Archive - Oct 2008 - Article

Mujahedin's fate in Iraq

The Bush administration inherited many of Iraq's problems when it invaded that country, including an Iranian terrorist organization funded and armed by Saddam Hussein, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO). Though in the midst of a war on terror, the Bush administration chose in 2003 to protect 3,000 of the organization's militants and house them in a camp given to the group by Saddam — Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad. Ever since, the fate of this State Department-listed terrorist organization has been unclear. Hated by Iraqis for its involvement in Saddam's crimes against the Iraqi people, the Baghdad government wants to expel the group. But no country is willing to take them>>>

The Hollow Hills of Nain

If you travel a hundred miles or so eastwards out of Isfahan, through a landscape of pink-coloured mountains and desert wastes inhabited by strange willowy trees and clumps of yellow grass, you come inexorably to the ancient city of Nain. Situated on the very edge of the great Kavir desert, Nain was once an important station on the Silk Road. Today, however, the concrete cubes of Modernity have lent it an air of apathy and neglect. Only the magnificent fortress of Nareen Ghaleh, towering over the city like a broken tooth, still speaks proudly of a rich and illustrious past. But Nain has secrets not disclosed to the casual visitor. On the main road leading to the centre is a low sandy hillside, honey-combed with countless caverns>>>

The Newlyweds (2)

Hi Dear Brother, First, I apologize for this tardy response to your letter. What with the wedding, honeymoon trip and our return to Toronto, getting acquainted with my new life, I have not really had the time to digest all of it myself, let alone write you an account of it. The wedding can best be described as a circus. The successive faces of various amoos, khalehs, dokhtar-dayees, friends, business associates etc. whirled around me like we were all on some sort of a giant merry go round, until they all started blending and blurring together. As the wedding guests lunged towards me, with their wide, grimacing mouths and teeth as sharp as their designer suits, I could not tell whether they were going to kiss me or bite me >>>

«ملت مسلمان ايران» وجود خارجی ندارد!

از آنجا که ـ بر اساس قوانين و معاهدات بين المللی ـ دولتمردان يک حکومت مدرن حاکمان مجموعه ای از مردمان ساکن، يا تحت حمايت، يک کشور محصور در مرزهائی شناخته شده بوسيلهء کشورهای ديگر هستند، و در هيچ کجای عالم نمی توان، در داخل مرزهای يک کشور، ملتی را يافت که دارای فقط يک مذهب باشد، و همواره ملت ها به اقشار دينی مختلفی تقسيم می شوند، خطاب کردن «ملت ايران» به عنوان «ملت مسلمان ايران» يک غلط فاحش حقوقی و سياسی است. چرا که در درون ملت ايران هم، همچون ملت های ديگر جهان، معتقدان به مذاهب گوناگون وجود دارند، همچنانکه در ميانشان منکران مذهب و دين هم فراوانند. در ايران مردمان مسيحی و مسلمان و يهودی و زرتشتی و بهائی و هندو و هزار مذهب و نحلهء ديگر، و همچنين بی دينان و منکران خدا و پيامبر و ائمه و دهری مذهبان و غيره، در کنار هم زندگی می کنند و همگی جزئی از «ملت ايران» هستند. در نتيجه، می توان به ضرس قاطع گفت که چيزی به نام «ملت مسلمان ايران» وجود خارجی ندارد در حاليکه «مسلمانان ايرانی» و يا «مسلمانان ملت ايران» موجوداتی حقيقی اند.>>>

قصیده ای برای رزهای صورتی

... امروز می خوام یه قصیده بریزم
به پای این رزهای رنگ پریده
که فقط یه تقلیدن
این خوشگلای بی
                       عطر و بو
که امروز از یه مرد سفید
با دهنی خشک شده خریدم؛
مردی حتی لاغرتر از ساقه ی پرخون این گلها
که خودشونو بین برگهای مرده پیچیدن

>>>

Forget pneumonia, V's pregnant!

VideoBlog>>>

Dumb and Really Dumb

Just as Jim (Carrey) and Jeff (Daniels) made America laugh with their classic comedy back in 1994, “John and Barack “are also making us laugh as they act this 2008 drama in comedic fashion. Here is the nation falling apart economically, and here we have two senators contending for the highest office in the land who, instead of charging forward on white stallions ready to joust, show up riding side-saddle on decrepit mules. McCain totally clueless about the economy… ditto for his rival Obama. We truly have reached what could be termed as “bottom of the barrel” politics, with a duet of dumb and dumber politicians claiming leadership when they should be claiming ignorance. We need to be clear here. By dumb we don’t mean to categorize these two senators as stupid>>>

Iran Deposes Another King

Once again, the cowardice and ignorance of modern American journalism allowed the wrong idea to seem like a fantastic solution. Well, all I can say is, that I'm just glad I ate before I sat down to watch last week's CNN Larry King interview with Iran's pseudo President Ahmadinejad, or as I now call him A@*H&%$#. Hours before the interview, the "submit your questions" page of CNN that was sent around the internet for Iranians to fill in, was most surely filled in, with great submissions that King could have chosen any one of to really put the non-leader of Iran on the spot with, and grind the logic-failure of Iran's great Islamic proposition with. Instead though, King showed why he is the epitome of the lackluster, ignorant, lazy, and "feed the beast your children", of American journalism>>>

The Falling Stream

So we decided to kill ourselves at the same time. “Hanging,” she said. I shook my head. “Too painful,” I said. “I like pills.” “No,” she said. “It’s typical coward’s kind of death. We want something spectacular.” Then we talked for hours about different ways of dying. Throwing ourselves under a train or a truck. Eating arsenic or burning ourselves. The final solution was supposed to be so original that nobody had never died from it. So unforgettable that everyone was going to remember how hopelessly we felt when we were alive. “We can’t live without hope,” Mitra said. “Suicide is our last hope,” I said. >>>

Billie Holiday

Oh Billie, I dance with you
Holding your waist with my hand
I circle around on tiptoe
Your playful rhythm leaks into my veins
And the salt of your skin sinks into my blood
The sea is far but I hear its sound
The sea is big but fits in my body
Let us cast off our shoes >>>

No No

McCain and Obama emphasized their differences on Iran when actually they have much in common. Both agreed "we cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran." Both supported reinforced diplomacy as the solution, with strengthened sanctions as the central instrument. Even regarding the issue on which they exchanged testy words -- namely, engaging Iran -- their differences were more about how to engage rather than whether to talk. For all his pounding McCain about direct talks, Obama agreed that meetings required preparation and would not start with a presidential summit>>>

[Re]defining Iranian comedy

Part of being an immigrant in the US, is understanding that there is a period of time that one has to go through, as the rest of America begins to accept you and your culture into it's fold. Before you can truly melt into the pot. The concept of melting, depending on your culture and it's character might be a bit daunting to some, more easily accepted to others. For example, it certainly appears that Indians have been more willing to blend into American culture as they immigrate. They seem to have arrived recently, or certainly after we did, and they look far more comfortable with the process of Amercanizing their culture, than we seem to be>>>

The Newlyweds (1)

Dear Mitra Joon: Yes, you read the subject line correctly. I am getting married!!! I know, your jaw is dropping from the shock. Me? Getting married? Me, who had all but given up on love, and vowed to remain single forever. It has been a whirlwind, let me tell you. I guess it must be true what they say, that you find your true love only once you have stopped looking. I had all but given up on finding my Prince Charming especially after kissing so many frogs (remember Houman from Montreal? LoL). In my case, as you have guessed, I found my true love in the most unlikely of places: Iran >>>

Setting you free

Imagine me going to a trip to say… Italy, then getting very emotional seeing this person who is very hot, and say… kiss him once, a deep French kiss, a very passionate kiss. Let’s also assume that it stays by a kiss and it does not go further (it’s just an assumption, we all know that if a kiss is that passionate, it can have some other implications…). Further, we can assume that I have a relationship and I decide not telling my partner about the KISS. In a very odd way though, the minute I arrive back home, my partner has an idea that something has happened. He will then ask me: “is there something you want to tell me?” I will then say: “no.” Let’s analyze this for a minute, shall we? What is the truth? Am I lying? >>>

Effective control

Too often Great Powers assumed that the world was their playground. They drew lines on a geographic map, creating political entities -“facts on the ground”. This meddling in regional politics has come to haunt the world in the form of multiple border disputes. The Powers ignored the fact that no inhabited land is a “clean slate” and an unacceptable line in the sand sows the seeds of future conflicts. Thus border conflicts have become part of the tradition of the postcolonial world. One such dispute is brewing between Iran and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf over the status of three islands, Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb >>>