Arts and Literature

Time to choose

The son of the late Shah exposes his vision of a different Iran which is democratic, secular and integrated in the international community. This includes a project to accomplish a society capable of answering to the aspirations of the Iranian people, the foundation of a democratic parliamentary regime in which the constitution is founded on the universal principles of human rights, the establishment of a nation guaranteeing the liberty of all, a national reconciliation like the model of South Africa, and finally the separation of state and religion>>>

From Zahak to plastic prostitutes of Tehran

Here is a quiz question: - If I were to ask you to identify one single style of narrative that has consistently existed in our Iranian Art and literature for several millennium what would you say it is? OK, I’ll give you a clue, what do writers and Artists do under repression and censorship? The answer is they use allegory. More consistently for the last 1400 years, these allegories are signs of how as a nation we have taken bends and twists to comply, shape or live with Islamic law or live under tyranny of kings, sheikhs, Sultans and Khans and say what we want to say>>>

Cold Rain

Didn’t I stroll under its refreshing mist a thousand times? Didn’t it make me wet on the way to school? Didn’t it ruin my homework times and again? Didn’t the young palms of my hands endure the sting of punishment every time? Didn’t it give me the cold, the congested nose and the cough and the horrible taste of cough syrup afterward? Didn’t I drop the vitamin C tablet in a glass of water, dazzled with the fizzle and down it with a frown? Wasn’t it all because of rain?>>>

No Holds Barred

It was decided. She felt no need to consult or ask permission from any other but her own conscience. Come to think of it she was not even nervous about making such a bold gesture to someone she barely knew yet felt she’d known all her life. What could be kinder than to invite him over to her home? Totally oblivious at the time to the connotations of that offer, she set out to make a romantic meal. She laid the table with great care, the first for two she had set in a decade. She concocted some sumptuous recipe from her old files; cooking lovingly and with abandon>>>

The House of Wisdom

ABU JAFAR AL-MANSUR was taking no chances with his new imperial capital, for this was to be a city like no other. The second Abbasid caliph of the Muslims turned for guidance to his trusted royal astrologers, the former Zoroastrian Nawbakht and Mashallah, a Jew turned Muslim from Basra and now ``the leading person for the science of judgments of the stars.'' The pair consulted the heavens and declared that July 30, 762, would certainly be the most auspicious day for work to begin. Still, al-Mansur hesitated. He ordered his architects to mark the layout of the walls of his proposed city – a perfect circle, in keeping with the geometric teachings of the caliph's beloved Euclid – on the ground, first in ashes and then again with cotton seeds soaked in naphtha>>>

Lullaby for everyone

Cute little boy don’t cry, please be strong
Your dad will not stay in prison for long
For now, you miss him, you have lost your guide
But he will be free in time, grow old with you beside
Beautiful bright young girl, some people insult
Closed minds call your faith, your ideas a cult >>>

طلسم سی ساله

چنگ سحر آميزت را بنواز
و آن مثلث نورانی نجات بخش را
بيدار کن!
اين زادگاه من است
زخم خورده و زيبا
می گذرد از سردترين شب زمين
>>>

من جنده نیستم

پذیرای خانم مسنی از اقوام بودم. دو سه ماهی در منطقه’ ما بین فک و فامیل زندگی می کرد تا کار اقامتش درست شود. به تماشای سریال های زنانه’ وسط روز تلویزیون علاقمند شده بود. یک روز که منزل بودم گفت میشه لطفا برام بگی این خانمه توی این سریال چرا گریه می کنه؟ خوب دقت کردم ببینم قضیه چیست. تا آنجا که سر درآوردم برایش تعریف کردم. گفتم این خانم که الان یک مدیر موفق در یک شرکت است ، در دوره’ دیگری از زندگیش گویا جنده بوده. بعد آمده به این شهر و رفته درس خوانده و در شهرش آدم سرشناسی شده و با یک مرد بسیار خوب خیال عروسی دارد. حالا کسی که در شهر دیگر جاکش او بوده او را پیدا کرده و آمده سراغش و از او اخاذی می کند. او هم گریه می کند چون نمی خواهد راز سر به مهرش فاش شود و آبرویش برود.>>>

A Valentine to Iran

These days when we find a rock with the imprint of a seashell we know it’s a common fossil. But in the days when Science hadn’t already imagined our world for us, the question of how the sea creature got so far inland, inspired stories. The ancient Iranians had seen rocks fall from the sky, so they imagined monsters called deevs who could throw rocks all the way from the bottom of the oceans to the tops of mountains. There is a well-known story in which a deev called Akvan battles the Iranian supreme champion Rostam. But that episode doesn’t say anything about Akvan throwing rocks from the sea. Why did Akvan toss rocks to dry land? Was he fighting another monster, was he building a home for himself? We don’t know. Obviously large parts of Akvan’s story are lost to us>>>

From Yazd to Inauguration History

The swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama will inarguably go down as one of the most memorable moments in many people's lives, mine included. I, along with over 2 million people, crowded the historic National Mall, braving below freezing temperatures for hours to witness the man who had risen to the top of the political food chain with meteoric speed and against all odds take his rightful place in history. As I tried to move my painfully frozen fingers, I couldn't help but wonder how my friend and photographer Abbas Shirmohammadi was faring from his perfect vantage point. For years, Abbas had been Hillary Clinton's official photographer>>>

Jewish girl, Muslim boy

Long before prophet’s
Hatred disguised itself
As twisted truth, promising
Virgins in paradise’ turf.
Long before bigotry became
Official - calling Jews impure,
Christians infidels, Bahaie’s
non-existent for the sake of its moor. >>>

Score

Something interesting happened in the city of Tehran on January 20th. For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran an all-female soccer club played a match against an all-male team comprised of players between 15 to 18 years of age. As expected, the event did not sit well with Islamic authorities and coaches of both teams were fined and suspended. The managers of Estegllal soccer club who organized the match were hoping that the incident will quickly blow over... not a chance>>>

تولدم مبارک

روز پونزده آبان ماه هزارو سیصدو هر چی‌ که بود
مثل هر روز دگر برخاستم
ناگهان به یادم آمد که من امروز متولد شده ام
پس شتافتم سوی آینه تا ببینم صورت سی‌ ساله‌ام را
توی آینه محو خود گشتم و گشتم
آینه باز شد من به داخل رفتم آنگاه
سی‌ سال عمر گذشته روبرویم شد نمایان >>>

Take the Last Chance

...>>>

Rehabilitating the Shah

A common narrative concerning the Shah and the Pahlavi legacy unites much of Iran’s intelligentsia with liberal-left opinion in the West. According to this narrative, Mohammad Reza Shah’s father, Reza Shah, was an absolutist dictator who attempted to modernize Iran at the point of the gun and an entirely unacceptable pace. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is depicted as a corrupt stooge and a “westoxicated” lapdog of American imperialism who, by squashing the authentic democratic urges of his people, ultimately empowered the fundamentalist scourge now raging in his homeland. As the 30th anniversary of the late Shah’s departure from Iran approached, I had the opportunity to read Gholam Reza Afkhami’s magisterial biography of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi>>>

کمی خانگی

نیما هنوز تنهاست
نه نور نورانی‌ست
و نه این گنبد خالی
کلید را می‌زنم
چراغ روشن نمی‌شود
این‌جا خانه‌ی من نیست
باید کمی خانگی شوم >>>