Diaspora

Language of Terror

It was only later, long after the events of 9/11, that I finally realised I was a terrorist. The realization did not come easily, or all at once. After all, I had not planted any bombs or hurt anyone (not even verbally). I had not visited secret training camps in Pakistan . I had not even done anything as rash as Samina Malik, who was convicted of Terrorism recently by a British court for writng Poetry about Jihad. (Poetry has always been a dangerous activity, as all tyrants know). No. It was something far more insidious. >>>

Law of my life

I always consider coming to America and experiencing the life in a foreign country as one of the major turning points of my life during which I matured quickly and learned how to manage my living personally. When I first came here, I was facing a lot of difficulties with the issues like language, cultural distinctions, Americans’ prejudice against Middle Easterners, and separation from my life. At first I dealt with a miserable sense of alienation and social rejection mainly because of my accent. I considered myself lower of the class compared to the native born Americans, and sometimes I was even afraid to talk because I was afraid of mispronouncing the words which, I thought, would make other people laugh at me>>>

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>>>

Damn Illegal Aliens

First of all, this damnation only covers head of the family, spouse and children under 18 who live with parents. Children older than 18 years of age may be damned under different damnation policy through college, university or employment. Secondly, Only immediate family is damned. Family members who do not reside in the US are not covered. Proof of residency is required for the damn coverage. One might ask why should we provide such a damn costly coverage for damn aliens? Although this is a naïve question, it deserves a clever response. Let me explain.>>>

Hedayat's last message

While many nations nowadays are desperately searching for their own cultural roots, they tend to consider their cultural icons as ‘pure’ and undivided original. Apart from the fact that seeking cultural purification somewhat has its similarities with the original idea’s of Nazi philosophy and fascist nationalism, it also is quite useless. Whether it is a consequence of the social and economical pressures caused by migration, or a search for meaning and identity, certain nations - and especially weak states that need a new ‘social glue’ to have the support of the people - start this search of original identity >>>

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>>>

29 Years of Cantankerism

You'd think that Iranians who thrive on disagreeing, arguing, and disbelieving anyone trying to make the slightest point (as you will no doubt see in the comments after this piece), would have perfected some sort of logical process to distill it by now. Given the conditions these past 29 years, which have been riper than a honeydew (kharbozeh?) melon in the late-summer Esfahan sun, you'd think that by now, some sort of conclusive voice of the opposition, would have been heard, over all the praying and braying. But even after 29 years it's still eerily silent>>>

Religion, God & Spider Man

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An(other) Inconvenient Truth

It's time we learnt the truth about all the issues that surround the food we consume. How much do we really know about origins, farming, environmental implications and all the other issues that we cause an impact on, every single time we take a trip to a supermarket. So how well informed are we? Not as much as you would think! Ultimately we only know what the government are pressured into allowing us to know and the odd ‘Expose’ by the media. So how are we to make informed and socially conscious decisions? Well, in essence, we can’t. We are not equipped to make well-informed decisions when it comes to the food we consume as we just don’t have enough knowledge and education on the key issues affecting the global food, farming and agriculture industry>>>

Stand up and be counted

Along with millions of Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry, the Iranian-Americans feel particularly singled out with the enduring and agonizing deterioration of their civil and constitutional rights, rights violations that have only been exacerbated after September 11 when the U.S. was despicably attacked by a group of fanatical terrorists from abroad. I tend to mainly focus herein on the particular plight of the nearly one million law abiding Americans of Iranian/Persian heritage, who make an annual contribution to the American economy approaching hundreds of billions of dollars and with educational achievements that are at least twice the national average>>>

Reng

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The High School Theory

We all know that we physiologically stop growing around the age of eighteen. This is a scientific fact but based on my observation, many of us also stop maturing psychologically around the same time. It seems regardless of all the experiences we have gained after the age of eighteen and we should have come across them as a valuable lesson, we still mange to end up saying, “I should’ve learned that the first time around”. To make you feel good I should say you are not in it alone. There are many of us doing the same thing everyday. Another reason that shouldn’t have felt bad about it is that you can’t even start reading the history without seeing that it repeats itself over and over>>>