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CONGRESS
08-Jul-2008 (28 comments)
It was with great dismay that I, and many of my fellow Iranians in Iran and abroad, learnt of the regrettably widespread support by you in the U.S Congress, for the Resolution HR 362. This resolution which imposes a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to stop all shipment of refined petroleum products from reaching Iran and to inspect all vessels approaching or leaving Iran, is an act of war waged on our country and the Iranian nation. If passed, this resolution, would be yet another instance in a chain of flagrant violations of international law committed by the US and a war crime under the United Nations Convention on Genocide>>>
IRAN & SPAIN
08-Jul-2008 (45 comments)
In the late 1970's, Iran and Spain stood close to each other on the world’s stage. They both had struggling monarchies with a legacy of over 30 years of dictatorship. They both had gross national products of about $50 Bn. And, they both had populations of about 40 Million. Both countries enjoyed a long history of royalty, and they had both suffered an invasion by the expanding Islamic empire over 500 years ago. This past week I witnessed Spain’s triumphant Soccer (Futbol) team beat Germany in the Finals of the Eufa Cup. And on Sunday, it was Spain’s Rafael Nadal crowned Wimbledon’s Mens Tennis Champion, beating Roger Federer. And all this right after Spain’s Sergio Garcia was named the PGA tour’s (golf) players’ champion>>>
IRAN-U.S.
07-Jul-2008 (12 comments)
With Israel rehearsing an attack on Iran and the Bush administration considering the alternative of a low-level diplomatic mission in Tehran, it is necessary to revisit your June 4th speech to the AIPAC convention in Washington. In that address, you denounced the Iraq War as a conflict which strengthened Iran and asserted that Iran has always constituted a greater threat to Israel than Iraq. You stated that Iran now constitutes the greatest challenge in the region. You even asserted that Iran is part of a “tyranny of oil” in which the high price of oil is “one of the most dangerous weapons in the world” because petro-dollars abet the killing of Israeli civilians and American soldiers. In so doing, you are taking an easy road to “toughness” on national security issues that still allows you to trumpet your opposition to a war that is now overwhelmingly unpopular>>>
IMAGE
07-Jul-2008 (20 comments)
By now I’m sure you’ve all seen Voices for Peace: Fifty Iranian-Americans Promoting Peace with Iran. Perhaps the idea behind it was decent enough. And maybe, at the end of the day, having it is better than not. And yet, as a fellow Iranian (ixnay the American), there were many things that made me uncomfortable. I do not think it is prudent at the moment to promote the idea of: “don’t attack Iran”. While many of us are extremely worried, publicly, we should promote the idea of direct, unconditional requests for talk with Iran. Lest we forget, she too remains a sovereign nation and has the right to decide when and if she wants to open her doors>>>
PRESIDENCY
06-Jul-2008 (169 comments)
President Carter's misguided approach to raising human rights (catered to fundamentalists and communists) in the context of US-Iran relations, led to the Shah's fall. Iran then became a theocratic abyss, whose radical fundamentalists tolerated far more abuse and torture of political prisoners than the Shah ever had, and supported a stream of terrorist acts and causes. The individuals who comprise Iran's theocracy are now the worlds, as well as the vast majority of the Iranian people's greatest enemies. Now, Barack Obama has said that he is inclined to meet with the internationally controversial Iranian President at the right time after due preparation and advance work by US diplomats>>>
FISHY
06-Jul-2008 (4 comments)
آقای علی اشتری را به جرم جاسوسی محاکمه و به اعدام محکوم کرده اند. تا اینجای مطلب هیچ چیز غیر طبیعی وجود نداره. این که یک جاسوس محاکمه بشه، طبیعیه. این که جرمش سنگینه، طبیعیه... اما بالاغیرتن "فریب خوردگی" این جاسوس، یک پایش میلنگه! اگه آقای علی اشتری یک دختر چهارده پونزده ساله ی خوشگل مامانی بود، خوب، می گفتیم "فریب خوردگی" تا اندازه ای طبیعیه. ولی آخه با این پیشونی بلند که تا مغز سرش رفته (واژه ی "کچل" در مورد کسانی مثل من که هنوز چند تار مو روی سرشون هست، واژه ی مناسبی نیست!) و با این بینی درشت (همین الان دوباره تو آینه نگاه کردم، دیدم سزاوار نیست بینی آقای اشتری را "خربزه ای" خطاب کنم!) خلاصه این که این منار را به کدوم جای کدوم گنجشگ بدبخت فرو کنیم که بگنجه؟
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INDEPENDENCE
06-Jul-2008 (2 comments)
دکتر مصدق، که بزودی به چهرهء اصلی ملی گرائی ايران تبديل شده بود، با بدست گرفتن رهبری «جنبش ملی» علم استقلال خواهی را برافراشت و از آنجا که در ميان گيره های استعمار امپرياليستی و استعمار استالينيستی قرار داشت ناگزير به مفهوم استقلال ضد استعماری نوعی معنای انزواجويانه و منفی بخشيد که در فرمولبندی سياسی او به نام «موازنهء منفی» معروف شد و ذهنيت يارانش نيز، در بلند مدت، در تنگنای همين تعريف باريک باقی ماند؛ حال آنکه اگر نيک بنگريم می بطنيم که سياست موازنهء منفی تنها يکی از انواع شکل های مبارزات استقالال طلبانه است و هر جنبش ضد استعماری لزوماً دارای ميژگی های نفی گرايانه نيست. استقلال به معنای انزوا و سختی کشيدن ناشی از آن نيست، بلکه می تواند حضور باز و همه جانبهء ملتی را در صحنهء بين المللی به ذهن متبادر کند که روی پای خويش ايستاده است، خود دوست و دشمنش را بر اساس منافع ملی خويش بر می گزيند و هرگز دارای دوستان و دشمنان دائم نيست بلکه، بقول چرچيل، دارای منافه دائم است>>>
IRAN-US-ISRAEL
03-Jul-2008 (37 comments)
Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? To listen to Iran's radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Israel's Iranian-born transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, or even recent reports that Israel carried out a major military training mission over the Mediterranean to rehearse an attack on Iran, you might be left with that impression. Mr. Mofaz's comments last month indicating he would attack Iran didn't help perceptions either. The immediate effect of his statement was a record increase in oil prices – giving Mofaz's Iranian nemeses a windfall of several million dollars... Any serious effort to address the Iranian challenge must recognize the true nature of the conflict. There is nothing apocalyptic about the nuclear stand-off or the Israeli-Iranian rivalry. Rather, these are strategically driven conflicts that can be managed and even resolved through the appropriate level of diplomacy>>>
OHOY!
03-Jul-2008 (3 comments)
We start to have problems with listening to others and hearing them properly, when we are angry with each other. When our ego is hurt and we feel that we have been insulted, we often want to get back at the person responsible and so we stop listening to them. In these circumstances, we sometimes get very carried away and interpret everything that they say in the worse possible way to make them look bad and foolish to ourselves and others, so as to confirm what we think of them. We might even convince ourselves that they cannot be saying anything sensible or kind because then they would have been kind and sensible to us>>>
HOOPLA
02-Jul-2008 (7 comments)
Spare us the pain of yet another repetition of the “Chicken Little, the sky is falling” syndrome, as journalist Seymour Hersh so accurately stated about his own writings on Iran... It seems one of the motives in writing this latest ‘expose’ of the Bush Administration’s well-financed covert operations against Iran was best illuminated in Hersh’s discussion and retelling of the Pentagon’s version of the Iranian patrol boat incident back in January 2008. “Weariness with the war in Iraq has undoubtedly affected the public’s tolerance for an attack on Iran, but this mood could change quickly”, writes the investigative journalist, citing the Iranian patrol boat incident as a clear example of the “potential for escalation”. >>>
HYPOTHETICAL
01-Jul-2008 (17 comments)
When considering preventive military action against Iran's nuclear program, one must remember that such an exercise is purely hypothetical at this point. In fact, with some renewed vigor, diplomacy still might succeed in convincing Iran to suspend its nuclear program, as was the case in 2003. Context matters when discussing preventive action against Iran. For example, if Iran's leaders announced they were developing nuclear weapons, leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and intending to test a nuclear weapon, the debate for using preventive military force would be entirely different>>>
DECEPTION
01-Jul-2008 (86 comments)
A Re-born Christian, the world’s most powerful president believes: "Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and a purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God." His tyranny disguised, he continues his barbaric assault on humanity. One civilization already destroyed with a death toll of over a million and counting, the mainstream media having conveniently sent the Afghan war to oblivion, Mr. Bush puts attacking Iran at the forefront of his agenda. This time, his message from a ‘higher father’ will drown the whole Middle East in blood and leave America bankrupt for decades. All the while the ‘voices’ tell him that he must continue to arm Israel so that the Palestinians can be slaughtered>>>
FEAR
01-Jul-2008 (2 comments)
As we all witnessed, the decade of 90s was the triumphant era for the US economy. Affluence was all over the place. Massive investment in highly innovative information technology triggered the proliferation of high tech businesses and the emergence of e-commerce and the pending surge in productivity and growth. Moreover, United States was the major beneficiary of the colossal events that took place in 90s such as the disintegration of Soviet Unions and the fall of Berlin wall, giving her an opportunity to cut the military spending and to devote more resources to economic development>>>
IDEAS
30-Jun-2008 (16 comments)
First and foremost let’s be clear on the fact that madness and insanity is a global problem and not limited to specific regions or cultures. However, in most places, the insane are almost always products of unfavorable environments, and never products of pre-planning and training. What we have today in the Middle East is a network which finance, plans and organizes development of insane humans for the sole purposes of engaging in terrorist acts against the general population. This process of “producing terrorists” requires a favorable social and cultural groundwork which has been provided by what has evolved as the post-Islam Arab cultures and religion>>>
POLITICAL ISLAM
28-Jun-2008 (one comment)
هنگامی که يک تشکل حزبی از واژهء «آزادی» در نام خود استفاده می کند همواره به يکی از دو موضوع توجه دارد: يا خواستار آزاد شدن از دست يک نظام ديکتاتوری است، و يا می خواهد آزادی های بدست آمده را پاسداری کند؟ اما وجود اين واژه در نام «نهضت آزادی» رسانای چيست؟ آيا آنها در پيش از انقلاب اعتقاد داشته اند که رژيم شاه (يا حتی بگوئيم «قانون اساسی مشروطيت» که رژيم شاه آن را کنار نهاده بود) برايشان آزادی هائی را فراهم کرده که بايد از آن پاسداری کرد؟ اگر دکتر مصدق از آزادی سخن می گفت مسلماً منظورش آزادی های مبتنی بر قانون اساسی و کوشش برای احياء و استمرار آنها بود. اما چه چيزی جز آزادی برای استقرار حکومت اسلامی می توانست منظور بازرگان و يارانش در استفاده از اين واژه باشد؟>>>
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 |