LIFE

30 Years Later

Where did the dreams go?

by Niloo Soleimani
28-Mar-2012 (9 comments)
This writing is not about my life but about a generation of Iranians between the ages of 45-55 who left Iran around the revolution. It’s the naked truth about an entire generation of exiled people who have lost their identity, their hopes and dreams, feel alone and lost and for the most part live in severe undiagnosed depression>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (4)

Keeping up appearances at any cost is Iran’s national lumpenist trait

by Azadeh Azad
28-Mar-2012
It is obvious that for Dowlat-Abadi, the origin of censorship by the “cultural management” is not its fundamentalist ideology and repressive attitude, but only its dogmatism. That’s why a few sentences ahead, he sympathized with the censors of the Ministry of Islamic Guidance as victims of their own actions. He said, “This discourse that they want to hear and hear it from the mouth of others, because they don’t hear it, they constantly repeat it themselves; what’s the use?">>>

TALK

Breaking the Ice

Pushing to end U.S.-Iran silent treatment

by jamal.abdi
26-Mar-2012 (3 comments)
Thankfully, a commonsense and long overdue proposal has been introduced in Congress by Representative Barbara Lee (Democrat, California) and nine other Representatives to dispense with the absurd "no contact" policy on the U.S. side. The bill, the Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons and Stop War Through Diplomacy Act (H.R.4173) would finally lift the ban on talking to Iran. Not only would eliminating this policy put us in a much better position to resolve the standoff, it will put the onus on the Iranians>>>

IDEAS

Who Deceived Whom?

“An Islamic Republic, not a word more and not a word less”. Which part didn't you understand?

26-Mar-2012 (4 comments)
Recently I finished a book by Ali Gharib. The name of this book was “Istadeh bar armaan” The writer in this book attempts to give an accurate account of events leading to the 1979 revolution and Khomeini becoming a leader. Then he goes on to quote from the memoirs of people like Banisadr, Bazargan, Yazdi, Soroosh and many others as to how Khomeini betrayed all of them along with Iranian nation and diverted their revolution into the path that it was never supposed to take >>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (3)

The main force of fascist groups often used as toys

by Azadeh Azad
26-Mar-2012 (one comment)
Based on either conformism or ignorance, lumpens claim not to be interested in political activity They do not have any clear political beliefs, they lack mental stability and are confused about political matters. Dowlat-Abadi declared his non-involvement in politics in a December 2011 interview he had with Ali Shoroughi and Sheema Bahremand from Shargh Newspaper, entitled: “Mahmoud Dowlat-Abadi: We are people as well”>>>

REALITY

Shahs of Tehrangeles

I kind of wish what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas

by Charlotte Safavi
24-Mar-2012 (11 comments)
I watched two very different Iranian worlds depicted in the powerful medium of film: one reality meticulously masked as fiction, one semi-fiction frivolously packaged as reality. Bear with me. 1. The first is the 2012 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film -- A Separation -- written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. 2. The second is episode 2 of the reality TV show Shahs of Sunset: It's My Birthday Bitches produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions for Bravo>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (2)

Not an exception, but a norm in Iran

by Azadeh Azad
24-Mar-2012 (17 comments)
Considering how well Dowlat-Abadi is aware of the corruption of the intellectuals of the regime and the regime itself, one wonders why he is so adamant to support this regime and remain one of its lumpen intellectuals who is occasionally used and abused by other lumpen intellectuals. (Here, I remember the story of a famous female filmmaker who used a female writer’s scenario without her permission to make a film, and was sued by her)>>>

REALITY

We are Persians… Hello!

Why we hate Shahs of Sunset

by Siamack Baniameri
22-Mar-2012 (25 comments)
What upsets us most about the Shahs of Sunset is its accurate depiction of the Iranian psyche. The Shahs are real. Like many of us, they are a group of fun-loving, hard-drinking, backstabbing, money-worshiping, showoffs who spend every minute of the day reminding each other how much they know about everything. The only difference between Shahs and the rest of us is that we fake the funk and they hump the trunk. Shahs are vain and unapologetic. They do not seem to be constrained by a typical double life that the rest of us lead>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism

Origins and beliefs (part 1)

by Azadeh Azad
22-Mar-2012 (14 comments)
In today’s under-developed societies such as Iran, the formation of this opportunistic group as a significant layer of society takes place when a rural /agricultural/non-industrial society is heading towards consumerism, industrialization and capitalism, with its lack of a definite assortment of classes, its class confusion, its chronic unemployment, its permanent tendency to increase the workers’ misery. Lumpens are the remnants of the pre-industrial and pre-capitalist society who cannot adapt themselves to this transformation>>>

IRI

More vulnerable than ever

Domestic tension and foreign policy

by Omid Memarian
20-Mar-2012
The first months of 2012 have been dominated by analysis and speculation over a possible attack on Iran over its nuclear plans. In this delicate situation, understanding the calculations of the authorities in Iran is clearly vital. So what is happening in Iran, and how is the combination of internal political developments and external pressures on the government in Tehran - such as tripling sacntions and the threat of war - being played out?>>>

CLINTON

گرفتاری خانم کلینتون

یک تناقض فاحش

by massoud khodabandeh
20-Mar-2012 (9 comments)
بر اساس یک قانون و حکم دادگاهی داخلی در امریکا خانم کلینتون قرار است تا پایان ماه جاری (مارس 2012) اعلام نماید که سازمان مجاهدین خلق از نظر کشور امریکا در لیست تروریستیشان هست یا خیر. ولی وی با اشاره به این مسئله داخلی کشورش و با استفاده از آن بعنوان یک اهرم سیاسی اعلام کرده است که "اگر سازمان مجاهدین خلق با تصمیمات سازمان ملل و دولت عراق همکاری کند، وی احتمالا آنها را از لیست تروریستی کشورش خارج می سازد">>>

IRI

Under the Threat of War

Iranians affirm support for the Islamic Republic

by Seyed Mohammad Marandi
18-Mar-2012 (25 comments)
Most of the Western so-called reporting on the Islamic Republic’s recent parliamentary election displayed very limited direct knowledge about Iran and often, as its authors’ acknowledged, derived its their information primarily from Western-backed opponents of the Islamic Republic. As long as this goes on, Western countries will continue to miscalculate about the Islamic Republic’s internal politics and foreign policy—and then be left wondering, again and again, why they always get things wrong>>>

WAR

Bibi Could Be Bluffing

Israel-Iran standoff

by Jeffrey Goldberg
16-Mar-2012 (7 comments)
Whenever I’m in the Middle East, I find myself, sometimes within hours of arrival, more susceptible to the appeal of elaborate conspiracy theories. Perhaps it’s the air, or the (lack of) water, but what sounds outlandish in the U.S. doesn’t seem nearly so far-fetched here. I’m not referring to conspiracy theories drawn from the swamps of Sept. 11 delusion-mongering, or from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or, alternatively, from the “Protocols of the Lunatics Who Believe Barack Obama Is a Muslim.”>>>

MOJAHEDIN

Money vs. Facts

Spending millions on lobbying to get off the terrorist list

by Reza Marashi
16-Mar-2012 (45 comments)
Since NIAC launched its information campaign on the MEK nearly one year ago, I have been in close and continuing contact with the State Department. They are bewildered by the freedom of movement that a designated terrorist organization enjoys on Capitol Hill; disgusted by former U.S. government officials willing to make a quick buck by shilling for the MEK; and exasperated by senior-level political appointees who have allowed partisan politics to trump making an otherwise obvious decision that was not controversial a few short years ago>>>

RACIST

نماد ناپسند نوروزی

حاجی فیروز چه فرآورده اسلام و چه ایران باشد پیامش انسانی و امروزی نیست

by Bavafa R
16-Mar-2012 (39 comments)
چگونه در این قرن که بشر به دست آوردهای شایان توجه و چشمگیری درزمینه های گوناگون علم وهنر، صنعت و فن آوری، و اختراع ستلایت شبکه های تلویزیون و اینترنت که جهان ما را به دهکده ای کوچک تبدیل کرده است نایل آمده ما ایرانیها میتوانیم به آسانی از کنار حاجی فیروز و پیام توهین آمیزش بگذریم و به پیامد یا تاثیرناگواری که بر دیگران میگذارد نیندیشیم؟>>>
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