The Gardener

Look at her
From the bedroom window.
With her slender fingers
She creates beautiful colors
Out of the dark earth>>>

Money Talks

The MEK's delisting campaign is funded by a fluid and enigmatic network of support groups based in the United States. According to an MEK leader, these groups are funded by money from around the world, which they deliberately shield from U.S. authorities. These domestic groups book and pay for their VIP speakers through speaker agencies, which in turn pay the speakers directly and take a fee for arranging appearances. That way, the speakers themselves don't technically accept money from the community groups>>>

Money Rules

Gold-flecked ice cream wasn’t part of the picture that Shiite Muslim clerics painted during the Iranian Revolution, when they promised to lift the poor by distributing the country’s vast oil income equally across society. But more than three decades later, record oil profits have brought in billions of dollars, and some people here are enjoying that decadent dessert. The trouble is, it’s just a small group of wealthy Iranians. Despite the promises of the revolution, many here say has never seemed wider>>>

Time that once was

Moments of the past pass in a moment, as lifetime of memories. A picture of me in one spot of past moments scans quickly showing a joyful kid. Irrelevant now, just a memory of past that now is what was and not what if. Nothing in time is cherished when present, because present is future goals. Past remains a powerful scent capturing a room of desired what if. This travel has an end unless past remains, where arriving to a destination reminds of times of when there was once>>>

A Lesson To Be Learned

Sooner, or later, we all reach an age where we can’t afford to ignore a chest pain. In fact, our priorities change drastically: We decide high heel shoes are exclusively for special occasions, no-iron tableware is as good as cotton – if not better, and the fiber content of food turns into the most important nutritional fact. The list goes on and if you happen to choose a nice nap over dancing in the rain, you’ll understand what I mean. So last week, when I felt a dull pain that could be related to my heart, I took my doctor’s advice and called 911>>>

Democratic Islamic Republic?

Inside Iran, many reformists have always expressed their fidelity to the Supreme Leader – who doesn’t want them – and to the legacy of Imam Khomeini. This allows the reformist current to stay in the political game. But then what do the reformists want? Is a democratic Islamic Republic still possible, I mean possible in real life, not in theory? The Hezbollahis as part of the Principalists (osulgerayan) succeeded in destroying the Reformist parties’ political cadres... In other words they marginalized the future generation of democracy advocates>>>

بختیار که بود و چه کرد؟

"...من گمان می‌کنم که ستاره اقبال آقای بختیار هر چه از قتلش به دست عمال رژیم می‌گذرد،‌ بالاتر و بالاتر می‌رود. مردم متوجه می‌شوند که دلیری و شجاعتی داشت و خطر را خوب می‌دید. راه حلی که پیشنهاد می‌کرد، یعنی جدایی دین از سیاست اساساً راه حلی است که به گمان من شمار روزافزونی از مردم ایران هم به آن رسیده‌اند و جنبه‌های دیگر شخصیتش کاستی‌های آن هم بیشتر مورد توجه است..."

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دگرستيزي و دگرزدايي

گفتمان هاي سياسي ايران در نيم سده گذشته کيش بهائي را آئيني بيگانه جلوه داده اند. اين نگرش پيامد فراموشکاري هايي عامدانه براي غيرخودي بر نماياندن آئيني است که از بطن حوزه هاي علميه شيعه و فرهنگ ديني ايران در نيمه دوم سده سيزدهم ه ق/ نوزدهم ميلادي برآمده بود. زمينه غريبه سازي اين جنبش شيعي-ايراني با تبعيد رهبران بابي و بهايي به بغداد پس از قصد جان ناصرالدين شاه در 1268ه ق/1852م فراهم آمد>>>

They Shake the Desert Sands

The reed played its final notes of lingering peace. The turquoise twilight turned to deep purple, and a silvery white moon looked as though it was coming down from the sky to the earth. The twinkling lights, the stars, were set inside the dark sky like rich glitter on the chalice of a king. The desert sands glinted under the faint wind that had wings. Desert roses closed their blossoms, and the tales of the Zagros Mountains took me back to my roots, to the changing times of history, to the epic desert>>>

Simple Truth

As you see the flower
You say "wow" and sit
Near the terracotta pot
And stare at new petals
Like a humming bird >>>

Varda Bebar

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Unaffordable

Exact estimates vary, but in the next few years Iran will be in position to detonate a nuclear device. An aggressive theocracy armed with the bomb will cast a dangerous shadow over the region’s political transition, but the consequences will not be limited to the Middle East. An Iranian bomb is likely to unleash the most divisive partisan discord in this country since the 1949 debate about who lost China. In the end, neither the turbulent order of the Middle East nor the partisan politics of Washington can afford an Islamic Republic armed with nuclear weapons>>>