Archive - Mar 15, 2010 - Article

Toro Yadam Miyareh

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How smart are sanctions?

This time, the warmongers' silly season found its apogée in U.S. neo-conservative Daniel Pipes' advice to Obama to "bomb Iran," which appeared shortly after Tony Blair, having outlined why he helped invade Iraq, remarked ominously, "We face the same problem about Iran today." The Chilcot Inquiry in the United Kingdom on how the Iraq War was launched ironically coincided with a considerable military build-up in the Persian Gulf region. All this occurred amidst the continued struggle of Iran’s civil rights movement and proclamations of Western leaders to be in support of the latter’s efforts. But is there any evidence for this?>>>

Khan's Story

The father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program has written an official account that details an Iranian attempt to buy atomic bombs from Pakistan at the end of the 1980s. Bombmaker Abdul Qadeer Khan states in documents obtained by The Washington Post that in lieu of weapons, Pakistan gave Iran bomb-related drawings, parts for centrifuges to purify uranium and a secret worldwide list of suppliers. Iran's centrifuges, which are viewed as building blocks for a nuclear arsenal, are largely based on models and designs obtained from Pakistan>>>

Scholarly Mistakes

On May 27, 2010, the International Society of Iranian Studies (ISIS) will hold its three-day biennial conference in Los Angeles, California. It is jam-packed with interesting panels. Scholars of Iran from around the world will be attending. But this time around there is a controversy brewing. It involves the attendance of a scholar from an Israeli university in the occupied territories. In the past, many scholars from different Israeli universities have attended and given papers at the conference. There has never been an objection. But this time, the matter is different>>>

Journey to Alamut

There is probably no other place in Iran better known around the world than the fortress of Alamut. This place has spawned so many legends of paradisiacal gardens, beautiful houris, intoxicated hashish addicts, ruthless assassins and other fanciful nonsense that they have reached to the utmost limits of incredulity. Yet for all that, it is a truly awe-inspiring place. Even had you known nothing of its religious or political history; even if you had never heard of Hasan Sabbah, of the Assassins, the Ismailis or the grand proclamation of the Qiyamat, this place would seize the mind of any casual traveller who beheld it>>>

The first Nowruz

The first Nowruz was not when a king lit a fire.
Nowruz is not when day is equal to night.
It is not when earth does a full circle.
It ain't when the calenders change.
Nowruz does not launch with a fish startling a turtle.
The first Nowruz is ... >>>

Barbad, the Lute Player

In the Spring
Come back with Barbad (*)
Carrying a lute
And wearing a green cape.
Sneak into the royal garden and straddle the brook
Pass with haste from behind the hedges
Look from the corners of your eyes at the suspended apple
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باربد

بهاران  
با باربد بازآ  
با بربطی در بر
و شولای سبزی بر دوش
از جویبار باغ شاه ، شبانه به درون رو
شتابان از پشت شمشاد ها بگذر
به سیب چرخان روی فواره ازگوشه ی چشم نگاه کن >>>