Archive - Sep 2009 - Article

One husband and three wives

My heart has two birds
Cohabiting its nest, a beast
And a prince.

One chases a flame, not
Knowing it is in pursuit of lust;
The other free-falls in fire,
Royal blood maturing through burning scars >>>

Persian Delay Factor (PDF)

Majid and his wife Goli are planning an Iranian Dinner party (Mehmooni). As is the case, they have to deal with the date, time, guest list, and all the details that go along with such a party. The guest list starts with eight but somehow they end up with a list of over thirty people. Having such a large number of people at the house requires lots of cooking and cleaning; neither Majid nor his wife Goli are up to the task, so they agree the food will be catered.The date is set for Saturday night and the time is set to be at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served at 8 p.m., and if all goes as planned, the party should end at midnight. So they hope>>>

عشق پوسیده

فیلم "دزدان دریایی کارائیب" را به خاطر آورید و کشتی "مروارید سیاه" را ایران فرض کنید، و همه مان را نفرین زده‌های ابدی! به گناه حرکتی که در ابتدا عشق و گرمی‌ به وجودمان داد، و به لعنتی تاریخی‌ یا جبری جغرافیایی، که از آغاز جنبش مان را محکوم به شکست نمود. حالا، چه مثل نود و پنج در صدی که در ایران هستند و بر آن‌ "کشتی‌ سیاه" زجر میکشند و برای اربابانش فعلگی میکنند، و چه مانند پنج در صدی که اینور آب به زور و زحمت لقمه نانی در می‌‌آورند؛ مذاق جملگی تلخ است و طعم شیرینی‌ و عشق نمی‌‌بیند. پس، از عشق نمی‌‌نویسم؛ چون در دل‌ نسل ما سالهاست که مرده و پوسیده است. >>>

It's Easy, Vote Azizi

If asked, Bahareh Azizi would be quick to tell you that “tolerance” and “acceptance” are two of her personality traits that she values the most. Having received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, this successful Iranian American scientist has now turned her sights on politics. In July of this year, Azizi announced that she will be running for the District 6 seat in Atlanta’s City Council. According to Azizi, “I believe in Atlanta, and I know that we can work towards moving her one step closer to reaching her true potential.”>>>

S & M Iranian style

Nazy joon is 40-years old going on 13 and often says she’s in her early 30s. She considers herself a virgin [I mean virgin-like] after 5 years of marriage to a man in his early 60s who brought her to LA from Iran. After arriving in LA, she told her newly wed husband that she's a virgin and so afraid of having sex that he has to wait til she’s comfortable. So he said fine and he waited and waited till she disappointedly gave up (after 2 weeks) her virginity that had won a bid of 1349-gold-coins worth>>>

Coffee and Conversation (3)

There is a red phone that sits on the countertop in my small kitchen. There are, precisely, three people who have access to the number. When it rings; which is not that often, I generally go into an immediate panic for the loud and rude bell can mean only one thing – an emergency. On this fateful Saturday morning; when I had hoped to lie in for a while; the red phone rings. I cover the space between my bed and the kitchen in a few seconds, all the while imagining the absolute worst. I pick up the phone to hear Mira’s jovial voice>>>

The Ultimate Freedom

The two couldn’t have been more
different, even if they were attached
like the stem of a plant
that grows two distinct
flowers; no, they were more
like a double-hipped cherry—
two pits with the fleshy mass joining
them at the center. >>>

A Place Called Evin

Evin, which derives its name from a village in the northern Alborz Mountains of Tehran, was built in 1971 during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Previously, it had been the home of Seyyed Zia’eddin Tabatabee, a pro-British politician who was a PM under Ahmad Shah, the last Qajar Shah. After his death, the ownership of his property was transferred over to SAVAK and was then converted into what is today known as Evin Prison. It is a large compound of a few acres and has a wall built all around it. If you go to northern Tehran from the center of the city there is a good chance you will pass by Evin Prison. There are always guards outside, and families waiting to see their loved ones>>>

جنبش سبز رنگین کمان

جنبش سبز در تیول فرد یا نیروی خاصی نیست و هیچ کس نمی‌تواند به خود اجازه دهد که افراد یا گروه‌هایی را به دلیل گرایش‌های آنان از شرکت در این جنبش منع کند. این جنبش هنوز حتا از رهبری واحد برخوردار نیست و کسی نمی‌تواند سخنگویی آن را به خود اختصاص دهد. این جنبش البته رهبری خود را پیدا خواهد کرد، ولی این رهبری را کسی می‌تواند به عهده بگیرد که همه نیروها و گرایشهای سیاسی شرکت کننده در جنبش را نمایندگی کند و بیان کننده خواست محوری جنبش سبز و مشترک بین این نیروها باشد.>>>

اسلام واقعی همین است

پیش درآمد: به نظر من به اندازه کافی تحلیل و بررسی در مورد حوادث اخیر ایران از طرف روشنفکران دانشگاه نشین امریکا و کلا جریانات به اصطلاح پیشرو این مملکت شنیده ایم و به گمان من اکثر قریب به اتفاق تحلیل های دانشگاه نشینان بیشتر در خدمت تعریف هویت خود است تا دوا کردن دردی از کسی. و فکر کنم به همین دلیل است که بسیاری سوالات واضح و ابتدایی در این تحلیل ها بی پاسخ مانده است. شاید هم به خاطر اینکه جواب چنین سوال هایی را نمی شود در محافل محافظه کاران ه دانشگاهی/روشنفکری امریکا—که خودشان را در ردای چپ و پیشرو و . . . پوشانده اند—پیدا کرد. اما از قدیم گفته اند پرسیدن سوال نصف جواب است>>>

Beyond the Old and the New

Sadeq Hedayat was born on 17 February 1903 and died on 9 April 1951. He was descended from Rezaqoli Khan Hedayat, a notable 19^th century poet, historian, and historian of Persian literature, and author of Majm‘ al-Fosaha, Riyaz al-‘Arefin and Rawza al-Safa-e Naseri. Many members of his extended family were important state officials, political leaders and army generals, both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Mokhber al-Dawleh, Nayyer al-Molk I (Hedayat’s grand-father), Sani‘ al-Dawleh, and Mokhber al-Saltaneh, who was prime minister between 1928 and 1933>>>

باد جنوب غربی

مداد جادویی ام را از قفسه بالای دیوار چوبی خانه بر می دارم تا دریای ما بین مان را از وسط نصف کنم. فرقی هم نمی کند توفانی باشد یا که آرام در بستری از صلح. نه! دیگر نمی خواهم بیش از اینها در خرافه های زنگار بسته زندگی کنم. دلم می خواهد بشقاب ماهی خودم را روی میز بگذارم و از مغازه های سیار ، بسته های تاریخ دار ماهی نخرم. دلم می خواهد شکاف میان دریا را درست نقاشی کنم تا هم برای تو ماهی باشد و هم برای من. خودت بهتر از هر کسی می دانی کودک درونم مثل همیشه بازیگوش و سر حال است با این تفاوت که متاسفانه دارم بزرگ می شوم و زنگ های هشدار را این بار به خوبی می شنوم>>>

Revealed... part one

Don't ask me for tender touch,
Passionate kiss or tempting looks
I am done with all those games
As this heart never had interest
In earthly, hurtful, selfish plays
A Random face with no boundaries
A thought with no Time and no space
A spirit joyful filled with love
A heart thirsty to learn and grow
Is what my soul will now embrace >>>

Restless dream

I have wondered in recent weeks why Iran has touched me so deeply. I have travelled to 25 countries in my life. In all of them, I have marveled at various aspects of culture, history and natural beauty. And yet this 25th country I visited, Iran, has touched me more than all others. It is a land that has haunted my dreams, touched my soul, and shifted my consciousness. Little did I know that, after visiting Iran, I would never be the same again. From unexpectedness came an appreciation inexpressible by frail words>>>

The Ascension (2)

This rare creature used to hang out at our house a lot. He wasn’t welcome anywhere else because he made other parents uncomfortable. And for good reason. When children played with him, someone always lost a shoe, fell off a bicycle, broke a tooth, or was stung by a scorpion. But my mother was impractically softhearted and couldn’t bear to see the child rejected like this. She felt sad to see Nader placed in the social outhouse from the very moment of his birth. I was born in a hospital, so instead of the outhouse, I was taken to a nursery. Yet even that wasn’t good enough for my mother>>>