Archive - May 29, 2008 - Article

The age factor

If a man tells his wife of 20 years that she should be aware that at any moment he can go back to Iran and marry a 25 year old; should the woman be offended/ threatened/ mad/ sad? I find myself to be obsessed with the issue, simply because lately, my husband has been saying that to me repeatedly. As you may guess, we are not in our honeymoon anymore, and we are not in our old age either. He is a very educated man; a prominent figure in our community and I am an educated and a professional woman. Yes, things are not going so well between us lately and we have had arguments>>>

هنوز دوران جوانی است

در ایران متوجه شدم طرفداران دولت احمدی نژاد را در بین توده های مردم، محرومین و زحمتکشان و در میان گروه های سیاسی، نیروهای عدالتخواه تشکیل میدهند. آنان که از حق درمان، حق تحصیل فرزندان، حق مسکن وحداقل زندگی شرافتمندانه محرومند احساس میکنند احمدی نژاد توانسته آنها را تا حدودی در سرنوشتشان شرکت دهد و به حق و حقوقشان آگاه سازد. برای آنها احمدی نژاد نمود رهبری است که مصمم است خدمت به مردم رابه عنوان یک فرهنگ فکری به الگوئی در بین مسئولین دولتی تبدیل نماید و بهمین دلیل بسیاری امتیازات را از مدیران دولتی حذف کرده است. او با سرسختی وپشتکار سعی در ترویج روحیه کار سخت و سازنده را دارد. احمدی نژاد توانسته است برای این اقشار معیارهای فراموش شده در انقلاب بهمن 57 را دوباره زنده کند.>>>

More than a cause

I was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and my doctors told me that my only chance of survival is if I have a bone marrow transplant. The doctors were telling me that the only way that I could live is if somebody else would give me some of their bone marrow!... I made a promise to myself that when I am better and able to live a normal life, I will dedicate my life to educating people of the significance of donating marrow and how truly important such a gift is to patients in need. The only reason that I am alive today is because my brother was able to overcome his intense fear of hospitals and needles and donate the marrow that now keeps me living.>>>

Hunting humans

In contrast to reforms under Mohammed Khatami, the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has intensified hate propaganda against Baha'is in government-controlled media, where they are variously demonized as agents of Russian, British, and U.S. imperialism, not to mention Zionism and even Wahhabism. A 2007 UN report revealed that the Ministry of Intelligence has been collecting detailed information about Baha'is across Iran. Death threats and attacks, desecration of cemeteries and places of worship, denial of pensions and university education, the harassment of Baha'i children in schools? all signs of a concerted campaign to strangle this community in the land of its birth.>>>

Meet Keiko

Twenty Years ago, when we first moved to St. Louis
I met this lively graduate student named Keiko
After twenty odd years, it is hard to recall details beyond her round face framed by short shiny black hair
But I remember the way she moved through the building with a combination
of agility and grace, in bursts of short successive moves -
much the way robins would explore a tree (without making noise or knocking anything down) >>>