LIFE

You’ll be fine

"Persian Girls: A Memoir"

15-Jun-2011
The day began like any other day. I woke to the voice of the muezzin calling people to prayers, Allah o Akbar. After Maryam finished praying we had our usual breakfast-- sangag bread still warm from the stone oven it was baked in, jam that Maryam made herself with pears and plums, mint-scented tea. On the way to Tehrani Elementary School I stopped at my friend Batul’s house, at the mouth of the alley, to pick her up. We passed the public baths and the mosques, sights visible on practically every street in the Khanat Abad neighborhood>>>

IDEAS

Muslim Enlightenment?

How do we know when it happens?

10-Jun-2011 (38 comments)
How will we know that we have reached the shores of enlightenment? The answer is simple; when the large demonstrations by Muslims turn into protests against miscreants like Ben Laden and Anwar Al Awlaki. When talk of enforcing Sharia law is reserved to a few outcasts without the general support of Muslims. When there is no talk of oppression of women in Muslim countries and women are afforded equal opportunity. When burning a Quran is not worthy of news anymore and Muslims can study the book with a critical eye and without the fear of persecution>>>

VIDEO

The Day of the Last Judgment

Visual storytelling by Shoja Azari

08-Jun-2011 (2 comments)
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ART

Icons

Icons

Photo essay: Shoja Azari's Paris exhibit

by Elin Najmi
08-Jun-2011 (13 comments)

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NOVEL

فراموشی

بخشی از يك رمان

27-May-2011
از ميدان لواسان تاعمامه جاده باريكي است در دامنه اي با شيب تند كه تا يال كوه هاي مشرف به هر دو منطقه. يك طرف لواسان و طرف ديگر فشم . جاده باريكي كه دوطرفش ديوار و درهاي بزرگ ويلاهاي پولدارهاي تهران گرفته است. با آويزه درختان مو و پيچك ها روي ديوار ها.... سيصد متر نرفته بايد بپيچيم. بالا برويم ، دوباره بپيچيم.. سعيد نيمه بطر شيواس ريگال ومارتيني را توي يخچال كنار دستش مي گذارد وتوي راه كه مي رويم از خودش مي گويد>>>

SELFISH

گفت‌وگوی خودخواهانه

بی صبرانه مترصد فرصت هستیم تا خود را به میان گفت‌وگو بیاندازیم و نیاز «مطرح شدن» خود را به کرسی بنشانیم

20-May-2011 (2 comments)
مدتی پیش در پایان یک میهمانی خانوادگی، از دخترم پرسیدم: «از این‌که دوستاتو دیدی حسابی خوشحال شدی یا نه؟» او در جوابم بلافاصله گفت: «آره، همه شب‌رو با دوستام بازی کردم. برعکس شما که تمام شب اونجا نشستین و داد زدین.» واکنش اولیه‌ام لبخند گیجی بود که تحویل دخترم دادم، ولی بعد از دیدن رضایتی که در صورت دخترم موج می‌زد سکوت کردم. بلافاصله اما از عکس‌العمل خودم دلخور شدم>>>

BAHRAIN

Closed Kingdom

“There are no two ways about it, the regime has waged war on its own people”

14-May-2011 (23 comments)
As night falls in villages around Bahrain’s capital Manama, candlelight flickers in the dusty streets. Small groups of locals hold peaceful protests. There is an air of fear given what has taken place. Sometimes, the vigils are targeted by police, dispersed with tear gas. But worse, the night time also brings security force raids where people are ripped out of their beds and dragged away in front of screaming wives and children. This is Bahrain since the Government imposed Martial Law on March 15>>>

PERFORMANCE

Ascending Bird

Siamak Aghaei; YouTube Symphony Orchestra

11-May-2011 (3 comments)
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IDEAS

Motherhood under Technocracy

Politics of Motherhood: Part 2

07-May-2011 (3 comments)
Although women were the main inventors of tools during the Neolithic Revolution, with the advent of patriarchy, they became identified with nature, while men were marked as producers of technology. Through technology, men conquer nature and other men, and exercise control over women's bodies. There is this dominant view that technology is neutral, just a neutral tool for any kind of purpose; that only the purposes can be good or bad>>>

THE VISITOR

The American Reality

Why not stay in Iran and fight for liberty in my own land?

07-May-2011 (10 comments)
The Visitor was released in 2008. I was reminded of it after President Obama announced that photographic proof of Osama Bin Laden’s body would not be released to the public. A small circle of insiders who supposedly know what is best for the country made the decision. This elite circle tells us that lives may be lost to terrorism if the photos are made public. As though fewer lives are lost to terrorism when only the elite have access to information and make the decisions>>>

Vancouver on Fire

Vancouver on Fire

Photo essay: Kooch band’s dramatic musical

by Nazy Kaviani
06-May-2011 (one comment)

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IDEAS

Motherhood under Patriarchy

Politics of Motherhood: Part 1

04-May-2011 (9 comments)
Under Patriarchy, or the rule of fathers, women are defined in relation to men as their wives and mothers of their babies. The problematic issue here is that as a part of the patriarchal ideology, the idea of affiliation through blood ties, at the expense of the reality of child care, colonizes the relationship between the mother, the baby, and the father, and then, their relation with other social groups and institutions>>>

IDEAS

Politics of Motherhood

Introduction: Social Spaces of Motherhood

03-May-2011 (4 comments)
Two questions will be posed: 1) How are the body and the house produced by the production of motherhood? 2) How do the body and the house participate in the production of motherhood? To answer these questions, 1) the problem of the colonization of the social space of the body and the social space of the house will be examined; and 2) the body and the house as spaces where and through which motherhood is constructed will be analyzed>>>

AMERICANS

آمریکایی ها لوس اند

این ها یک جور لوس خاصی هستند که فهمیدنش کار آسانی نیست

03-May-2011 (13 comments)
خوش اداست. راستش زیادی خوش اداست. یعنی زیادی ادا در می آورد، با صورت چشم ابرو و تک تک مژه هایش. اول شک کردم نکند اخبار ناشنوایان است. واقعا بدجوری دست و پا می زند و تلاش می کند حرفش را به زود حالی کند. البته الان بعد از یک ربع گوش دادن مطمئنم اخبار ناشنوایان نیست ولی شکم برده که برنامه طنز است. ای ول، هم دیدن یار و هم زیارت شابدالعظیم، هم زبان یاد می گیرم هم با طنز و فرهنگ آمریکایی آشنا می شوم>>>

BAHAI

Measure of Equality

Open letter to the people of Egypt

01-May-2011 (5 comments)
At this juncture, then, we face the weighty question of what we seek to achieve with the opportunity we have acquired. What are the choices before us? Many models of collective living are on offer and being championed by various interested parties. Are we to move towards an individualistic, fragmented society, wherein all feel liberated to pursue their own interests, even at the expense of the common good? Will we be tempted by the lures of materialism and its beholden agent, consumerism? Will we opt for a system that feeds on religious fanaticism?>>>