Current Events

Out of Luck

It is nearly impossible to determine the degree of stability within the opaque world of Iranian politics, but a number of incidents have come to light recently that reveal deepening fissures within the regime. On display is an increasingly bitter fight, verging on an irrevocable break, between conservative supporters of the present system of clerical government, as epitomized by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and the hardliners backing the non-clerical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad>>>

Measure of Equality

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?>>>

I was just deported from Bahrain

Not really something to tell my Mum about, but she’ll find out anyway. With what’s going on one could presume it was because I am a journalist. But alas, that is so cliché. I have no proof, other than soviet style silence and sour expressions, but I think Bahrain’s airport Gestapo suspect I am an agent of Iran. Wow. Me? I’ve waited all my life to be an agent of something. Mostly an agent of chaos because that sounds cool>>>

عالم نو، آدم نو

ولی آیا براستی خصوصیّات درونی انسانها هم به همان سرعت رشد و تغییر کرده است؟ یا به عبارت دیگر و دقیقتر اصلاً رشدی در جهت بهبود کرده است؟ آیا در زیاده خواهی و حرص و ولع انسانها از آغاز آفرینش تا به امروزتغییری دیده میشود؟ آیا بین عشق به قدرت و فرمانروائی بدون قید و شرط بعنوان مثال پادشاهان ساسانی با رهبر کنونی ایران اختلافی بچشم میخورد؟ آیا بین میل به آدم کشی میان چنگیز قرن سیزدهم میلادی با هیتلر قرن بیستم تفاوتی دیده میشود؟>>>

Iran is Not Winning

The current Middle East mayhem is far from over. The situation is fluid in many countries, but one important interim conclusion is coming to the open, and it is positive: The Islamic Republic is not emerging victorious as the sectarian Sunni-Shiite schism seems to have a growing impact. This is bad news to the Ayatollahs in Tehran. Judging by their propaganda and that of their Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon and the Syrian regime, all can be easily explained with the usual charge: that the American-Zionist plot is in full force>>>

برتری پول بر جان انسانی

تصور آن هم ساده نیست: یک بیمارستان دولتی تصمیم می‌گیرد که دو بیمار بستری را با لباس بیمارستان در آمبولانس قرار دهد و آنان را به منطقه‌ای در حاشیه یک بزرگراه ببرد و در زمین‌های زراعتی کنار جاده به امان خدا رها کند. ولی این واقعه تکان دهنده چند روز پیش در تهران اتفاق افتاده است. مهم‌تر این که صحنه به وسیله یک دوربین عکاسی ثبت شده و انتشار جهانی پیدا کرده است>>>

جنبش سبز مرد

با «نهایت تاسف» درگذشت بخش حافظ نظام جنبش 88 موسوم به سبز را به آگاهی هموطنان نازنین میرسانم. این بخش از جنبش که مدتها با تزریق داروهای فریبکاری و دروغپردازی، در پی حفظ نظامش بود، متاسفانه موفق نشد و رخت به «ابدیت» کشید. ما «وفات» این نوزاد عجیب الخلقه ی متعلق به قرون وسطی را [که در جوانی «ناکام» شد و به رحمت ایزدی پیوست] به بازماندگان و جاماندگان این افتضاح بزرگ تاریخی تسلیت گفته و «همدردی» خود را اعلام میداریم>>>

Master & Servant

The failed attempt to dismiss Moslehi is part of Ahmadinejad’s wider campaign to cleanse his government of senior officials imposed on him by other power circles within the Islamic Republic. Moslehi’s resignation would also make Ahmadinejad’s cabinet – along with Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan’s short-lived transitional government in 1979 – the only cabinet in the history of the Islamic Republic devoid of representatives from the clergy. Ahmadinejad has previously attempted to restrain the Supreme Leader’s control over the intelligence ministry>>>

Real panic

I wonder, did the Iranian revolution come about in 1979? Did Iranians have a mental desire for revolt? Did they have terrible economic conditions? No, I rather think they wanted dignity and freedom – even if the current regime cruelly put down the 2009 post-presidential election demonstrations. But Iran will watch Syria. Syria has a young president. But Iran’s leadership is made up of rather old men – not as old as Mubarak or Ben Ali, of course – but it’s the same dangerous equation: young people being told what to do by old guys>>>

مملکت دست اراذل و اوباش است

در واقعیت، شرایط سیاسی، آزادی ها و حقوق بشر در ایران شرایط بسیار اسفناکی دارند. وضعیت اقتصادی هم چون طرح هدفمند کردن یارانه ها بر اساس قانون انجام نمی شود بلکه به صورت سلیقه ای و بدون توجه به نظرات کارشناسان اجرا می شود، تا الان نتایج خوبی نداشته... اختلافات با کشورهای همسایه و با بیشتر کشورهای دنیا متاسفانه شرایط بدی رو هم برای کشورمان و هم برای ایرانیان ایجاد کرده>>>

صدای پای سقوط

این روز‌ها درگیری قلمی و زبانی بین طرفداران احمدی‌نژاد و مخالفان او در درون حاکمیت بیش از هر زمان دیگر اوج گرفته است. اصولگرایان عملا به دو جبهه متخاصم تقسیم شده‌اند. بسیاری از روحانیان و کسانی که در گذشته بدون قید و شرط از احمدی‌نژاد حمایت می‌کردند اکنون در برابر او موضع گرفته‌اند. کیهان شریعتمداری (نماینده خامنه‌ای) به عنوان سخنگوی اصلی این جناح، بی‌وقفه به مشایی می‌تازد و از اینکه احمدی‌نژاد حاضر نیست او را از خود دور کند به او خرده می‌گیرد>>>

Paris Tragedy

And there are moments that no grief can do justice to the level of sadness and sorrows. Last Saturday our day was shattered with news that one cannot comprehend and accept. It was short, our friend's young daughter Jasmine Jahanshahi was killed in a fire in Paris. The story was devastating, especially if you knew that Yassi's family was already struggling with difficulties of a different sort. "Yassi", a junior at University of California, Berkeley, hesitated to join the student exchange program in France last Fall, saying that she rather stay few more months with her family>>>

Agha! Nigah Dar

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These wars must end!

The fact is that the U.S. armed forces and the “coalition of the willing” by occupying a foreign country and raising the level of their exposure have made the forces a natural and easy target for the resistance forces who know the topography of their country like the back of their hands. Also it is public knowledge, at least in the rest of the world that the European members of NATO already have decided to withdraw their armed forces from Afghanistan for good>>>

A Friend Remembers

I became acquainted with Mr. Amini through a common friend, Dr. Mahmoud Sana’i, Professor of psychology at the University of Tehran. Sana’i was from Arak, the same city that Amini came from, and they were close friends. He introduced me to Amini and I became fascinated by his personality. He had a keen sense of humor, but what initially attracted me most was the amount of poetry that he could recite from memory and the effective way he recited them. Acquaintance led to friendship and to a deep admiration of his many qualities>>>