Current Events

We all act all the time

When playwright Sepideh Khosrowjah was two years old her parents gave her a doll, which she immediately destroyed. “Toys were boring,” she says. I can understand why dolls would frustrate a future playwright; there’s nothing inside them. This weekend (March 8,9,14,15,16) Berkeley's Darvag performance company will begin staging Khosrowjah’s Farsi language play, “Dar Soogeh Kazem Ashtari,” (In Memory of Kazem Ashtari) and there is plenty inside the characters [rehearsal photos]. Besides humor, love, cunning, ambition, jealously, shame, and frustration, there is also a surprising secret. It was fun reading the play twice, the second time knowing the characters were hiding something from each other>>>

Disrupting discourse

On February 22, Amnesty International hosted a panel presentation and discussion titled, "Human Rights in Iran: How to Move Forward," in Beverly Hills, California. The event was disrupted by Mohammad Parvin’s MEHR-Iran organization, various monarchist factions, and members of the outlawed Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK); and was cancelled after the opening remarks. The Amnesty event featured four Iran specialists (including National Iranian American Council President, Trita Parsi), and was organized to highlight Iran’s abysmal human rights record. Amnesty International organizers hoped to use this event to initiate talks with the Iranian-American community in Southern California about Iran’s human rights situation>>>

Passionate believer in dialogue

HOSSEIN Alikhani, an Iranian-born citizen of Cyprus who was a committed advocate of dialogue between civilisations, passed away this week after a long illness. He was 63. Alikhani was a successful businessman whose Nicosia company dealt in oilfield equipment. But he was best known as a passionate believer in the necessity for improved understanding between the peoples of the world, and in particular between Muslim countries and the West. To further this goal, he established in 1995 the Centre for World Dialogue, an independent, non-profit research institution that publishes a quarterly journal, Global Dialogue, and has hosted in Cyprus a series of international conferences>>>

Kosher meets Halal

Shiva Rose Gharibafshar, daughter of Iran’s beloved talk show host, Parviz Gharibafshar with first wife Rose, is a fascinating Iranian American actress once married to Dylan McDermott. Shiva has prevailed as a devoted Mom, a fashion magnate, a die hard political activist (who’s even been arrested twice for anti war protests --once with her baby!) maintains a regular blog on the Huffington Post, and managed to squeeze out a movie recently in only 23 days! The movie, David and Layla, which opened in New York LAST WEEK (Feb. 15th) has already won 6 awards at various film festivals>>>

Vis & Ramin

Vis & Ramin is one of the world’s great love stories. It was the first major Persian romance, written between 1050 and 1055 in rhyming couplets. The plot, complex yet powerfully dramatic, revolves around royal marital customs unfamiliar to us today. Shahru, the married queen of Mah, refuses an offer of marriage from King Mobad of Marv but promises that if she bears a daughter she will give the child to him as a bride. Vis and Ramin had immense influence on later Persian poetry and is very probably also the source for the tale of Tristan and Isolde, which first appeared in Europe about a century later. The plot, complex yet powerfully dramatic, revolves around royal marital customs unfamiliar to us today >>>

اعتراض سراسری

نه، امروز ۲۷ بهمن ۱۳۸۶ است . امروز، روز اعتراض سراسری برای آزادی همه دانشجويان زندانی است. دانشجويان آزاديخواه و برابری طلب دانشگاه های سراسر کشور، که بسياری از آنان به جرم تلاش برای برگزاری مراسم بزرگداشت ۱۶ آذر روز دانشجو در زندان به سر می برند، از بيش از يک ماه و نيم پيش، امروز را روز اعتراض سراسری اعلام کرده اند و از همه آزاديخواهان جهان خواسته اند به هر طريقی که مناسب می دانند، خواهان آزادی فوری همه دستگيرشدگان و توقف سرکوب آزاديخواهان و برابری طلبان شوند.>>>

زنی که دو بار اعدام شد

کتاب خانم وزیر تالیف منصوره پیر نیا آخرین شاهکار در بدنام کردن یکی از خوش نامترین زنان آزادی خواه، روشنفکر، دانشمند و مبارز ایرانی است که نامش در تاریخ اجتماعی نه تنها زن ایرانی، بلکه در جهان نیز می درخشد. شیوه محاکمه و اعدام این زن لکه ننگی است جاویدان بر پیشانی حکومت اسلامی. خانم فرخ رو پارسای را تنها به این دلیل که هرگز حاضر نشد در جلسات دادگاه یا حتی به هنگام اعدام چادر بسر کند در یک گونی بزرگ نهاده، سر گونی را محکم گره زدند و او را به دار آویختند. این واقعه ننگین البته در پرونده عدالت اسلامی ابدی است. آیندگان اگر هیچ چیز از کمالات و مبارزات آزادی خواهانه بانو فرخ رو پارسا که من و ما شاهد آن بوده ایم نخوانند و ندانند فاجعه اعدام او یادشان نمی رود و چه بسا زیر تاثیر این رویداد به دنبال شناخت حقایق تاریخی که او و پشت سر او ما ساختیم برود.>>>

The rest is history

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The gentle giant

I still can't believe he's gone, forever. Ahmad Bourghani Farahani died in Tehran on Saturday at the age of 48, from a heart attack. He is best known as a former liberal member of parliament from Tehran and one of the most open-minded deputy culture ministers in charge of media affairs during Mohammad Khatami's first presidential term. I met Ahmad years before his brief political career. He was a senior editor at the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) when I joined the English section in March 1980. I still remember his friendly, playful, welcoming smile the first time we met... >>>