IMPACT

Ali-Reza’s death

It remains to be seen what impact Ali-Reza’s death will have on a society in turmoil

by Omid Memarian & Roja Heydarpour
06-Jan-2011 (19 comments)
Aside from a loyal group of monarchists in exile, very few Iranians pay heed to the Pahlavi family’s aspirations to return to power, making the news of Ali-Reza Pahlavi’s suicide that much more heart-wrenching. Even for the eldest surviving brother, Reza, there is something nearly suicidal in grasping for a throne that will never be again. Still, he has some connection to the world outside himself>>>

DYNASTY

Tragic End

Alireza Pahlavi's suicide

by Stephen Kinzer
06-Jan-2011 (45 comments)
This shocking act of self-slaughter was the latest violent tragedy in the long history of a family drenched in blood—first that of the Iranians it tortured and killed, then its own. It is a drama of Shakespearean dimensions. The shah once ruled Iran with an iron fist, but his family later paid dearly for his sins, echoing Hamlet's judgment that royal crime “cannot come to good.”>>>

WOMEN

آیا 17 دی روز مهمی است؟

این روزی ست که در آن زنان توانستند حکومتی قادر و قدرتمند را قانع کنند که خواسته های آن ها را قانونی و رسمی کند

by shokooh.pasargad
06-Jan-2011 (one comment)
من، مثل هر انسان عدالت طلب و آزادی خواه، طبعا رضاشاه را به عنوان یک دیکتاتور می شناسم، حتی روش های تحمیل گرایانه ی او را برای برداشتن چادر از سرزنان عملی دیکتاتورمآبانه می دانم، و تحقق نیافتن بسیاری از خواست های انقلاب مشروطیت ، مثل آزادی های بیان و انتخاب و احزاب و غیره را، نتیجه ی مستقیم عملیات نادرست او می دانم اما، به اعتقاد من، هر حرکتی که به آزادی انسان از بندهایی که سنت ها به دست و پای او بسته بیانجامد حرکتی قابل تعمق و توجه و ارج گذاری است>>>

2011

Social Media to Take on Governments

Middle East e-journalists challenging dominant state institutions

by Firas Al-Atraqchi
02-Jan-2011
It has been a roller-coaster decade for the media in the Middle East and North Africa -- many who have turned to the Internet to write about human rights and corruption find themselves facing increasingly restrictive measures by the authorities. The meteoric rise of Twitter and Facebook as global communications phenomena created a sub-genre of communication theory and viewer/user interactivity which reshaped the way news organizations planned coverage>>>

ENGLISH

زبان دهكده جهانی

زبان مادری و انگلیسی بجای زبان فارسی

by Majid Zahedi
29-Dec-2010 (10 comments)
جهان امروز را دهكده جهانی می نامند و زبان این دهكده، امروزبدون تعارف زبان انگلیسی است، هركس و هر ملتی كه زبان این دهكده را بهتر بداند وبه آن مسلط شود، از امكانات مادی و معنوی آن بیشتراستفاده خواهد كرد و جایگاه مناسب خود را در آن پیدا كرده و وظیفه و نقش خود را به درستی ایفا خواهدنمود در غیر این صورت، منزوی خواهد شد و ازصحنه بازی كنار خواهد افتاد. >>>

WAR

Sarah Obama Palin

Other Tea Partiers may argue against war with Iran

by Flynt and Hillary Leverett
24-Dec-2010 (14 comments)
Given the disastrous consequences of neoconservative foreign policy ideas regarding Iraq and other Middle Eastern issues in recent years, those ideas and the people who framed them should have been discredited and should now be marginalized -- meaning, not taken seriously -- in future policy debates. But that is clearly not the case. The neoconservatives and their particular approach to American foreign policy in the Middle East are back in force, and the current focus of their advocacy and activism is pushing the United States into a military confrontation with Iran>>>

PARAZIT

مصدق یا احمدی نژاد

فرهنگ سیاسی ناسالم ایران

by Hooshang Amirahmadi
24-Dec-2010 (13 comments)
وظیفه ملی همه ایرانیان است که بحث سالم سازی فرهنگ سیاسی ایران را به یک جنبش ملی برای ساختن یک ایران توسعه یافته و دمکراتیک تبدیل کنند و از این راه به مرحوم مصدق و همه انهائی که برای ترقی این مرز و بوم زحمت کشیده اند و جان داده اند یک خدمت تاریخی و ماندگار بکنند. آنچه یک مصدق مرحوم شده میخواهد دفاع از خود نیست بلکه پیشرفت برای ایران است. این را هم اضافه کنم که این جنبش باید در ذات و عمق خود دمکراتیک باشد. یعنی حرکت ما برای ساختن یک فرهنگ سیاسی پیشرو باید به حذف کسی نیانجامد>>>

VIEW

The American Gulf

U.S. Navy's renaming of the Persian Gulf

by jamal.abdi
12-Dec-2010 (32 comments)
In a move that threatens to exacerbate tensions in a region already pushed to the brink, the US Navy recently circulated an official directive to its personnel to refer to the Persian Gulf by the propaganda term "Arabian Gulf." The directive, appearing in the US Navy Style Guide, flies in the face of 2,500 years of acceptance of the term "Persian Gulf," and is viewed by many as means to divide the Middle East along ethnic fault lines. The Navy's controversial move reopens old wounds and engenders enmity that puts US service members in the region in danger>>>

WIKILEAKS

Neither wrong nor illegal

Our instrument of last resort for bringing some accountability to those in power

by Daniel M Pourkesali
06-Dec-2010 (7 comments)
After reading the article titled ‘WikiLeaks: U.S.-Iran Relations "Now What" Moment?’ by NIAC’s Reza Marashi who identifies himself as a former Iran desk officer at the U.S. State Department, I failed to see exactly what ‘lessons learned’ are being presented following release of thousands of the not-so-diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks -- an act that the writer repeatedly labels as an “inexcusable security breach” throughout his treatise>>>

VIEW

Perpetual waste of talents

Why Iran is in doldrums, scientifically

by Fesenjoon
06-Dec-2010 (16 comments)
That Iran, with 10% of the world's known oil reserves, 2nd in natural gas reserves, and an intelligent eager workforce, is going through the most dire of circumstances in living memory, is not a secret. Iran's economy is basically in the doldrums. It looks up to countries like Qatar, Emirates, and Turkey for how to get things done, and is ruled by a ruthless religious dictatorship, all while its environment plummets down the drain>>>

VIEW

Don't Bother

An agreement with the mullahs would be not worth the paper it is written on

by Hossein Askari
03-Dec-2010 (89 comments)
The clerical regime has brought severe costs, such as economic mismanagement, brutality and religious pretensions, and no tangible benefits. Reminiscences about the Shah’s regime are becoming increasingly frequent and nostalgic. The clerics and their supporters believe that the United States is bent on getting rid of them and that their best hope for long-term survival is the nuclear program, which they cannot abandon. Realists in America and in Europe know that the real problem is not Iran’s nuclear quest but its regime>>>

PERSIAN GULF

Football in Hot Water

Possible boycott of 2011 AFC Asian football cup in Qatar

by Mohammad Ala
03-Dec-2010 (14 comments)
The 2011 AFC Asian Football Cup will be hosted by Qatar in January 2011. It is possible that sports officials there will refer to the Persian Gulf by another name. If this occurs, Iranian athletes, administrators, and football fans should boycott the event. The use of a name other than Persian Gulf occurred at the 2010 Asian games by the Chinese this past month. Many Iranians were surprised and dismayed by this action, but it should not be surprising that China and Western countries would place their economic self-interest in business relationships with Arab countries above any concerns about historical accuracy>>>

LIES

دروغ هایی به بزرگی خدا (3)

جامعه ای سرشار از عدالت و برابری و رفاه عمومی و امنیت و ... توهمی بیش نبود

by Ali Ohadi
01-Dec-2010 (one comment)
خلافت ابوبکر تنها دو سال و 3 ماه به درازا کشید. او فرصت یافت تا برخی از یاغیان عرب در سرزمین حجاز را ساکت کند و تمامی شبه جزیره را به تصرف درآورد، سردار عرب، "خالد" را به فتح بخش هایی از ایران و روم شرقی (بیزانس) بفرستد و... خالد تا پیش از مرگ ابوبکر، فرصت یافت بخش های جنوبی عراق را از ایرانیان و بخش هایی از سوریه در امپراطوری روم شرقی را تصرف کند>>>

IDEAS

From Black to White Shiʿism

Never has Shiʿism witnessed such overwhelming criticism from Islamic thinkers and revisionists

by Ali Vaez
28-Nov-2010 (2 comments)
In the dusk of the twentieth century, a mystical and quietist religion changed into a politico-revolutionary ideology that shook the world. How was this transformation brought about? Who were the men who transformed the faith into a weapon? What does the future hold for revolutionary Shiʿism? Martyrology and Messianism, the two main pillars of Shiʿism, can be traced back to two transformative events in the history of Islam: the killing of the Third Imam and the occultation of the Twelfth Imam>>>

VIEW

Fall of a Republic

Fragmentation within and collapse of the economy

by NASSER SHIRAKBARI
26-Nov-2010 (12 comments)
As president Obama’s outreach to Iran failed to bring positive results or a dialog on issues of concern for either side, he chose the sanctions option in a meaningful way as never before. The neocons are still hoping to turn the tide towards a military strike. With intention of paralyzing the Islamic Republic to the point that is no longer is a threat to anyone in the Middle East. The objective is, not only destroying the nuclear sites, but to abolish all military capabilities such as Navy, Air, and Ground forces>>>
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