Archive - Feb 5, 2009 - Article

A Valentine to Iran

These days when we find a rock with the imprint of a seashell we know it’s a common fossil. But in the days when Science hadn’t already imagined our world for us, the question of how the sea creature got so far inland, inspired stories. The ancient Iranians had seen rocks fall from the sky, so they imagined monsters called deevs who could throw rocks all the way from the bottom of the oceans to the tops of mountains. There is a well-known story in which a deev called Akvan battles the Iranian supreme champion Rostam. But that episode doesn’t say anything about Akvan throwing rocks from the sea. Why did Akvan toss rocks to dry land? Was he fighting another monster, was he building a home for himself? We don’t know. Obviously large parts of Akvan’s story are lost to us>>>

From Yazd to Inauguration History

The swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama will inarguably go down as one of the most memorable moments in many people's lives, mine included. I, along with over 2 million people, crowded the historic National Mall, braving below freezing temperatures for hours to witness the man who had risen to the top of the political food chain with meteoric speed and against all odds take his rightful place in history. As I tried to move my painfully frozen fingers, I couldn't help but wonder how my friend and photographer Abbas Shirmohammadi was faring from his perfect vantage point. For years, Abbas had been Hillary Clinton's official photographer>>>

Woff woff from Tehran

The outlook for homeless animals in Tehran changed in 2003 because of animal lover Mrs. Fatemeh Motamedi. As a child, Motamedi grew up feeling empathy for all living creatures. “It broke my heart seeing all those stray animals around me and their struggles to find food. And I saw cruelty towards them, like ropes around their necks and things that made me think we need organizations and shelters to help them.” And help she did. Motamedi founded the Center for Animal Lovers, an advocacy group to improve conditions for stray and unwanted animals in Iran. Although Motamedi and her husband now live in Canada they were instrumental in founding VAFA, Iran’s first and only animal shelter>>>

Not Voting IS Voting

Now that the recent election in the US is over with, there is another important election on the horizon. Namely the election of the next President of Iran. Once again this coming June 12th (oddly enough George Bush Sr's birthday), Iranians are forced to once again contemplate their unwinnable dilemma of staying away from the polls, or voting. Staying away seems unpatriotic. But voting means having to pick the lesser of 2 equally evil choices, courtesy of the all knowing and all seeing and all self involving theocratic dictatorship that really runs all of Iran's affairs from behind those scantily see-through skirts of the mollahs>>>

کی باید از ملت ایران عذر بخواهد؟

آقای احمدی نژاد, رییس جمهور حکومت اسلامی, که بارها خود را "مطیع, فرمانبر و عامل" ولی فقیه, آیت الله خامنه ای اعلام کرده است, در پاسخ به در خواست باراک اوباما, ریاست جمهور امریکا, مبنی بر کنار گذاشتن "ابراز دشمني" از سوی حکومت اسلامی و برقراري "ارتباط دوستانه" با امریکا بار دیگر سیمای خود بزرگ بین, عظمت طلب‘ ستیزه جو و عوامفريب حکومت اسلامی را به نمايش گذاشت. يکروز پس از ابراز تمایل رييس جمهور جديد آمريکا براي مذاکره با ايران، محمود احمدي نژاد ‏در سفر استاني اش در جمع مردم کرمانشاه، به اوباما چنین پاسخ داد: "اگر دولت جديد آمريکا به دنبال تغيير سياست هاي گذشته است بايد از ‏ملت ايران عذر خواهي کند و تلاش کند سابقه سياه و جنايت هايي که عليه ملت ايران مرتکب شده اند را جبران کند‎.>>>

Jewish girl, Muslim boy

Long before prophet’s
Hatred disguised itself
As twisted truth, promising
Virgins in paradise’ turf.
Long before bigotry became
Official - calling Jews impure,
Christians infidels, Bahaie’s
non-existent for the sake of its moor. >>>