Heritage Hunters

Just last week the NIAC news email brought good tidings that some of the Persepolis tablets have been rescued, apparently through clever use of a legal technicality. Lawyers defending the tablets in Massachusetts successfully argued that the plaintiffs couldn’t prove that the items actually belong to the IRI. To get more detail on the temporarily good news I talked on the phone with NIAC president Trita Parsi. NIAC has been involved in the tablet rescue efforts, leading where it can and assisting where it can>>>

Push and Shove

The rise of the Arab masses has pushed Iran out of the headlines -- for now. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose theatrics rarely pass unnoticed, has lately failed to grab the attention of the U.S. media. America's attention has instead turned toward Egypt, Syria and Libya. This is likely to change in the next few months. Not as a result of any particular developments in Iran or between the United States and Iran, but because of the 2012 presidential elections>>>

Shaping Modernity

Hamid Naficy, Professor of Radio, Television, Film and Communication at Northwestern University, is one of the world’s leading authorities on Iranian film, and A Social History of Iranian Cinema is his magnum opus. Covering the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first and addressing documentaries, popular genres, and art films, it explains Iran’s peculiar cinematic production modes, as well as the role of cinema and media in shaping modernity and a modern national identity in Iran>>>

The blue lake of tears (2)

The Princess howled for the water creatures to come back to their source. All the water creatures howled back to her. They dissolved into obscure images, climbed onto the surface, joined each other in the middle of the lake to become the girl’s reflection. The image moved back on the water surface to place itself before its owner. Nisha expected to find herself quite happy. Yet, she underwent sadness as she realized how her vital need for her reflection deprived the lake of water creatures>>>

جان تربت جام

وقتی برای مراسم رونمایی کتابم "بازگشت" در ایران دنبال کسی می گشتم تا در اجرای برنامه با موسیقی محلی مهمان ها را سرگرم کند، یکی از دوستان، آقای غفور محمدزاده را به من معرفی کردند. به موسیقی محلی علاقه داشتم و خوشبختانه این توفیق نصیبم شد که با یکی از کسانی که سالها به نواختن دوتار و تحقیق روی موسیقی محلی خراسانی پرداخته آشنا شوم و به گونه ای همکاری داشته باشم>>>

کوچه ها

آرام
بی‌ آنکه چشم در خوابی‌ باز شود
و یا از فراقم در اشک.
ولی‌ من حتی بوی خاک کوچه هاتان را
در پشت پلک‌هایم لمس می‌کنم >>>

Trapped in Camp Ashraf

The Iraqi government is adamant it will carry out the decision to close the camp - which is one of the last remains of the Saddam regime - and on the other hand the leaders of the Mojahedin inside the camp insist on keeping the status quo without any logical, legitimate, legal or other reasons. And in this situation, as advocates of human rights and as ex-members of this organisation, we are deeply concerned about how this camp will be dismantled>>>

Oh Brother

Syed Salman Safavi, brother of ex-IRGC commander and the Supreme Leader's military advisor Rehman Safavi, on June 16 told London Iran Watcher (Poloff) and a small group of diplomats that "a majority" of leaders within the government of Iran and the IRGC want the United States, while continuing to avoid interference in Iran, to continue and even strengthen its public messages on human rights, so as to support popular protests in Iran and prevent any consolidation of Ahmedinejad's electoral win>>>

The same music playing on and on and on

Given the current single-minded focus on pure self preservation for pure personal good, over the slightest self sacrifice for the slightest common good, it is unclear when or if Iranians will ever make a collective shift from the nightmare of this Groundhog's Day, and gain true freedom anytime soon. This might finally explain why "I will Survive" is the average Iranian's favorite song. I mean for God's sake, it has been playing in our heads for 2500 years now!>>>

The blue lake of tears

This is the tale of a girl who lost her shadow three thousand years ago. It was so, it was not so, let us wish it may be so. In Hyrcania, Gorgan, Land of the Wolves, on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, lived seven year-old Princess Nisha with her mother, Queen regnant Opal, in their rustic castle on Mount Khandān. The whip-carrying, horse-back riding Queen had been part of the settling of the nomadic people from the steppes>>>

مرگ دریاچه

من یک بار در دریاچه ی ارومیه شنا کردم
همراه با خواهر چهارده ساله ام،
و دریافتم که دریاچه زنده است
خاکسپاری دریاچه ـ مانا نیستانی
که دریاچه حافظه دارد. >>>

NBC Nuts About Mahmoud

Ann Curry's report portrays Ahmadinejad as a hard-working, compassionate, and religious president who leads a very simple life and cares deeply about his people. Ahmadinejad's PR team couldn’t have done it better. It's precisely the image Ahmadinejad is trying to convey while covering up the facts that, under his presidency, Iran has become a much more closed society, human rights abuses have increased, and many have been jailed for protesting against his reelection>>>