Current Events

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>>>

جای خالی "تلویزیون"!

تلویزیون فارسی بی‏بی‏سی سرانجام پس از دو سال تدارک گسترده، دو هفته پیش برنامه های خود را برای مخاطبان فارسی زبان آغاز کرد. این شبکه که از پشتیبانی نزدیک به 150 کارمند و روزنامه نگار در لندن و برخی دیگر از نقاط جهان برخوردار است، به دلایل مختلف از اهمیت و اولویت بسیاری برای نقد و تحلیل های رسانه ای برخوردار است زیرا به نظر می رسد پس از نزدیک به دو دهه از آغاز به کار تلویزیون های فارسی زبان در خارج از کشور مهم ترین و حرفه ای ترین شبکه تلویزیونی فارسی زبان مستقر در خارج از کشور باشد. >>>

From BBC to Rumi

Amidst the madness around us, the joys and the sorrows, sometimes it is soothing to read or write about something that is very personal and light. Two weeks ago, I was at the Philadelphia indoor food market where many vendors bring their produce and sell them at relatively low prices. Walking around I lost my Kafia, or let’s say someone picked it up after I dropped it. I felt really bad because I had had it for nearly thirty years; I had bought it in Iran and would wear it when going to meetings at Tehran University or around the corner at the many street gatherings, during the now long gone spring of freedom of 1979>>>

Just a t-shirt

Every Martin Luther King Day over the last few years, plus as many days as possible during February (Black History Month,) I have been wearing the shirt above and this year was no exception. Mine is actually black, in some ways more fitting, but I wish I had seen the version above in wine-red first. I bought it from the wonderful people at UrbanProfile.com, who also offer a wide range of other African-American themed t-shirts. This particular shirt gets some of the strangest looks, not to mention some interesting reactions. This morning while lying down on my chiropractor’s adjustment bed, I noticed him reading the back out loud. He later insisted on reading the front before discussing my ever ongoing need for additional treatment.>>>

Bye Bye Cockroach!

n Monday, corporate America announced that they are laying off 50,000 people. As this gloomy day progressed, this number got even bigger... Although losing my job was hard, tough, emotionally as well as financially, I can't deny the big positive impact it had on me. It made me think about myself. What I've been doing?... Where do I stand?...Is this what I wanted? How far am I from where I want to be? And that was fabulous. To stop. To take a break from the life of a mechanical cockroach that I was. To observe this mechanical cockroach and wonder why it was programmed the way it was. >>>

Sasanian Chemical Warfare?

Regardless of whether there is any political meaning behind the news of the Persian use of chemical warfare and the current controversy regarding “weapons of mass destruction”, it is still interesting to see whether this new piece of research has any scientific value. For this, we turned to a colleague, Mr. Reza Yeganehshakib, who is a PhD student at the department of history, University of California, Irvine. Mr. Yeganehshakib comes to UCI with previous degrees in Chemical Engineering (BS) and Environmental Studies (MS). He has a strong understanding of the scientific processes that might have resulted in what has been reported in the news bit above. The following are his comments>>>

Important dates

The Iranian Women Equality Calendar is an expanded English version of a Persian women calendar collected and organized by the efforts of Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and published by Nashre Toseeh first in 1998. The publication of the “Women Calender” was banned and she was prosecuted in 2003. In a recent article written by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, she states that the calendar “provides a glimpse into the hidden history of Iranian women, a history that has not only remained unfamiliar throughout the world, but one that has yet to receive its due attention in Iran.” >>>

آقای پرزيدنت، خانم فرست ليدی...

در روزهای گذشته، من هم از ديدار شادمانی مردمانی که همه جا با غرور حضور داشتند و از برگزيده ی خود که در مراسم مختلف شرکت می کرد تا تاريخی ديگر را شروع کند، از ديدن همسر او که همه جا شانه به شانه و دست در دست او بود، و از ديدن زنان ديگری که هر کدام نقشی در گذشته و آينده اين سرزمين داشتند شادمان بودم. اما غمی بزرگ هم بهمراه اين شادی دلم را می فشرد؛ همان غمی که هر آمده از جامعه ای ديکتاتور زده در اين لحظات حس می کند. در آن لحظات نمی توانستم غمگين نباشم وقتی می ديدم که مردم سرزمين من و به خصوص زن ها از ساده ترين و طبيعی ترين حقوق خويش بی نصيب هستند>>>

Barrack Ghalibaf

The period leading to the Iranian presidential elections is always exciting, and this time it will be no different. According to a recent article in the Tehran based Baztab online, members of a parallel intelligence agency inside Iran have been arrested after being caught spying on Tehran Mayor and presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The arrested group was collecting information about Ghalibaf's meetings and electioneering gatherings. Ghalibaf is seen as more moderating force in terms of economic and foreign policy. He has openly spoken out against excessive spending and populist policies of the current government, while calling for a more moderate foreign policy and investment from abroad>>>

انتخابات آزاد

اندیشه آزاد زمانی کارساز است که ساختار و کاربرد مشخص و معینی داشته باشد و اندیشه آزادی برای یک فرد، مفهوم خود را تنها در روابط اجتماعی مجموعهای از شهروندان پیدا میکند وگرنه تجریدی و تخیلی است. آزادی اجتماعی، چارچوب دارد و در رعایت اصول و قواعدی متضمن است. اما تعین و تبیین حد وحدود این اصول و قواعد و چارچوبها، وابسته به تحرکات و تبادلات اندیشه شهروندان و نمایندگان رسمی و غیررسمی آنان است که خود را در انجمنها و سازمانها و گروههای فکری و حرفهای و اقتصادی و فرهنگی و هنری معرفی کرده و بروز میدهد تا در حق تعیین سرنوشت خود مشارکت کند. برآیند این تحرکات و تبادلات، اصل تغییر است که خود ثابت بوده و هرآنچه پیرامون اوست، در تبادل است.>>>

Stop it…

I was reading the other day that to protest the massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, a popular political blog community has asked its members to stop blogging and go on a symbolic strike for one day. The idea was to call attention to atrocities committed by Israel by denying readers access to blogs for 24 hours. Shit, I’m all for that. As a matter of fact, I’ll pay all the bloggers around the world to take a week off and let the fucking internet breath. Do you bloggers ever take vacations? For god’s sake, stop polluting the internet with your self-serving, virtual hallucinations? Don’t you guys have jobs? How come your laptops don’t get infected with virus?>>>

Angels of War

Tom Cruise’s WWII thriller Valkyrie has had some oddly nonsensical reviews. I saw the film a few hours after I had returned from a Gaza protest rally; so images of civilian massacre were freshly painful on my mind, making one particular symbolism in the film go far with me. Von Stuaffenberg had lost an eye to the enemy, and the film made sure the audience kept that in mind. Despite the cruel wording, the "eye for an eye" directive in the Torah is meant to limit the retribution one can exact. It is a ban against unbridled vengeance. If someone pokes out your eye, then take his eye if you must. But you are forbidden to go on to kill his wife, burn his kids, tear down his house, take away his livelihood, and devastate his land>>>