The Trip Home

The two friends came home to what had become their home, a rooming-house in Utrecht, Holland, late at night and slept and awoke full of a feeling that something was gone and it was: They had come home from a trip through Europe and they were now face-to-face with the question of whether it had been the places they'd gone to or if it had been movement itself, and if it had been movement itself, what were they going to do about that? They knew one thing: They were great friends, for all that was spoken and unspoken on their trip>>>

I miss

I miss the view of a snow-covered mountain wherever I am
I miss homemade yoghurt
I miss putting ketchup on pizza
I miss holding onto my headscarf on the back of a motorcycle
I miss the clock always at 10.30 in my granddad’s bedroom
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The third strategic threat

With very few exceptions, direct and intentional attacks on aid workers or human-rights advocates have hitherto been largely the work of undisciplined militias, ragged armies, criminal gangs, and police-states. The perpetrators have included the Taliban, the Bosnian Serb army, Iraqi insurgents, and the organisers of Latin America’s “dirty wars”. Now, with the lethal raid on the Mavi Marmara, is Israel in this respect following in their footsteps? >>>

The Secret to a Longer Life

I’m not the first to notice how short the days have become. Ask anybody, even kids, and they’ll say the same. However, I must have been one of the first to suspect God of tampering with time. I mean, how would we know if He moved the earth a bit faster to shorten our days? But I checked, and I was wrong. I sat in front of a good, reliable clock and said it out loud, “One-Mississippi-two Mississippi,” and no, the seconds had the same length and, sure enough, there were sixty of them in each minute>>>

کودتای زمانه

بهنام و من، امروز بعد از سه سال از بخش خبر رادیو زمانه استعفا کردیم. من در این بخش از زمانه در همه سطوح کار کرده‌ام. به عنوان خبرنگار ساده و مترجم تا ادیتور خبر. کار در زمانه یکی از درخشان‌ترین دوره‌‌های حرفه‌ای من و بهنام بود. به خصوص از پس از انتخابات ریاست جمهوری که توانستیم در حد خودمان، اخبار جنبش سبز را در این رسانه منعکس کنیم و تا اندازه‌ای سهم کوچکی در اطلاع‌رسانی درباره حوادث این دوران داشته باشیم>>>

فلوتیلا

ساعت درست سه و ده دقیقه صبح روز دوشنبه سی و یکم ماه می بود که به ژنرال Archibald Snicklefritz Von Badguy معروف به Villano دیکتاتور مادام العمر هفتاد و سه ساله جمهوری Tierras Infernal که در دریای کارائیب و 245 کیلومتری میامی واقع است و تازه به خواب رفته بود اطلاع دادند که ناوگانی که می خواست محاصره زندان مخوف و بدنام la Sabaneta را در سواحل میامی بشکند دچار مشکل شده است>>>

من، آقای موسوی، و امام

آقای موسوی گرامی، حدوداً یک سال پیش، من و امثال من که معتقد بودند امیدی هنوز باقی ست به پای صندوق های رأی رفتند و به شما و یا آقای کروبی رأی دادند. ما دلسپردگانی بودیم که کشتی مان به گِل نشسته بود و چشم حسرت به باد شرطه دوخته بودیم. حال پس از گذشت ماه های پرتلاطم و قربانی و آسیبهای جسمی و روانی مصمم تر از همیشه گشته ایم. می دانیم که بسیاریم. از راه های ناهموار نمی ترسیم. حرکتی کرده ایم بی رهبر و مراد و پیر و شیخ و قطب. منتظر معجزه و ظهور پیامبری هم نیستیم چراکه اینبار با واقعیات موجود پیش می رویم و ادعای دانستن همه چیز را نداریم>>>

Fishing for trouble

The Sunday Times carried an article last week entitled "Israel Stations Nuclear Missile Subs off Iran" reported by Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv. Whether true or not does not surprise me when it comes to Israel. Its reckless past history and the recent bloody raid on six-ship flotilla aid to Gaza, killing nine and wounding dozens, supports the general opinion of a State who has enjoyed too much success with belligerence and bullying in Middle East with backing from Uncle Sam>>>

He changed

Once known as an open-minded and forward-thinking cleric, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used to come under criticism from conservative elements for going against the accepted clerical norms. Since becoming Supreme Leader – the country’s senior political and religious authority - in 1989, however, he has adopted a fundamentalist and conservative approach. Looking back on the first few years after the 1979 Islamic revolution, people remember Khamenei from his Friday prayer sermons in Tehran as a tall and slender cleric with a thick beard and black turban>>>

از خردادهای بی «بروتوس»

بين پانزده خرداد 1342، يعنی روزی که خمينی وارد زندگی من شد، تا چهارده خرداد سالی که با مرگش از زندگی من بيرون رفت، حدود 26 سال، يا يک چهارم قرن، فاصله است. و در گذر از اين فاصله بوده که با عملکرد او (نخست بخاطر در افتادنش با اصلاحاتی که ـ اگر درست انجام می شد ـ می توانست قشری بيافريند که هرگز تن به ارتجاع مندرج در ذهنيت او ندهد، و سپس با خدعه و فريبی که بهترين آرزو های نسلی آرمانخواه را به باد فنا سپرد)، سال های جوانی ام را سوخته و هدر شده يافته ام و کشورم را ايستاده بر لبهء ادبار و بی اخلاقی و افلاس>>>

Daastaane Maa

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Israel's Gift to Iran

The bloodshed resulting from a clash between Israeli Defense Forces and pro-Palestine activists in international waters is nothing short of a diplomatic miracle for Iran. Iran, the sole beneficiary of the fiasco, has much to gain and little to lose by using the incident as diplomatic leverage for gaining even closer ties to Turkey. And Turkey clearly is heading East, toward Iran and other states, and away from the West. Tensions between Turkey and Western states -- not to mention Israel -- have intensified>>>

New global balance

The balance of power that has reigned in the international system since the end of the cold war is undergoing profound shifts. Iran’s agreement with Brazil and Turkey on 17 May 2010 over the treatment of its enriched uranium, and the sanctions that the United States wishes (through a United Nations resolution) to impose on the Tehran government over Iran’s nuclear programme, reveal this system’s deep cracks. The change can be measured in the way that (as an editorial in Le Monde noted) discussion of issues such as nuclear proliferation, which used to be confined to permanent members of the UN Security Council, now finds countries from the global south playing a key role>>>