STORY

The Enemies Of Happiness

As long as the war kept on, we were going to read happy-ending stories

by Azarin Sadegh
03-Oct-2011 (12 comments)
In the first years of war nothing looked like any of the images we’d seen in the movies. Tehran’s trees didn’t grow burnt leaves, or dead dangling legs. The mountains of the north, bordering the city, didn’t vanish behind fuming hurricanes of smoke. The black flock of planes didn’t drop bombs over the shelters where women and children screamed and hopeless men held their heads high to die with dignity or patriotism. An expanding mushroom cloud didn’t rise in the horizon to give us incurable diseases>>>

STORY

The blue lake of tears (6)

“I want to know what knotted, frustrated emotions led to your brutality, greed, and selfishness!”

by Azadeh Azad
03-Oct-2011
"My dear Princess,” said Mother Simorq, “a huge dreadful-looking frog has stopped at the garden gates, asking permission to enter the Castle. I suppose he is your friend, the Frog-Prince?” “Oh my! I’m sure he is. What can I do now? What does he want?” “No matter what his demands, this is a great opportunity for you to welcome your Shadow-Prince,” said Mother Simorq, fixing her reassuring gaze on Nisha. “Nothing but good will come out of this meeting.”>>>

POETRY

اوهام
by Hengameh Fouladvand
03-Oct-2011 (6 comments)
اوهام فرمانبردار
ساقه خراشید درخت
فصل فصل بی تاریخ وزید
دل خواه خندید تن زجر
زمین می چرخیدم رازنبودم فرمان ستاره رقص >>>

COMPARISON

Who's the Terrorist?

MEK or IRI?

by bahmani
01-Oct-2011 (39 comments)
Instead of the MEK T-list status, NIAC should focus on the IRI's far numerous, and far more than interesting accomplishments. Anything else just helps the IRI skirt the real issue, and would actually be considered treason, if we were actually a free people. I'm no fan of the MEK. Any group that follows a deviant ruthless leader, claims to be unified and selfless, is doomed to fail. But let us not for one second forget, or worse deny, that the far bigger threat>>>

ORIENTALIST

The Jeweller of Isfahan

Danielle Digne's epic novel on Jean Chardin’s travels in Safavid Persia

by Darius Kadivar
01-Oct-2011 (4 comments)
I discovered Jean Chardin’s name by coincidence in a dictionary of biographies. I learned that just like Tavernier in 1665, but barely at twenty one years of age, Chardin also went as far as India in search of rare diamonds. I was immediately intrigued all the more that this young ambitious man had written many books on Persia with great detail and accuracy. After reading one of his books I was puzzled. I needed to know how a young French Protestant Jeweller was able to become an expert on Persia and publish a first book in 1670>>>

CLUB

مسافرِ ایرانی در کافه لختی‌ها

"آخه یعنی چه؟ من گفته بودم که چی می‌خواهم... بابا صد رحمت به ایران!"

by ونداد
01-Oct-2011 (6 comments)
یکی از روزهای هفته گذشته بود که دوستی تلفن زد و گفت: "یکی از دوست‌هایم که اقای دکتری است تازه از ایران امده و از من خواسته است او را به کافه لختی‌ها ببرم. تو بیا و ما را ببر..." با وجود سردرد و سرماخوردگی درخواستش را رد نکردم. این اواخر طرح فیلم مستندی را برای تلویزیون ملی کانادا فرستاده بودم که در آن ادعا کرده بودم مهاجران میانسال و مسن تورونتو، مشتریان پروپاقرص روسپیان شهر هستند. این طرح البته رد شد>>>

IDEAS

سیاه مثل اعماق ونکوور خودم

پیش گفتاری بر"چی" نژاد پرستی و ترس

by nilofar-shidmehr
01-Oct-2011
آبژکت کردن گاهی بدنها را ترسناک می کند. مگر تجربه نکرده ای که بدنت چطور بین بعضی ها به خصوص مردان سفید انگلوساکسن ونکووری ترسناک شده؟ بدن یک زن خاور میانه ای ابژکت ترست است. ترسی بزرگ. ترس اینکه این بدن نصف شبها از خواب بیدار شود و نماز بخواند. ترس اینکه چند بار در روز رو به کعبه دولا راست شود>>>

POETRY

Chivalry in the virtual age
by jamh
01-Oct-2011 (one comment)
His heart in his mouth,
leaden legs, crossed arms
he faces the studded door.

Clouds of plaster,
exhaled by the poor ceiling,
redden with every butt
as they reach the floor>>>

VELAYAT

Who needs a president?

When you have a Supreme Leader

by Rasool Nafisi
29-Sep-2011 (39 comments)
While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was touring the UN last week, delivering acerbic speeches and giving interviews, back home in the Iranian parliament questions were raised not about Ahmadinejad himself, but about the institution of the presidency in total, and whether there is a need for a president alongside the Supreme Leader’s office. This may seem surprising, but in fact is in line with the incessant calls by the IRGC and the conservative camp for the absolute rule of Khamenei as the sole ruler of the country>>>

IRANIANS

To be fair

Always pays more to highlight the good characteristics of our people

by areyo barzan
29-Sep-2011 (6 comments)
A few days ago a fellow blogger have published an article on this site analysing and questioning Iranian people’s attitude, culture and even the legitimacy of their historical claim (perfectly within his democratic rights). I tried very briefly in the comments for that article to provide a few answers and point our friend to the flaws in his argument. However this subject has proved to be more important to be left to a few comments as it needs further analysis>>>

MUSIC

For a better world

New York-based singer-songwriter Stephan Said

by Peyvand Khorsandi
29-Sep-2011
In an era of machine-generated music, difrent: is a live recording, played with soul by some of the best musicians alive. There’s no artifice, no grandstanding. I wanted it to be pop and accessible, but undeniably human, handmade. So when people see it live, with real players interacting with them taking the energy higher, it’s even better>>>

STORY

The blue lake of tears (5)

“Why must I pay for my mother’s warped vision?"

by Azadeh Azad
29-Sep-2011 (one comment)
The thrill of having regained her soul did not change Princess’s determination to break her promise to the ugly frog as she had found his demands abominable. Without showing any gratitude, she ran away from the clearing in such a hurry, she tumbled over the forest path several times before reaching the Castle. The more the Princess distanced herself from the jet-black gigantic frog, the more the greedy creature cried his croaks from the top of his lungs>>>

POETRY

رودخانه ها از میان ماه می گذرند
by Leila Farjami
29-Sep-2011 (2 comments)
چه کسی می داند
چرا نیمه های شب
وقتی که بی خوابی دانه دانه مان می کند
به این انارها ی کال می بالیم
سرنوشتهای ترش
آخرتهای گس،
>>>

DISSENT

To Cure Shame

Protest against what shames a nation is the nexus from which that nation's pride will blossom

by Roya Hakakian
27-Sep-2011 (5 comments)
If April is the cruelest month, then September is the strangest. Strangest, that is, for Iranian-Americans. It's the month that brings Iran's mortifier-in-chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to New York City for the UN General Assembly. What absurdity will the man utter, we wonder to ourselves, what atrocity will he question, the existence of which minority will he deny this time? To ward off against the embarrassment he reliably causes, the expatriates have invented ways to cope>>>

POETRY

Soul mate
by Mahvash Shahegh
27-Sep-2011
Shams of Tabriz was
Rumi’s soul mate
And Golestan
Forough’s.
Rumi and Forough both
Changed their love into a poem
The eternal poem! >>>
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