Archive

Reality in contradiction

The nineties were an era of the modern melodrama in Iranian life. Popular concerns included modernity, evolution in family values, and a high order distinction between the private and public selves. The desire to conform to and shadow the rest of the world called for an extreme need to adapt and fast-forward an organic process of familiarization.>>>

Naïve Noam

Don’t you miss the good old days when Noam Chomsky was a humble groundbreaking linguist? These days the MIT professor is increasingly an apologist for Islamists (last year he met with Hizbollah). Now, in an excerpt from Interventions, his latest book, he writes that Washington is bent on “demonising” the Iranian leadership in order to pave the way for US-led assault. How, he must be asked, can you demonise people whose power, after almost three decades, remains pegged to death, torture and imprisonment?>>>

Little Mother of Abadan

Fati is the mother of orphaned beggars of Abadan, and unfortunately Abadan has lots of beggars many of whom are orphans. Passing through any street and back alley you will see hands that are extended towards you and mouths that are glued to your hands. “Fati” the 14-year old girl, who herself has two needy hands, has gathered many of the needy, abandoned, and homeless kids around herself and in effect has formed a small organization of beggars. This organization does not train beggars but rather helps the homeless children, and at times with a bite of food and a pair of shoes saves a life.>>>

More power

As a 39 year old Latina I travel in two worlds, Hispanic and American culture. I speak English and Spanish fluently, my French could use a lot of help. I have decided to learn Farsi and Arabic. I am going to the university and hope to finally graduate this summer. I have made so many great friends from many cultures. Moving from a small city in Texas to a Metropolitan city was the best decision of my life. It was such a relief to leave the narrow minded town I lived in for 16 years. I am amazed at so many of the similarities between the traditional Iranian culture and that of the Hispanic traditional culture. Yes, there does exist a double standard in dating for the different genders>>>

Nothing, nada, zilch

Iran has a GDP of less than $2000, $1200 of which is from oil. For the past 30 years, the Islamic bastards did not do a damn thing to build any type of an industrial or service base. Nothing, nada, zilch. South Koreans or Japanese, without a liter of oil or a cubic meter of natural gas built world class industries and became industrial power house in 30 years. What did the Islamic Republic or Iran do? Japan is #1 in auto and consumer goods industry. Korea is #1 in semiconductors & ship building and fast approaching #1 in electronic consumer goods. Korea's bioengineering industry is ahead of the U.S.and France.>>>

Grandma’s garden

Riding up Sumach, one of the smaller streets in Toronto, all of a sudden, I felt transported in time and space. Back to my childhood I was, when grandma used to water her garden in southern Tehran after a sweltering day in the summer. The smell of bedewed flowers and dripping leaves had brought back so many memories of a long distant past. Those were the days, when in my carefree childhood I would spend hour upon hour on the swing set up from atop the sturdiest tree of grandma’s garden. I remember how Farshid, my British-Iranian cousin, had come for a visit one year -- of course, with Uncle Farhad, for he was but a child of seven at the time -- and how we used to fight over who would gain temporary control of the garden.>>>

Reza Shah vs. Ataturk

Yes, Reza Shah did confiscate privately owned land but he did not take it from the poor peasants whose earnings were plundered by their powerful and greedy landlords who had, in turn, obtained the same land by force and without giving a fare share to its native farmers. He took the land off the hands of the feudal landlords who had mushroomed around the country and were seeking to disintegrate it for the benefits of their foreign masters. And no, Reza Shah, unlike his friend and ally Ataturk, did not preside over the total alienation of his country's literary heritage by blindly adopting a foreign script that had no connection with its rich literary past be it poetry or prose. And unlike Ataturk in his days as a member of the fiercely nationalistic Young Turks, Reza Shah had no hands in the ethnic cleansing of a major community.>>>

Goodbye, my love

I love the new design by Ardalan Payvar. I am thrilled that user experience and interactivity will be greatly enhanced. It's time for iranian.com to grow up a little. The future is bright :o) Still, it's hard to let go.>>>

Hello

My first blog is proving difficult. I mean, what do I say? I've been looking forward to this day. Finally, after several attempts, iranian.com is not only getting a new look, but also a blogging section where anyone can self-publish.>>>

Agreeing to sharply disagree

Mr. Imani seems to collapse his political hatred for the Iranian government with anti-Islamism, presuming that the two are not mutually exclusive. In his entire article Mr. Imani attacks Ahmadinejad for resembling Hitler. Ironically, in his distate for Ahmadinejad and Hitler, Mr. Imani has done nothing more than demonstrate that he is more similar to them than they could possibly be with each other. At least Ahmadinejad never called Judiasm an evil religion. It’s never a good thing when a dictator appears more tolerant than you are>>>

Hit machine

As I held the record in my hand that day in Gargantini and turned it around (yes, I’m the type that reads everything written on a record, you should too, you’d already know what I’m getting to here), I noticed something at a glimpse of an eye that I had not thought possible until that day: An Iranian name on the back cover! Oooh, interesting. “Elton” Farokh Ahi. Hmmm. Elton? No wait, there’s another one. Ardeshir Farah. Very interesting. Who IS that? And they’re the main ones, “Elton” Farokh Ahi made the record!>>>