Archive - Apr 24, 2009 - Article

Bridging the gap

Before accepting his new position as senior advisor to special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Vali Nasr had already distinguished himself as one of the leading analysts on the Middle East and South Asia, appearing on CNN, ABC, NPR, and lending his expertise to articles in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Time Magazine and Newsweek. Author of The Shia Revival, Democracy in Iran, and The Islamic Leviathan, Nasr is also a Professor of international politics at Tufts University, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think-tank focusing on foreign policy. PAAIA's Rudi Bakhtiar caught up with Nasr as he prepares for his new role in the Obama Administration>>>

Fighting together

On March 31, Washington took its first step toward engagement with Tehran through a diplomatic encounter with the Iranian government at the Afghanistan conference in the Hague. Even though the initial contact was awkward, it was clearly a step forward for the Obama administration, and both countries agreed that the opium/heroin trade was a destructive force in both the region and the world. As such, the United States should consider using collaboration on counternarcotics as an effective means to jump-start diplomacy with Iran. Although such an approach would be difficult, it could succeed if both sides focused solely on law enforcement, without the intrusion of politicians, intelligence operatives, and diplomats>>>

Free Saberi

Roxana Saberi's case has by now become internationally known: The very photogenic Iranian-American journalist, who for the six years before her arrest in January had been working in Iran as a freelance reporter with different agencies including the BBC and the NPR, and after a closed-door summary 'trial', was sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges. The Iranian President Ahmadinejad along with the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, have since made public announcements, urging the relevant courts to play fair with Ms. Saberi's case and to allow her all the legal means available to her by law, including the chance for a fair defense>>>

In the name of love

In "Hayedeh, Legendary Persian Diva," Akbarzadeh familiarizes us with the life and artistic achievements of one of the most popular Persian singers of the 20th century. In the words of conductor, Farnoosh Behzad, she was a singer "whose voice was unequalled in texture." And, in an interview, Frank Sinatra praised her voice. Hayedeh (1942-1990), whose real name was Massoumeh Dadehbala, was born in Tehran, and died in exile at age 47. In his film, Pejman Akbarzadeh shows the various periods of Hayedeh's artistic activities: Starting in 1960s, when she sang her first song in public, but remained unknown, until her discovery by Ali Tajvidi for the "Gol-ha-ye Rangarang" program on Iranian National Radio, followed by her turn to popular music>>>

سرنوشت

شب ها
درست نیمه های شب
در بیداری من دراز می کشی و به خواب سردی فرو می روی
صورت تو کو؟
روز در زیر پوست تن تو رژه می رود
پوست تو کاشف رنگ نور است
روزها سردند
و روزنامه ها تصویر سایه های دست تو را چاپ کرده اند >>>

A little more

He strained to hear, yes,
a female voice, repeating
"Djinni Djinn Djinn!
Come through the howlin' wind!
Come to your purple kin!"
It sounded like the falls
that Aladdin had stepped in
before he got himself lost,
the deepest rumble now
and more frightening >>>