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16 AZAR
07-Dec-2009 (4 comments)
This year’s massive demonstrations of university students are not only the capital but also in a dozen major cities, are being joined by the populace, including families, parents, grandparents as well as siblings, and have taken a new direction. The demonstrators are primarily chanting slogans against their own government and its figureheads including the “supreme leader”, and multitude of failing or ill conceived polices>>>
APPEASEMENT
07-Dec-2009 (25 comments)
The United States needs to learn from the mistakes of its recent past and find pragmatic solutions to foreign policy challenges of our time. The ‘war against terror’ is an asymmetric struggle that requires new innovative strategies. This is nothing like the Vietnam, first and second Persian Gulf wars, or in fact any other conventional battlefield-based conflict. Hence, the Obama administration bears the moral responsibility to take existing and emerging threats from rogue regimes and organizations seriously.>>>
POLITICS
02-Dec-2009 (56 comments)
In a quaint, sleepy town named Ahmad-Abad, there lies in state Iran’s old political lion buried in the grounds of his dining room in a family house that served as both his sanctuary and prison for nearly ten years. There he lies as if awaiting a long overdue state funeral, but there are no statesmen present to pay their respects and no honor guards flank the coffin at each corner. At the time of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh’s death, there was no abrupt interruption of nation’s regular television programming, no chocked up announcer carrying the devastating news of our loss to the world, and no footage paid homage to his life and legacy>>>
NUCLEAR
30-Nov-2009 (63 comments)
Only a few weeks after US-Iran diplomacy began in earnest, it seems to be heading towards a premature ending. Rather than tensions reduction, the world has witnessed the opposite. Iran is refusing to accept a fuel swap deal brokered by the IAEA, the IAEA has passed a resolution rebuking Iran, and Tehran has responded by approving a plan to build ten more nuclear facilities. With the potential end of at least this phase of diplomacy, fears of a disastrous Israeli attack on Iran are on the rise once more>>>
VIEW
30-Nov-2009 (4 comments)
Thirty years have passed since Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran and took the embassy employees hostage. At the time, I was a college student in San Diego. I and perhaps the rest of the Iranians in the United States did not understand the gravity of the situation and what that action meant for the future of Iran. We were mostly concerned about our own safety in the US and how to protect ourselves from misdirected anger. Little did we realized that this was the beginning of the radicalization of our county of origin>>>
POINT
30-Nov-2009 (3 comments)
The market system that has been credited for the economic opulence of the global economy especially the Western world in recent decades is now on trial. People are losing their faith and have started questioning the fair operation of this system since the advent of current economic crisis. Free enterprise system has been placed under stringent scrutiny by thousands of inquisitive observers who want to know what went wrong and why the system did not work the way it was supposed to? >>>
RECONSIDER
28-Nov-2009 (14 comments)
Given that Shirin Ebadi's Nobel medal is now in the hands of the Islamic Republic, the British Museum should reconsider its loan of the Cyrus cylinder, on which the 'charter' Ms Ebadi referred to is inscribed – it is due to go on display in Tehran in January. According to one source, the chances that the Iranian government will decide to keep the cylinder are “very high”. Iran’s clerics have a history of hostility towards Iran’s pre-Islamic heritage – after the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali threatened to raze Unesco-recognised world heritage sites with bulldozers>>>
NEDA
28-Nov-2009 (63 comments)
The ruthless exploitation of the death of Neda for political purposes is an egregious example of a propaganda war being waged by the enemies of Iran – everyone should be concerned, however, since the manipulation of the media and public opinion is a feature of domestic news coverage in the West as much as it is of reporting on a Middle Eastern state, notes Reza Esfandiari and Yousef Bozorgmehr. The tragic death of Miss Neda Agha-Soltan continues to reverberate five months after her shooting in Tehran>>>
KHAMENEI
26-Nov-2009 (8 comments)
It is the role of the supreme leader to be the arbiter of last resort, to maintain a balance between each dynastic group’s spheres of influence, preventing them from violently colliding or cooperating too much. He has to maintain the façade of solidarity and impartiality while refereeing a multi-team melee. So what happened this time? Superficially this was a presidential election between an incumbent and a challenger. But behind the scene, there was more at stake. There was a major power struggle between the elite at the highest levels of the IRI, a struggle for total domination of the government>>>
ACTION
24-Nov-2009 (5 comments)
My family migrated to the U.S. before the Revolution when I was just 8, I went back to Iran only once 5 years ago for a month and I was arrested on "Pole Tajrish" for not wearing my hijab well. I basically grew up thinking this is really my country of origin given that all I had learned and knew was from this generous hosting country. It wasn't until recently that I learned that there is a definite difference between me and and my dear Anglo Saxon friends/colleagues or perhaps the Jewish Americans or even Chinese or Indian Americans. NOT just in my own eyes but in the eyes of the world looking at me>>>
VIOLENCE
22-Nov-2009 (7 comments)
سبز جنبشی بی‌خشونت است و از این نظر تجربه‌ای است آغازین برای ما. تجربه‌ای آغازین نه از آن که پیش‌تر جنبش‌های بی‌خشونت در ایران وجود نداشته‌اند. جنبش سبز جنبشی آغازین است زیرا، برعکس جنبش‌های پیشین (مانند جنبش تنباکو یا جنبش ملی شدن صنعت نفت) رویکردِ بی‌خشونت را نه تنها آگاهانه به کار گرفته، بل کنشِ بی‌خشونت را با گفتمانِ بی‌خشونت، و ترویجِ آن، همراه کرده است. پس جنبش سبز به هرگونه گرایش یا ایدئولوژی که از اهمیت جنبه‌ی خشونت‌پرهیز جنبشِ مردمیِ امروز ایران بکاهد، بی‌اعتنائی می‌کند. از این رو، جنبش سبز نه تنها جنبشی سیاسی- اجتماعی که جنبشی آموزشی نیز هست>>>
VIEW
19-Nov-2009 (142 comments)
You might call this confession of a reluctant sanction-monger. Advocating sanctions against ones homeland is as strange as advocating for ones extended family to go without, so there better be a damn good reason(s) for such odd advocacy. First a little personal background which might help in dispelling any false notion or prejudgment. My entire extended family except one sibling live in Iran, all except one world-class rich distant cousin, are middle to lower middle class with most being like the overwhelming majority of Iranians in the hand to mouth category>>>
CONSTITUTION
14-Nov-2009 (2 comments)
تهيه و تنظيم پيش نويس يک قانون اساسی نوين هميشه يکی از مهمترين کارهايي بوده که مردمان با فرهنگ کشورهای پيشرفته، با ياری حقوقدان های خود، در شرايط معلق يا دگرگونی (آن چنان که ايران امروز ما در آن قرار دارد) انجام داده اند. برای انجام چنين کاری به شما تبريک می گويم. و مايلم دو نکته را با شما در ميان بگذارم. چرا نبايد مردم کسانی را که دست به چنين کار بزرگی (يعنی تهيه و تنظيم قانون نوين اساسی) می زنند بشناسند؟ من درک می کنم که ممکن است نام برخی از شما برای مردمان پيش داوری بوجود آورد ولی به نظر من اين پيش داوری به مراتب کم ضررتر از آن است که مردمان با افرادی پشت پرده، هر چند محترم و دلسوز، روبرو باشند>>>
MONEY
14-Nov-2009 (13 comments)
There is a witty expression that says "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion", while expressions like this is a bit far-fetched, there is no doubt about subjective, and sometimes the paradoxical nature, of some economic analyses. Economics is a social science after all. For instance, both economists and politicians keep telling you that you should continue going to the shopping malls and spend money on products especially the expensive ones whether you can afford them or not. By doing so, you not only obtain the sheer pleasure of spending money but also help to pool the economy out of this resilient recession>>>
IDEAS
09-Nov-2009 (9 comments)
It is argued that masses are ignorant, they follow the clerics. Some fundamentalists believe they are doing God’s work in forcing weak believers to practice their religion. In order for evil to triumph it is for people to stand by and do or say nothing. Salvation is found by seeking the truth, not with superstitious dogma. People should be free to choose any path in conformance with their belief system. Even non-believers have made a choice regarding religion. No choice should be ridiculed because it is different from another>>>
RECENT COMMENTS
IRANIANS OF THE DAY
| Person | About | Day |
|---|---|---|
| نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
| Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
| Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
| احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
| گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
| Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
| محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
| Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |