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Misguided rights

In the mid twentieth century, US-Iran relations prospered. Many Americans celebrated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a model king. President Lyndon B. Johnson pronounced in 1964: "What is going on in Iran is about the best thing going on anywhere in the world". During the 1970's Iran's Shah propelled Iran into becoming a dynamic middle-east regional power. The Shah implemented broad economic and social reforms, including enhanced rights for women, and religious and ethnic minorities. Economic and educational reforms were adopted, initiatives to cleanse politics of social upheaval were systematized, and the civil service system was reformed.>>>

A swift change

Last Sunday, my good friend Bill invited me to be his guest at the final round of the LPGA Safeway Classic tournament. The ladies were in town, playing at what I've come to call Bill's 'alternate residence" or, if you prefer, hangout: Columbia-Edgewater CC. This annual event provides the Portland married male population a live opportunity to find out what our 39th president, Jimmy Carter, meant by 'committing adultery in the heart," for this bevy of talented golfers do an extraordinary job to help choreograph the stage for lust. But fear not, I won't get into the subject of lust, or a dissertation on why these LPGA girls really rock beyond the promotional PR. Nor is my subject the current top player in women's golf, Lorena Ochoa, the winner this time ˆ her third consecutive victory after the recent crowning as Lady Top Gun. >>>

Total control

The Islamic Republic of Iran has the dubious distinction of executing more children, those under the age of 18, than any other country in the world. Such is the plight of the Iranian people. Iran’s ruling Mullahs are clustered around major factions such as the conservatives, the moderates, and the so-called reformists. Yet, the differences among these factions are tactical rather than strategic. One and all share the same overarching goal of defeating the “Crusader-Zionists” by any and all methods possible, bringing about the “end of the world” Armageddon, and thereby creating the requisite conditions for the appearance of the Hidden Imam, the Mahdi, to assume his rule of the world. >>>

نقد نظر یا نقد شخص؟

می دانید که زندانیان سیاسی برخی اوقات برای فرار از شکنجه و فشار بازجویان اطلاعات سوخته ای را به نشانه همکاری خود در اختیار بازجویان می گذارند. چرا حال که به انگیزه شناسی و روانشناسی آقای میلانی در برخورد با پلیس سیاسی پرداخته اید، لااقل احتمال چنین عملی را از سوی ایشان نداده اید؟ شما آگاهید که بخاطر فشارهای وارده در نظام های سرکوبگر، مبارزان سیاسی به علت "انسان" بودن و در نتیجه دارا بودن حدود مختلفی در تحمل فشار و شکنجه های جسمی و روحی ممکن است در مراحلی برخلاف نظرات واقعی خویش مطالبی را بیان کنند، بنویسند یا آنکه برای رهایی از زندان ندامت نامه ای را نیز امضا کنند. >>>

Gholaam Flake

His name is not Gholaam but he is a flunky type at times (nookar sefat)ˆ servant of his needs for women. One of my Turkish friends calls him "amjugh parast"! It is not necessarily a bad  thing except when you combine it with "being flaky" which can cause trouble for everybody around him. What do I mean? Well when it comes to women who provide him with what he needs or when he knows a new woman and wants to get into her pants, he does everything! Absolutely everything! What a lover, a servant, a friend, a father may do. >>>

طالبان های اروپائی

هفته گذشته روزنامه نرکیس آله هاندا که در شهر اوره برو سوئد و در تیراژ حدود 100000 نسخه چاپ میشود عکس های مستهجنی از محمد پیامبر مسلمانان چاپ کرد که دقیقا نشانگر اهدافی خاص میباشد از آنجائیکه به افکار طرفداران عقیدتی با این مسئله برخورد و این نکته را میشکافند؛ در اینجا بدان پرداخته نمیشود . بلکه لازم است در رابطه با ادعای دروغین آزادی بیان برای چاپ چنین چیزهائی در سوئد و مخصوصا این نشریه که خود من با آن تجربه ای دارم پرداخته شود.>>>

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

It was around this time 2 years ago, actually in June, when my good friend Fardad and I, went on a short hop business trip to New Orleans to attend a tradeshow. With all of the news surrounding the Big Easy since, and the somewhat uncertain road back to normal life and the living, I thought it might be a good time to make a travel recommendation to all of you. Suffice it to say, a visit to New Orleans is always in order, always a good idea. After you have been to this wonderful place, just once, you will understand a couple things. First, nothing but nothing will dissuade the indomitable character of New Orleans, not a pissant bitch-named-Katrina storm, not flooding, not un-maintained failing levees, not an inept FEMA, not even God. There is simply too much pure sensual spirit in New Orleans for that.>>>

Enduring endearment

Global communication and the urge to become one with the world has brought on drastic changes and bent a few rigid rules. Long gone are the days when we used different greeting for different people. Just three decades ago, you never said goodbye to your seniors with “Bye” or even the common term of ghorbanat – meaning may I be sacrificed for you! Instead, where I grew up, you had to say sayeh-toon-kam nasheh -- may your shadow never diminish. Or Marhamat-e-shoma-ziyad -- may your favors increase! The undertone was understood, yet such formal expressions often required additional gestures such as a bow, hand kissing, or simply standing up. I never understood why my father said taazeem arz meekonam when talking on the phone, and to this day can’t imagine the need to verbally bow to anyone. >>>

Me and the Campaign on Vozara Street

When Lyda left, we were all quiet... We were thinking about her ill-fated marriage and her silence in facing the separation... When we passed Haft Hoz Bookstore, we saw the members of the security forces surrounded by a crowd of people. Ehsan told me jokingly: "They are going to arrest you now." I was wearing no make up and I was distressed, my mind still occupied with Lyda’s black eye. So, I laughed. A chador-clad policewoman came charging towards me and said: "Come with me for a few moments." >>>

Our short order cooks

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Freedom does miracles

Farhad is not just an ordinary friend. I have known him since high school. We were also roommates at college in Iran in the early 1970’s. While a Junior at college, he was arrested by Savak (Shah’s secret police) for distributing political pamphlets, put into prison, and sent to the Army to serve a mandatory 2 years service. I lost touch with him for over 25 years. A few years ago while visiting Iran , a mutual friend invited me to a college reunion in Tehran and it was there that I saw Farhad again. He told me the story of his life and how he was able to finish his engineering degree after completing his term in the army, how he was briefly detained again after the revolution, and how he began working like a ‘normal’ person, as he puts it, in the engineering and construction field.>>>

The Caspian

I am traveling north
Leaving Tehran in a car
With my family
On a snaking road
I am going up and through
The craggy mountains
The air is cool and refreshing >>>

پاسخ استاد علی اکبر دهخدا

از اين گوشه آسيا شما می تواند به ملت خودتان اطلاعات بدهيد، تا آنها بدانند در اينجا به طوری که انگليسی ها ايران را معرٌفی کرده اند، يک مشت آدمخوار زندگی نمی کنند، و از طرف ديگر به فارسی، به عقيده من خوب است که در صدای آمريکا، طرز آزادی ممالک متحده آمريکا را در جنگ های استقلال، به ايرانيان بياموزيد و بگوييد که چگونه توانسته ايد از دست استعمار خلاص شويد؟ و تشويق کنيد که واشنگتن ها و فرانکلن ها در ايران، برای حفظ استقلال از همان طرق بروند. >>>

Cutting one's nose to spite one's face

The Post's unquestioning service to empire is all too familiar. Back in the 1980s, the paper made a habit of playing stenographer to the Reagan administration as it justified its murderous intervention in Central America. Reagan falsely claimed that the US had to train and arm the despicable Contra rebel army against Nicaragua because the country's leadership was channeling Soviet weapons to neighboring El Salvador in a bid to destabilize U.S. client states in the entire region. The Washington Post editorial writers never wavered from that fabricated line, not even when they feigned outrage at the scandalous Iran-Contra scheme by Reagan's subordinates to fund the war on Nicaragua in violation of a Congressional ban. >>>

Cover girl

I stopped wearing a hejab at twelve, and at thirteen my clothing style gradually grew shorter. I thought that the entire point of hejab was to blend a woman with her surroundings, and if my surroundings exercised their right to bear skin, shouldnŒt my hejab follow in pursuit? For a while it worked, but the longer time passed since I wore my hejab, the more and more I felt like a sore thumb. I felt displaced, homeless, and when I sought safety, I would crawl onto my bed and drape my blanket over my entire head and body. Even today, when I remember the empty act of praying, I don't remember the foreign words or the unexplained movements so much as I remember the light, see-through cloak that enveloped me, embraced me, and if I had any faith in God during my five daily prayers, it was in the feeling that as long as I was engulfed by his hejab, I was safe. >>>