TRAVELER

Gmelin's Persia & Persians

Young German scientist and explorer's 1770 journey to northern Persia

by SamuelGottlieb Gmel
29-Jul-2007
Further, music is never played if the singers do not sing along. Often a dance is added, but this dance neither represents German nor French taste. Those who perform them only have in mind how they may express the power of the music by the wonderful turns and rotations of their bodies. It is due to this that they then bend backwards and then again fall down headlong with their arms outstretched on the ground, and often also clap their hands together over the head, until they finally get up to again make the most violent movements by another theme of the music, turn around in twirls and yes even tumble with their head over their bodies, all the while hand-clapping>>>

POETRY

Arrival

A new day

by Baharak Sedigh
29-Jul-2007

the wind whistles its arrival
as dawn returns
from its night travels

>>>

POETRY

Ah, Los Angeles

I accept you as my city

by Majid Naficy
29-Jul-2007
This is the revised version of my Poem, "Ah, Los Angeles" first published in Persian in "Daftar-haye Shanbeh" No. 2, 1994 and then in English in Muddy Shoes (Beyond Baroque Books) 1999. The City of Venice, California engraved one of the stanzas of this poem on a wall in Venice beach at Boardwalk-Brooks in 2000.>>>

POETRY

For Shirin Neshat

Your little black holes are too small for my bullets

by Brett
29-Jul-2007
Youssef and Zuleika have nothing on us
My love
Your little black holes are too small for my bullets >>>

POETRY

The earthquake

Nap time in the heat flattens you out to extract the most comfortable dream

by Jam Hamidi
29-Jul-2007
The earthquake
drunkenly rolled into town.
A town that, seen from above >>>

POETRY

Eclipsing the sun

We kill and kill and kill, that all may come to believe

by Dara Esfandiary
29-Jul-2007

The Sun rises because we will her to rise.

Her rays are made beautiful by our eyes.

In the microcosm, perception forges our reality:


>>>

TURKEY

East meets West at their best

Photo essay: Istanbul and more...

by Fariba Amini
29-Jul-2007
Turkey has advanced in many ways in the last quarter century. Istanbul continues to be a city of amazing historic sites, Byzantine churches, Ottoman mosques, palaces and bathhouses, and splendid museums. But instead of the somewhat drab, downtrodden place that it used to be, it also has become a cosmopolitan city filled with color, life, and modern amenities, where restaurants and cafes serving great food and beer are overflowing until late at night, and where tourists from all over the world are made to feel welcome >>>

FILM

Good spirit

Given today’s political and social climate, artistic efforts and films like "Daivd and Layla" need to be supported

by Shirin Bazleh
29-Jul-2007
Done with watching the mega-budget summer movies: Harry Potter, Hairspray and Transformer? Now what about a small independent romantic comedy about a Jewish New Yorker in love with a Moslem-Kurd refugee? Interesting subject, isn’t it? David and Layla’s Kurdish director Jay Jonroy takes the monumental task of balancing the complexities of a cross-cultural love story against its political and religious contradictions. Two hours of cheery entertainment to discover that there really aren’t any contradictions after all. We have more similarities than differences>>>

UNPOPULAR

Dial 1 for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Although Ahmadinejad is unpopular, the West must not think that it has a blank to check to do what it wants in Iran

by Meir Javedanfar
29-Jul-2007
While Ahmadinejad owes his initial success to polls, his presidency has since to come to rightly fear them. Although many have ruled out polls in Iran as an objective yardstick, the very fact that politicians are nevertheless scared of them shows that they do present some valid information. This was demonstrated recently when Radio Javan, an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) owned radio station, asked its listeners, on the second anniversary of Ahamadinejad’s victory, to SMS the candidate they would vote for if the election were held again. The listeners had the same seven candidates to choose from as they did in 2005. The results of this poll were never publicized. According to reports from Iran, this was due to pressure from Ahmadinejad, who had been informed of his performance>>>

EARTHQUAKE

No nukes for Iran!

Unambiguously oppose any nuclear energy development in Iran carried out by an unaccountable government

by Reza Fiyouzat
29-Jul-2007
In Iran there is no accountability for anything the government does. For example, and directly related to this topic, there is no accountability for the fact that in an oil-rich country, refined oil (for the everyday consumption of the people) is mostly imported! Refining oil is not exactly nuclear science (no puns intended, but take as many as you like). This is a century-old technology. Why is it that the Iranian government is not investing some of its vast sums of petro-euros-and-dollars on improving the oil-refining capabilities of the nation, thus reducing the need for importing (much more expensive) refined oil products? Would this not be safer, more logical, more efficient, and a more economically viable short-to-mid-term investment of the national resources?>>>

TEAM MELLI

We will always love you

Each one us see a part of us in those young kids who are taking on the opponents on that beautiful grass field

by Emad Mirsaedi
29-Jul-2007 (one comment)
Team Melli Iran through years have been so much a part of the Iranian life, both outside and inside Iran that has become an official word in English language. It has been a single source of uniting factor among all political beliefs, and ethnic and religious backgrounds among Iranians. Each one us see a part of us in those young kids who are taking on the opponents on that beautiful grass field. We are so much devoted to them that we forget always that there is also another side to the game, and after all, it is just a game. It has a ball and it is a play! Just a play! That does not get reduced because grown men are doing that. It is a play!>>>

IRANIAN OF THE DAY

After all the crap they have gone through

by Ahvazi
24-Jul-2007

INTERROGATION

Cinema Evin

A film review. Really.

by Ari Siltez
23-Jul-2007
The prison interrogator who directed Haleh Esfanidari's "confession" video -- we will call him Evinpour -- does not have Makhmalbaf's skills. His attempts at realism fail at the levels of set design and editing. Evinpour has succeeded, however, in manipulating Esfandiari into believing she is speaking to a friendly listener. In the video aired on Iranian TV, Esfanidari sits in a couch, comfortable and relaxed, surrounded by the earth tones of the furniture. As our minds cooperate with the director to suspend disbelief, the small refrigerator intruding clumsily into the frame suggests that Evinpour himself has been unable to shake off the prison aura. If this prop is meant as an association with food and therefore good treatment, a basket of fruit on the coffee table would have harmonized much better with the intended scheme>>>

LIFE

When will you see them all again?

A family reunion in diaspora

by Nazy Kaviani
23-Jul-2007
The youngest is 12. If you look carefully at his small, expressive face, you will see a darkening hairline just above his upper lip. You want to stare at it, marvel at the promise of life it brings its owner and those who love him, but you can’t stare at a 12-year old boy. So you move on... Another is a pretty 14-year old, whose body has grown into curves which weren’t there last year, you could swear. You want to stare at the wild beauty of that gorgeous auburn hair, just like her mother’s, and watch the contour of that figure, memorizing it until the next time you meet, but you can’t stare at a 14-year old girl. So you move on...>>>

HARASSMENT

Repressive measures help pro-war forces

Statement on the detainment of Iranian-American

by CASMII
23-Jul-2007
Detention and harassment of individuals, academics and NGO or political activists for expressing their ideas or promoting different cultural positions, are deplorable acts, regardless of the diverse contexts and vastly different dimensions in which they might take place, be it in the United States, Guantanamo Bay, Israel, the UK or any other place, including Iran. In addition to being abhorrent in their own right, such acts in a country like Iran which is threatened by warmongers in the west, also play directly into the hands of those determined to bomb Iran>>>
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