BAHAI

The Crime of Teaching

Education prohibited in the "Holy Land"

10-Oct-2012 (one comment)
I never met her, however, the picture her sister draws of her makes me feel I have known her for ages. In all the photos I have seen of her, she wears an innocent smile. A smile now captive in a prison cell in Evin. Nooshin was teaching a group of young students who according to “The law" are not permitted to seek higher education in Iran and because of this crime she is in prison today. Nooshin was once one of those youth, herself, who were denied education in that country>>>

GOLSHIFTEH

A gem of a film

The Patience Stone

10-Oct-2012 (one comment)
‘Do you think she’s going to come? Do you think she’ll be here?’ repeatedly asked some friends of mine I happened to bump into in the queue for The Patience Stone – an Afghan film I had been eagerly awaiting ever since I set my paws on the TIFF brochure some weeks ago – as I eyed a mass of conspicuously Iranian-looking faces, fingering my ticket. Waiting in line, it seemed the audience that evening was more interested in catching a glimpse of Iranian actress Golsfhiteh Farhani than seeing a film from one of Afghanistan’s most renowned novelists and directors, Atiq Rahimi>>>

POETRY

Visiting the Crocodiles

to the children of Gaza and Ashkelon

10-Oct-2012 (3 comments)
My neighbor and her grandchildren
Are going to the zoo
To visit the crocodiles of the Nile river
Who, everyday after lunch
>>>

شعر

دو بیتی های ویژه ۶

مناظره عقل و عشق

10-Oct-2012 (18 comments)
گفتند دلی نیست که ویران نشد از عشق
با عشق عجین گشت و پریشان نشد از عشق  

گفتم که ندیدم به جهان هر که غمی داشت
از درد بجان آمد و درمان نشد از عشق
>>>

ECONOMY

Out of Control

What the protests in Tehran may mean

08-Oct-2012 (one comment)
The voices demanding Ahmadinejad’s resignation, even in Iran’s parliament, resonate louder each day. Senior Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Makarem, has warned the government of this unstable economic situation’s potential consequences. He said in an unprecedented tone that “there is a limit to what the people can put up with.” The Grand Ayatollah’s apprehension is justifiable>>>

VIEW

Three Scenarios

Crisis in Iran

08-Oct-2012 (2 comments)
The collapse the rial, poses a fundamental challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei. When I last visited Iran, in 2009, a nearly universal refrain -- among ordinary Iranians, business people, and especially among the circle of big-business types associated with Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who backed the Green Movement -- was that the pain of economic sanctions was biting harshly>>>

رسانه ها

نه مستقل نه آزاد

از شورای ملی تا رسانه های غیر مستقل و اپوزیسیون بیمار

08-Oct-2012 (one comment)
وقتی که شما به تماشای رسانه های مستقل، در کشورهای آزاد می نشینید، می بینید که برنامه های آنها از یک بالانس خوبی برخوردار است، و منعکس کننده همه افکار و نظریات است، نه اینکه یک سویه باشد. اما متاسفانه رسانه های ما نه مستقلند و نه آزاد. هیچ فرقی بین رسانه های لوس آنجلسی، رسانه های اصلاح طلبان، چپی ها و غیره، با رسانه های جمهوری اسلامی وجود ندارد>>>

RESTAURANT

For the Love of Fesenjan

In downtown Toronto

07-Oct-2012 (one comment)
While just a few years ago, the only decent restaurants where you could satisfy your craving for good old-fashioned Persian cuisine in Toronto were all located in the stretch between Yonge & Steeles and Yonge & Sheppard – an area affectionately known among Iranians here as Tehranto - restaurants such as The Pomegranate have been changing things up a bit in the ‘Big Smoke’>>>

POETRY

Pressure cooker
07-Oct-2012
No you can't win.
There is no brick wall
to separate your faith
from the neighbor's lord.
>>>

CRISIS

Bad News For Mahmoud

Facing a harsh backlash from Rial's crash

04-Oct-2012 (5 comments)
On Sept. 4, Ahmadinejad had dismissed speculation that the country’s currency was in deep trouble. When asked whether the rial would reach an exchange rate of 30,000 to the dollar, the president called such predictions “psychological warfare.” Now, just four weeks later, the rate has jumped to 35,000 rials to the dollar, and a Tehrani business owner reports that the exchange market has nearly shut down, with no one willing to sell off dollars for the quickly depreciating rials>>>

دلار

وقتی حکومت‌‌گران نمی‌‌توانند حکومت کنند

حکومت جمهوری اسلامی در برابر بحرانی قرار گرفته که راه حلی برای آن ندارد

04-Oct-2012 (5 comments)
دلایل سقوط ریال از نظر اقتصادی روشن است. ارزهای خارجی مانند هر کالایی خرید و فروش می‌‌شوند، و قیمت آن‌‌ها تابع قانون عرضه و تقاضا است. ارز خارجی عمدتا از طریق فروش نفت به دست می‌‌آید و سالیان چندی با ثابت بودن تقریبی صادرات نفت و بهای بالای آن، کمبودی در عرضه وجود نداشت و تقاضا را پوشش می‌‌داد>>>

فاجعه

واقعیت و پیامدهای جنگ هسته‌ای

تصویری واقعی از جنگ هسته‌ای و عواقب وحشت‌آور آن

04-Oct-2012 (2 comments)
داشتن تصویری واقعی از فاجعه هسته‌ای و عواقب وحشت‌آور آن از آن جهت امروز برای ما ایرانیان لازم است که نه تنها مسئولین نظام با شاخ و شانه کشیدن‌های قلدرمنشانه در جهت دستیابی به سلاح هسته‌ای بازی با مرگ و نابودی کشور را جدی نمی‌گیرند، که حتی بخشی از مردم و برخی شخصیت‌های اپوزیسیون نیز گاه حتی استفاده از سلاح هسته‌ای و مداخله نظامی اسرائیل و امریکا را به قیمت فروپاشی نظام جمهوری اسلامی نیز توجیه می‌نمایند>>>

مجاهدین

 باند سیاه

باید نقش خطرناک و مزدورانه سازمان مجاهدین را افشاء کرد

04-Oct-2012 (14 comments)
این کله معلق زدن ها، عملیات مزدورانه با سازمان مخفی اسرائیل یا آمریکا و خریدن و عکس گرفتن با منفورترین چهره های سیاست فاسد آمریکا، نه تنها سازمان مجاهدین را یک قدم هم بقدرت نزدیکتر نخواهد کرد، بلکه چهره یک فرقه مافیایی با پرونده سیاه این سازمان هر چه بیشتر نزد مردم و در ذهنیت جامعه تثبیت می شود>>>

IDEAS

NORMAL Muslims and REAL Islam

So the question is what is the mystery around “REAL Islam”?

04-Oct-2012 (2 comments)
What this newly invented term “Normal Muslims” mean? I assume there must be a reality of “Abnormal Muslim” as well? What is the NORMAL ISLAM anyway? Can anyone define it as is? I am not asking your opinion i.e. what it ought to be or some interpretation of someone else’s interpretation. Your opinion of course is respected and you are entitled to it, but I am asking, rephrasing my question, is Quran THE NORMAL ISLAM, and everything else is just somebody’s opinion and interpretation? >>>

SHANBEHZADEH

From Bushehr with Love

If there’s anything we can learn from this incredible man it’s that one should follow through on one’s dreams

04-Oct-2012 (3 comments)
Living in Paris, Saeed Shanbehzadeh is Bushehr’s unofficial cultural ambassador, and musician par excellence. A man who considers himself Iranian before anything else (as one Bushehri fan learned the hard way), and who has striven all his life to preserve the cultural legacy of his country, Shanbehzadeh has long been exporting his unique brand of Southern Iranian folk music – and don’t you dare call it Bandari (a semi-derogatory term) - to audiences around the world, particularly in Europe and North America>>>