read, a militant Islamic regime). >>>

Let's talk Turkey

I must admit, i am not a huge fan of all things turkey, to be honest. I don’t mind it, but the American obsession with turkey on rye, turkey pot pie, turkey sausages and turkey bacon, is just one step beyond insanity for my purist ways. Furthermore (I believe) sausages and bacon should be made of pork! If our little porky pals weren’t so damn tasty, then why would we try and make alternatives to these products, at every opportunity? I know, I know it’s a health thing, and of course, there are two sides to every argument. For the “My-body- is- a- temple” types amongst you, I will gladly point out that turkey is one of the lowest fat meats around>>>

مگی در تلاطم زمانه

در هوای پائیزی به بلفاست رفتن مزه ای دیگر برایم داشت .پل دوست ایرلندی ام به استقبالم در ایستگاه قطار آمد . چمدان کوچک سیاهم را به دنبال خود کشیدم .آخر های ماه سپتامبر بود .پائیز دوست داشتنی از راه رسیده بود .برگ های نارنجی درختان در سراسر راه به روی زمین ریخته شده بودند .خورشید کم جان تر از روزهای قبل بود .مقداری از راه سوار کشتی شدم و در تلاطم دریا امواج شکسته می شدند و باد سرد وادارم می کرد که کت مشکی ام را تنم کنم>>>

Touch the Sky

Blindfoled, hands shackled behind me, I stumble on the ripped hem of my chador. They laugh.

I am dragged by the armpits. My knees bang against each step of the gallows. The crowd cheers, "Death to the prostitute, death to the adulterer."

I've committed no crime. I'm still a virgin.

>>>

No excuse

Canadian government has recently initiated a motion to censure Iranian government over its human rights record in United Nations after its successful work in same direction during last few years since the death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Ms. Zahra Kazemi in year 2003. More that 28 years after establishment of Islamic Republic in Iran, human rights continue to be number one victim of this theocratic government which still remains in revolutionary state to justify the unlawful punishments and human rights abuses even against those who never saw the revolution in their lifetime and did not have any role in it>>>

Something better to do

For those of you who don't know what Ghorme Sabzi is, it's a popular Iranian stew made of beans, chopped vegetables, dried lime and minced meat cooked in a certain order, mixed together and cooked again to be served with white rice. You may ask what does this stew have to do with bombing Iran other that the fact that eating too much of it feels like being bombed from the inside? A few years ago a friend in England sent me an email expressing his concern about the possibility of a preemptive American attack against Iran and thought this would be a disaster for both countries>>>

Forough and me

People here sometimes ask me how I came to things Iranian, and this is a difficult question to respond to. Because one never comes to things like this; these things always come to one. And if I explained how Iran came to me, those who had to ask me would never believe me, and those who would believe me never ever ask. Nonetheless, I shall single out two "events". The first one was September, 11, 2001, when I like many of my "hamvatans", looking deeply into the flames, began to ponder the "Muslim world." But my research led me inexorably to Iran, as though it were a road I'd trodden often long before>>>

Declamations

Humans have zeal
We are creatures
Who venerate
This is true even
For those who
Don’t know
What is worthy?
And find substitutes
In kings, ayatollahs >>>

«ايالات متحدهء ايران»

بنظر من، اصرار مدام بر وجود «ملت های مختلف» در برابر «ملت فارس» و، در همان حال، زير فرش کردن مفهومی به نام «ملت ايران»، نشانگر اين واقعيت است که جدائی طلبان اتفاقاً مشکلی واقعی با آنچه که «ملت فارس» می خوانند ندارند و مشکل اصلی آنها با وجود گسترده و فراگيری به نام «ملت ايران» است.>>>