WAR

Why Republicans Might Attack Iran Before General Elections?

If an attack occurs, democratic nominees will be framed as weaker potential commanders-in-chief

by Omid Memarian
20-May-2008 (16 comments)
"Do you think that the Bush administration will attack Iran before the general elections in November?" I asked Congressman Henry A. Waxman(D-Calif.) in his office in Washington. He said this is impossible, and explained that Congress will not support the administration due to the current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also mentioned that since the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, which clarified that the hardliner government in Tehran had halted Iran's nuclear weapon program in 2003, the possibility of going to war with Iran has decreased dramatically.>>>

GEOGRAPHY

What Do Google and Saddam Have in Common?

Google has turned itself into an enabler of those who would use name disputes to fuel conflict

by Trita Parsi
20-May-2008 (63 comments)
Google has a funny way of doing business -- one that involves muddying politics in the Middle East. In recent months, the organization has taken the unprecedented step to rename internationally recognized bodies of water. Google Earth has begun using the controversial term "Arabian Gulf" to the body of water traditionally and internationally identified as the "Persian Gulf." Now many may think: What's in a name? Why would this even be an issue? >>>

MINORITIES

In god's country

The oppression of religious minorities, especially the Baha'i faith, is not incidental

by Jahanshah Rashidian
19-May-2008 (34 comments)
The Islamic Republic of Iran places the Shiite sect of Islam at the heart of the state apparatus. The Islamisation of all life, based on Khomeini's own interpretation of Islam, is the central policy of the Islamic ruling elite. Religious minorities, which include the Sunnite sect of Islam, Christian, Jews, Zoroastrians and Baha'is compromised about 10 % of the population after the Iranian revolution, most of them Sunnite Muslims who also suffer from discrimination as national minorities. In addition, increasing numbers of Shiites, especially after the inception of the IRI, are non-believers>>>

SUGGESTION

Flight attendants needed

A small but robust action can penetrate the icy wall between Iran and U.S.

by Midwesty
19-May-2008 (15 comments)
A few days after I wrote the piece on Iranian.com criticizing Bush’s administration of conducting brainless diplomacy towards Iran a piece of news came up that although it was refreshing but was unkindly neglected by the media. Am I surprised by US media’s behavior? Not at all! However this time, it was Robert Gates, United Stated Secretary of Defence that made the news. At his speech at American Academy of Diplomacy he urged more nongovernmental contact between Iran and the US that might eventually open a pathway to more substantive dialogue between the governments>>>

ETHNIC

Not ALL speak Persian

Encouraging Iranians to forget their local languages and traditions is wrong

by Ben Madadi
17-May-2008 (66 comments)
The funny thing I have always found is that the same nationalistic Iranians talk about how big and glorious Iran was, and they long for those days of imperial and majestic oriental triumphalism. What the hell people! Wasn't the same blood-thirsty Agha Mohammad Khan, a barbaric Turk, who united this same old bloody empire you talk about? Didn't the same mass-murderer unite and re-create Iran? Then you say he was an uncivilised Turk who killed the ethnic Persian people of Kerman? Big, really big, smell of hypocrisy here! Nationalists must make their minds! What about Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar who subdued all of Iran except Azerbaijan, whose actions caused famine in Tabriz?>>>

BUSINESS

Peace pipe

Iran-India pipeline project and other opportunities

by iranican
17-May-2008 (5 comments)
Iran-India political relations have been parallel to economic relations of these two countries. The policies of the Indian government to acquire ever more energy resources to feed her rising needs in the coming years have created many challenges for the Indian government. India has always been looking to gain access to additional oil and gas imports. Iran’s export of oil to India, and India’s export of diesel to Iran have been on the rise. Based on current predictions, India shall need about 400 million cubic meters of gas per day (which currently stands at 90 million cubic meters.) >>>

INDEPENDENCE

Why the cultural stigma? The jokes?

The question of marriage

by Tahireh
15-May-2008 (29 comments)
My parents made the decision to leave the Islamic Republic of Iran specifically because they wanted their daughters to grow up free. And by freedom, I mean the freedom to ride bicycles, the freedom to wear shorts, to swim in public pools and to play on the beach, the freedom to speak with boys, the freedom to speak our minds, the freedom to choose our careers, the freedom to succeed in life without the specific barriers created by an oppressive patriarchal hegemony, both in the public and private sphere>>>

JOURNALISM

Lebanon's media diversity

Thanks in part to social, political, and economic differences among the Lebanese people

by Hossein Shahidi
14-May-2008 (4 comments)
I first came to Lebanon in 1972 to study at the American University of Beirut and left in 1978. Other than the traumas of the Civil War - which are still on the minds of all of us, even those who did not experience them directly - I have three abiding memories of my first encounter with Lebanon: smelling the scent of the Mediterranean as soon as the airplane's door had been opened; hearing the voice of Fairuz, which always filled the air then, and still comes back today to comfort us when things are going very badly; and an open press, representing a wide range of opinion.>>>

MOJAHEDIN

What next?

Questions over American policy toward Mojahedin Khalq in Iraq

by massoud khodabandeh
14-May-2008 (13 comments)
If, as seems likely, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK, PMOI) is de-proscribed in the UK, this ought to be good news for the group's 3,300 members in Iraq. I reported on the situation there back in February and concluded that since the Iraqi Government is adamant that the MKO be expelled from the country as a foreign terrorist entity, the only practical solution was for a western government (most probably the UK) to de-proscribe the group so that the members currently trapped in Camp Ashraf could gain safe refuge there. I am looking to see whether the MKO's western backers will now push for this solution>>>

TERRITORY

بيداری ملی ايرانيان

سند مالکيت خليج فارس در آذربايجان امضا شد

by Esmail Nooriala
14-May-2008 (5 comments)
از مدت ها پيش، تقويم های رسمی چاپ ايران از يازدهم ارديبهشت به عنوان «روز ملی خليج فارس» ياد می کردند و سايت های دولتی حتی مطالبی دربارهء اين روز داشتند، بی آنکه معلوم شود چه کسی در اين روز «ملی» قرار است چه بکند. اما تا فرا رسيدن اين روز چند حادثه مهم پيش آمد: نخست سفر احمدی نژاد بود به اجلاسيه ای که «کنفرانس کشورهای حاشيهء خليج عربی» خوانده می شد و نشستن او، بعنوان رئيس جمهور ايران، و وزير خارجه اش، منوچهر متکی، در زير تابلوئی که همين نام را اعلام می داشت. اگرچه، پس از روياروئی با جنجال ناشی از اين عمل زشت، سخنگوی دولت اعلام کرد که ترجمهء درست نام اين اجلاس «کنفرانس کشورهای عرب حاشيهء خليج» است و نه «کنفرانس کشورهای حاشيهء خليج عربی»>>>

VIEW

Let there be light

Iran’s Dark Ages

by Omid Parsi
13-May-2008 (71 comments)
The dominant political theories of the European Dark Ages and the premises of Iran’s present ruling establishment are more or less the same. As the so-called divine rulers helped to destroy the Roman Empire and plunge the Western world into the Dark Ages, Iranian so-called divine rulers are doing the same with the Iranian nation. During the Dark Ages in Europe, there was complete rule by the church and warrior elite, no human rights to speak of, and degenerate, and inhuman behavior. For human liberty, the period was indeed dark>>>

BOMBING

Iran’s response

The options at Iran’s disposal are many

by Mohammad Alireza
13-May-2008 (11 comments)
For the past several weeks the Pentagon has rolled out a justification for the upcoming attack through allegations that have yet to be supported by any solid evidence. Let’s skip over the issue of if the Pentagon is right or if all this is just another case of aluminum tubes or yellowcake or being 45 minutes away from witnessing a mushroom cloud over some American city. Let’s instead jump to the immediate moment after the camps have been bombed. The question is; how will Iran respond?>>>

INJUSTICE

Marriage at 10

Victims of both discriminatory laws and punative and traditional discriminations

by Mahboube Hosseinzade
10-May-2008 (8 comments)
It is said that in the slums of Zahedan, there are many houses where several families each occupy a single room in a house. There was an opportunity for us to enter one of these houses. The mother, sister, wife, sister-in-law, father and two brothers of the man who has asked us to go in, as well as several little children all live in a single room. One of the women is 27 and has a 12-year-old son as well as a little girl who is only a few months old. When I ask her at what age she got married, she replies: "At the age of 10!" And later other people tell me that in some of the towns in this region 10 to 11 is indeed the usual age of marriage>>>

POPE

كاتوليك‌هاي ديروز، مسلمانان امروز

در حاشيه ديدار پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم از آمريكا

by Ahmad Sadri
09-May-2008 (5 comments)
سه سال قبل كاتوليك‌هاي آمريكايي براي انتخاب پاپي دعا مي‌كردند كه مدرن ستيز نباشد و به نص و روح اصول مصوبه در شوراي دوم واتيكان (سال 1965) وفادار باشد. مثلي است كه مي‌گويند خداوند همه دعا‌ها را مي‌شنود ولي بعضي اوقات جواب حضرت باري <نه> است. مسلمانان در آن روزها دستي به دعا نداشتند، ولي شايد بهتر بود آنها هم دعا مي‌كردند.به‌محض اينكه كاردينال راتزينگر سابق <تيارا>ي رهبري كاتوليك‌هاي جهان را بر سر گذاشت، اسقف مايكل فيتز جرالد كه از سوي پاپ جان پل دوم مسوول گفتمان با مسلمانان بود با تقليل منصب به‌كار ديگري گمارده شد و راهبان فرانسيسكن از مذاكراتشان با مسلمانان منع شدند. پنج ماه بعد در دانشگاه ريگنزبرگ پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم اسلا‌م را مستقيما مورد حمله قرار داد.>>>

QUESTION

Force-feeding freedom?

Imagine that we could magically extract a democratic regime from a peaceful neighborhood

by Midwesty
08-May-2008 (20 comments)
dictatorship is a survival tactic for a society. A nation under siege acts exactly like a human body under viral/bacterial attack. When you get sick your movements become minimal, you try to conserve as much energy as possible, you focus on your pain and sufferings so you don’t pay attention as much to your surroundings, and you do many other weird things that you would not normally do. A society under a dictatorial regime is a human body on antibiotics. The free movements in thoughts become minimal, the enemy becomes on the center of focus not the society, and everything gets orchestrated by one person or a group of people in order to conserve energy>>>
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