Archive - May 19, 2008 - Article

In god's country

The Islamic Republic of Iran places the Shiite sect of Islam at the heart of the state apparatus. The Islamisation of all life, based on Khomeini's own interpretation of Islam, is the central policy of the Islamic ruling elite. Religious minorities, which include the Sunnite sect of Islam, Christian, Jews, Zoroastrians and Baha'is compromised about 10 % of the population after the Iranian revolution, most of them Sunnite Muslims who also suffer from discrimination as national minorities. In addition, increasing numbers of Shiites, especially after the inception of the IRI, are non-believers>>>

از بی قانونی به قانون مندی

گرچه شاید خنده دار به نظر برسد اما از نگاه من دستگیری چند تن از سران بهاییت گام مثبتی در راستای احقاق حقوق شهروندی بهاییان است. فهم این نکته تنها در صورتی امکان پذیر است که در نظر داشته باشیم بنابر قانون اساسی ایران بهاییت در زمره اقلیت های مذهبی رسمی قرار ندارد. بر همین اساس بهاییان از حقوق مذهبی قانونی اقلیت های مذهبی نظیر حق تشکیلات اجتماعات مذهبی محرومند. با این حال همان قانون اساسی بهاییان را از حقوق شهروندی بهره مند می سازد. در نتیجه قانون اساسی به بهاییان حق داشتن تشکلات مذهبی را نمی دهد اما در عین حال به آنان حق می دهد تا از حقوق شهروندی چون تحصیل، اشتغال و امنیت برخوردار باشند. >>>

Flight attendants needed

A few days after I wrote the piece on Iranian.com criticizing Bush’s administration of conducting brainless diplomacy towards Iran a piece of news came up that although it was refreshing but was unkindly neglected by the media. Am I surprised by US media’s behavior? Not at all! However this time, it was Robert Gates, United Stated Secretary of Defence that made the news. At his speech at American Academy of Diplomacy he urged more nongovernmental contact between Iran and the US that might eventually open a pathway to more substantive dialogue between the governments>>>

Behind the Garden Door

I am sitting alone in the back yard of my house. It is summer, in the early afternoon, and the scorching sun has laid everyone low. All around me is quiet, not a car stirring anywhere in this little patch of American suburbia. I sit on a plastic chair in the midst of all the fruit trees my wife and I had planted. There are only a few and still quite young: a sour cherry, albaloo, that hangs its ruby fruit like jewels over my head, a peach, a pear and an apple tree. I look down to where a small fig is gathering root and spreading its leaves alongside the river of stone we had put down. There is a meandering path leading past a bench hidden by the branches of the California oak, and next to that, a sudden exhilarating shot of white from the stand of tall cala lilies, their petals open to the sky>>>

I Witnessed Two Murders

It was two in the morning and I was the last customer left in the bar. I decided it was time to leave and head home. Since my car was parked in the rear of the building, I decided to exit from the back door and use the alleyway as a shortcut. It was very dark out there except for the full moon that gave a silvery hue to everything it touched. As I walked toward the main road, I heard a faint cry coming from somewhere to my left. I was afraid to get involved but my inborn curiosity was too strong to overcome. Very quietly I headed toward the sound>>>