Archive - Feb 10, 2009 - Article

خمینی و امت گریه

انقلاب که شد من 9 سالم بود و کلاس پنجم دبستان بودم. سه سال بعدش وقتی کلاس سوم راهنمایی بودم بخشنامه‌ای آموزشی آمد که دانش آموزان باید برای حرفه و فن یک حرفه را انتخاب کنند و چند ساعتی از هفته را در این حرفه کارآموزی کنند. از آنجا که من، نه در آشپزی خوب بودم و نه در خیاطی یا گلدوزی و چون به تدریس علاقه داشتم، حرفه معلمی را انتخاب کردم. هفته‌ای یک روز در یک مدرسه ابتدایی کمک آموزگار شدم. وظیفه‌ی اصلی من این بود تا دیکته‌ها را که شامل کلمه و ترکیب هم می‌شد تصحیح کنم. روزی جزو سوالات بچه‌ها بود که مترادفی برای کلمه‌ی "رهبر" پیدا کنند. هنگام تصحیح با تعجب دیدم که اکثریت دانش‌آموزان مترادف رهبر را "خمینی" یا "امام خمینی" نوشته بودند. دفعه‌ی دیگری هم که باید مترادفی برای کلمه‌ی "امام" می‌نوشتند، باز جواب داده بودند: "خمینی">>>

Time to choose

The son of the late Shah exposes his vision of a different Iran which is democratic, secular and integrated in the international community. This includes a project to accomplish a society capable of answering to the aspirations of the Iranian people, the foundation of a democratic parliamentary regime in which the constitution is founded on the universal principles of human rights, the establishment of a nation guaranteeing the liberty of all, a national reconciliation like the model of South Africa, and finally the separation of state and religion>>>

Post-Bush World Order

The U.S. at the head of the western powers tries as much as possible to hold onto some aspects of the unipolar status that it gained after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In a period less than a decade, American ideologues head-mastered by groups of cold warriors angrily rejected any idea of a multi-polar world, declaring that no other country except the U.S. is qualified to be at the head of the “new world order.” This claim went unchallenged until the U.S. occupation of Iraq exposed the vulnerabilities of the U.S. as a single superpower on the world stage>>>

From Zahak to plastic prostitutes of Tehran

Here is a quiz question: - If I were to ask you to identify one single style of narrative that has consistently existed in our Iranian Art and literature for several millennium what would you say it is? OK, I’ll give you a clue, what do writers and Artists do under repression and censorship? The answer is they use allegory. More consistently for the last 1400 years, these allegories are signs of how as a nation we have taken bends and twists to comply, shape or live with Islamic law or live under tyranny of kings, sheikhs, Sultans and Khans and say what we want to say>>>

Cold Rain

Didn’t I stroll under its refreshing mist a thousand times? Didn’t it make me wet on the way to school? Didn’t it ruin my homework times and again? Didn’t the young palms of my hands endure the sting of punishment every time? Didn’t it give me the cold, the congested nose and the cough and the horrible taste of cough syrup afterward? Didn’t I drop the vitamin C tablet in a glass of water, dazzled with the fizzle and down it with a frown? Wasn’t it all because of rain?>>>