Archive - Dec 24, 2009 - Article

Let us all be together

At a time when two human rights organizations in Iran --which consist of students-- have been courageous and forthright in taking up the rights of minorities and especially sexual minorities who have been excluded from civil rights protection, the representatives of the Green Movement who are devising the outlines of the new constitution, avoid mentioning the rights of minorities. If we do not pay attention, the first opportunity for correcting the defects of the constitution will lead not to reform but to a future imprisoned by prejudice and exclusion>>>

مرگی حرکت آفرین

درگذشت ناگهانی آیت الله منتظری صحنه شطرنج سیاست ایران را دستخوش تلاطم جدیدی کرد. جنبش سبز که بزرگترین چالش سیاسی در برابر جمهوری اسلامی ایران را در طول حیات سی ساله آن ایجاد کرده با از دست دادن «پدر معنوی» خود گویی حیات تازه‌ای یافته است. اجتماع عظیم هواداران این جنبش در قم و شعارهای کوبنده آنان که مراسم رسمی تشییع جنازه را تحت الشعاع قرار می‌داد یک‌ بار دیگر به حاکمیت نشان داد که با حرکتی رو به رشد و خاموش ناشدنی روبرو است>>>

در کنار مردم

آیت الله منتظری اگرچه خود از بنیانگذاران ولایت فقیه در ایران پس از انقلاب بود اما در راه جدا کرده ی خود از خمینی بود که دریافت این سیستم کارایی ندارد و گرچه هرگز با صراحت از رد اصل ولایت فقیه که زمانی از حامیان جدی آن بود سخنی به میان نیاورد اما با موضع گیری ها و سخنرانی ها و نیز نامه ی تاریخی خود پیش از فاجعه ی ملی تابستان 67 نشان داد که جای او نه در کنار ولایت فقیه که در کنار مردم است>>>

The important jewel

My visits to Mumbai, nay India, tend to be centred on visits to Britannia restaurant. (If my plane from Goa arrives later than 2pm, it means waiting until 12 o’clock the next day to eat. It’s well worth not eating for three days in advance in order to stock up like a camel at Britannia.) In fact, those who come to India for spiritual experiences surviving on a plate of dal, prayers, and sweeping an ashram at the crack of dawn baffle me – the closest I have come to a spiritual experience in this great country is the explosion that occurs halfway through a plate of sali boti – diced lamb>>>

The Conversation

The dream was a moment, as best as I can remember. It was at Pike Place Market in Seattle. It was late in the evening, around closing time. The cobblestone streets were wet but it had stopped raining, and the day's crowd had thinned out to the market workers and a few last shoppers. The lights of the shops and stalls lit up the night, and I was saying my goodbyes after work, with a little bag of groceries in my hand. In the dream I was vaguely Italian, in the way that Iranians find themselves vaguely Italian when they try to find themselves in American stories>>>