Current Events

Peaceful? Not.

It does not appear [that Iran's] nuclear program is "for peaceful purposes." Iran essentially has not been in compliance with its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards Agreement since 1982, as a result of its import of undeclared nuclear material, undeclared nuclear experiments, and construction of nuclear facilities without timely declaration to the IAEA.... Iran has not satisfied IAEA concerns about the possible military dimensions of its program, has not ratified the Additional Protocol, and continues to defy resolutions issued by the IAEA Board of Governors and the UN Security Council>>>

Predictions of a Great Guru

When I was a kid growing up in the small city of Shahr-e-Rey, about ten kilometers south of Tehran, where its major industry was importing corps and exporting Bacheh Akhond, baby mullahs, most exciting entertainment in our daily life was to sit around with the other kids watching each other grow. Moving to the capital, Tehran was the most stimulating experience in my life. Everything appeared unimaginably different: much bigger, shinier, newer, and on the grandest of scales, so spectacular that could drive a kid literally mad>>>

Rafsanjani's Long-Term Strategy

Empowering Himself Through Helping the GreensAs the Persian Nowruz New Year fast approaches and Iran's post-election crisis enters its ninth month, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani remains as mercurial a figure as ever in Iranian politics. True to his nickname of Kooseh, or "The Shark," Rafsanjani has been paying lip-service to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei while simultaneously signaling (if only tacitly) solidarity with Iran's Green opposition movement. With his reputation as an incredibly calculating figure, it is hard to believe that this contradiction is coincidental>>>

بزرگترین اشتباه خامنه‌ای

میلیون‌ها‌ ایرانی از زن و مرد و کوچک و بزرگ در سراسر کشور که در این شب در مراسم چهارشنبه-سوری شرکت کرده‌اند - در خانه یا خیابان، در شهر و روستا - با حضور خود به خامنه‌ای که گفته بود از این کار اجتناب کنید «نه» گفته‌اند. آنان عملا گفته‌اند که ولایت او را نمی‌پذیرند. آنان بدون نیاز به شعار و پرچم و تظاهرات حرف خود را زده‌اند. آنان خط بطلان بر ولی فقیه و اعتبار و اقتدار او کشیده‌اند. قاطبه آنان نیاز نداشته‌اند که به خیابان بیایند و نارضایی خود از حاکمیت را داد بزنند>>>

I know I’m in the right place

I am passionate-borderline obsessed- with food. My philosophy: if you can make it, why buy it? I jump fences to pick lemons, I make my own apple cider vinegar, I own nine aprons, and I’ve been known to swoon over the vibrant leaves of my garden’s purple potatoes. I’m stubborn in my ways of healthy eating and I (used to) think white rice is akin to a bowl of sugar. However, in the past several months, I’ve learned not only how to tame my convictions, but that above all else, food is celebratory. After graduating from Bauman College, a Nutritional Education and Culinary Arts school, I began an internship cooking lunches for an Iranian language immersion school>>>

Tiger, Tiger

I've had enough. Of all that isn't said, and then what is. One can't sit at a sushi counter without overhearing people talk about Tiger as if Hiroshima was just bombed. He is the next stop in this salad bar of stale ingredients we now get delivered as the nightly news, passing the baton from Monica Lewinsky to O.J. and MJ. Fed are the insatiable appetites of undernourished people on couches armed with powerful remote controls, changing from one analysis to the next as more journalists dig up revelations. So he proclaimed his apologies and hugged those that are willing to forgive, or at least identify with him, on camera>>>

How smart are sanctions?

This time, the warmongers' silly season found its apogée in U.S. neo-conservative Daniel Pipes' advice to Obama to "bomb Iran," which appeared shortly after Tony Blair, having outlined why he helped invade Iraq, remarked ominously, "We face the same problem about Iran today." The Chilcot Inquiry in the United Kingdom on how the Iraq War was launched ironically coincided with a considerable military build-up in the Persian Gulf region. All this occurred amidst the continued struggle of Iran’s civil rights movement and proclamations of Western leaders to be in support of the latter’s efforts. But is there any evidence for this?>>>

Khan's Story

The father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program has written an official account that details an Iranian attempt to buy atomic bombs from Pakistan at the end of the 1980s. Bombmaker Abdul Qadeer Khan states in documents obtained by The Washington Post that in lieu of weapons, Pakistan gave Iran bomb-related drawings, parts for centrifuges to purify uranium and a secret worldwide list of suppliers. Iran's centrifuges, which are viewed as building blocks for a nuclear arsenal, are largely based on models and designs obtained from Pakistan>>>

Women's story

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تحریم یا جنگ

این روزها بار دیگر زمزمه‌های تحریم یا جنگ علیه ایران شدت گرفته است. کشورهای غربی و از جمله آمریکا، عمدتا بر روی گزینه تحریم تکیه می‌کنند و گزینه نظامی را فعلا به کنار گذاشته‌اند. دولت اسراییل، اما، تحریم را کارساز نمی‌داند و بر متحدان غربی خود برای اتخاذ گزینه نظامی فشار وارد می‌کند. تعیین‌کننده نهایی این امر البته فقط غرب یا اسراییل نخواهند بود. در واقع می‌توان گفت که عامل تعیین‌کننده در این امر رژیم ایران است. رژیم ایران می‌تواند با سیاست‌های خود غرب را به تحریم وادارد، یا آن‌ها را به جنگ بکشاند>>>

IRI vs. Ziba Kazemi

What a day! On march 8, 2010, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, we were at Montreal’s courthouse for the last day of trial for Ziba Kazemi’s case against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trial started at 9:15 AM and ended at 12:15 PM. The courtroom was packet with supporters, many of which were standing in the room while others were waiting outside. A majority of the audience, including Stephan Kazemi, were wearing unified black T-shirts with Ziba kazemi’s portrait printed in front with the phrase “She is still alive” under it>>>

Oil Man

One of the tragedies for this generation of Iranians is that there are no structures in place to capture and house a record of their contributions for posterity. Under present conditions the meaning of the words "the past" and "posterity" has unfortunately become subjected to politics. In 1965 he was the first Iranian to be promoted to become General Refinery Manager. In 1971 he was appointed as an alternate Member of the Board of Directors of the National Iranian Oil Company (N.I.O.C) and the Head of Engineering and Projects Group where he worked until his self initiated retirement in November of 1974>>>