Op-Ed

احیا کنندهء شرمساری بشر

این چند روز گذشته اخبار فاجعهء بزرگی که دارد در غزه رخ می دهد زخمهای کهنه ای را بر پیکر بشر باز گشوده است و دردهای زیادی را زنده کرده است. از یک طرف تصاویر مردمی که به رویشان امکانات حیاتی را قطع کرده اند و در تشنگی و گرسنگی و تاریکی در میان آب های آلوده و مسموم فاضلابی که در خیابانهای شهر نشر کرده است٬ برای ادامه زندگی دست و پا می زنند٬ احیا کنندهء درد و رنج تمام انسانهایست که در طول تاریخ٬ جریان حیات را به رویشان قطع کردند تا که در انزوا به تدریج بخشکند: گولاگ استالین٬ کربلای یزبد٬ اردوگاهای هیتلر...>>>

Red lines

Currently, over 65% of students entering university in Iran are women and slowly, these women will become a strong force that will make their dissatisfaction with the inequalities in law, society and the family known. Iranian women have not achieved this success easily and this representation is not secure. The current government has planned to reduce the number of women entering universities and has set up obstacles making it more difficult for women to achieve this goal. After the revolution, women who played an important role in the Revolution with the aim of reversing discriminatory laws against women were shocked to find that these laws not only remained intact, but that the human rights that women had achieved before the revolution were also eroded>>>

دریچه ای سوی ایران معاصر

وبلاگنویسی نمای فراخی است از ایران معاصر؛ ایرانی که به تصویر هرگز ندیده ایم،از کوچه و خیابانهایش نمی توان شناخت، ایرانی که در پس انگاره های مذهبی و سیاسی نهفته است. وبلاگنویسی روز به روز در ایران مورد استقبال بیشتری قرار می گیرد. با توجه به محدودیت ها و قوانین حاکم بر صنعت نشر و رسانه های عمومی، هیچ جای تعجبی نیست که اینترنت پیوندی است به دنیایی بازتر برای باورها و گرایش های گوناگون.>>>

From Shah to Ayatollah

We are approaching anniversary of an extra ordinary event in the history of our nation, which had a profound effect over the lives of every single Iranian in one way or another even if we had no contribution to it. I remember those days that when traveling on the roads, from one place to another, we would encounter mobs of people with clubs in their hands while blocking the road asking you to say “death to shah” so they let you go! Then they put a picture of Khomeini on the windshield of your car after getting what they wanted and before you run into another group of them a bit further. It was a truly unusual scene to see and live in those days in a country, which was considered an “island of stability” in a troubled region, not much earlier!>>>

Palestine does exist

It is not just the US politicians who are complicit with the State of Israel’s violence against the Palestinians. Sadly, those of us who read and contribute to Iranian.com and are often so opinionated on every matter and feel so compelled to write about everything that happens in the world, have been complicit with this violence by being silent about the recent Palestinian situation. Unfortunately, I think many of us have tuned Palestine out and frankly the Arab-hating sentiments that have filled our national imaginations do not let us see the pain and hear the voices of Palestinians who are being killed violently by the Israeli tanks or die softly behind the Israeli walls. We refuse to notice as we go on with our comfortable lives, pretending that Palestine does not exist.>>>

For men only

"You mean you would be willing to allow your husband to take on a second or even a third wife while married to you, with the law supporting him in doing so?" I ask. "What’s the problem with that?" She responds abruptly and forcefully. "I am the second wife to my husband." All the women surrounding us on the Tehran metro car are now staring at me. There is something in their gaze, waiting for me to put this woman in her place with a strong and reproachful response. But the woman does not allow me to respond, she continues: "I fell in love with my husband. I am still in love with him. If it weren’t for the law, I would not be allowed to be with him. Even if it is for one day a week, it is legal. This law gives us greater freedom of choice, why should I oppose it?">>>

Origins of Azeri Turks

Maybe some of the readers can bring more information about this issue, but I think (I don't remember it very well any more) we had a theory in our Iranian school textbooks during the Pahlavi regime saying that the inhabitants of Azerbaijan (the Iranian side) are Aryans (the racial word for describing Iranians, or that was the intended, or perceived, purpose of the usage) who have been "linguistically" Turkified, to use the exact term. I doubt they still have this in today's IRI textbooks (maybe they do), but I have been quite amazed to find it in many places on the Internet, also on Wikipedia, about issues relating to Iranians, where Iranian editors have been very actively pursuing, and trying to prove, this theory>>>

Hazardous speech

Despite being so useful, internet has created a breed of beasts who can hide behind the wall of anonymity and do whatever they want. Look at those people who bombard you with embarrassing emails trying to sell you something that supposedly help to enlarge certain part of your body! Look at some of these shrewd salesmen who try to spread the fear of unknown in an attempt to rip you off, or those who try to steal your vital financial information to commit financial crimes under your name. Don’t you wish there was an effective way to get rid of these people?>>>

قدیمی ترین رسانه ی گروهی

چهل سال از فاجعه ای که " خودکشی قهرمان" خوانده شد گذشت, هنوز اما " قهرمان" زنده است و پیرامون زندگی و مرگ اش سخن گفته می شود. بسیارند آنان که " خود کشی قهرمان " را باور ندارند و قهرمان را قربانی ستمگری ی استبداد می دانند , و انگشت اتهام شان همچنان به سوی دیکتاتور نشانه رفته است. برخی اما اختلاف های خانوادگی و طبقاتی , و بحران های عصبی و روانی ناشی از آن ها را علت خودکشی " جهان پهلوان "می پندارند. هر دو سو چهل سال است برای اثبات ادعای خود , بر انبوه شواهد و دلایل خود اضافه می کنند.>>>

سعادت اجتماعی

تنها وسائل گرفتار نشدن در نکبت حکومت های ايدئولوژيک تبعيض گزار ـ و، به ناچار، سرکوبگر ـ، از يکسو جستن «راه حل هائی غير ايدئولوژيک» برای بحران های اجتماعی است و، از سوی ديگر، کوشيدن برای اينکه در مسير اجرائی کردن اينگونه «راه حل های غير ايدئولوژيک» ـ ايدئولوژی های موجود (هر چقدر هم عدالتخواه و انسانی) به حاکميت راه پيدا نکرده و به مرحلهء دوم تحقق خود نرسند. اين دو راه موازی، درواقع، دو روی يک سکه اند که «سعادت اجتماعی» نام دارد.>>>

Reversal of fortunes

Five hundred years ago, global warming helped create an economic down turn in West and Central Asia and facilitated the European economic rise. Today, might we have a case of reverse fortunes, allowing West and Central Asia to get back to where it was before? Andre Gunder Frank and many other economic historians have told us about “ReOrient”ing to China, and that while the Chinese economy has suffered 500 years of recession, it is only natural for it to make a come back and start dominating the world again. But can the same be said for the Near East?>>>

Thirty Birds

This poem was revealed to me. Let us not argue from whence, whether from the sub- or super-consciousness, and simply accept that, as with the Leila poem, I had no conscious choice or will in its making, only in the editing. It revealed itself with Attar's journey as the central metaphor, but it also revealed the presence of Ahriman/Angra Manyu, Ahura Mazda's opponent. I envisioned him somehow very strongly as Khomeini engaged in a battle with the "songgirl", Forough, for the soul of Iran and the world>>>

Long live the Bomb

The problem arises about what we don’t know and the accuracy of what we assume we know. Knowing the past and the present behavior of the Islamic regime makes it very hard to believe they have abandoned what seems to be their final card to play. The Islamic Republic cannot possibly live longer than it already has without the bomb. In dealing with the mullahs ruling Iran, what you see is not what you get, and what you hear is not what they mean. Transparency and honesty are not their strong suit. So, we need a first-rate sleuth to see through their smoke-and-mirrors, as well as beyond their twisted tongues into their warped brains>>>

رنسانس اتمی و سکوت رسانه ای

مساله این است که خود اروپایی‌ها و آمریکایی‌ها تازگی‌ها به این نتیجه رسیده‌اند که با وجود ریسک‌های زیست‌محیطی انرژی اتمی، این شیوه‌ی تولید انرژی فعلا با صرفه‌ترین شیوه است، ولی وقتی نوبت به کشورهایی مثل ایران می‌رسد یک دفعه از این جور استدلال‌های ساده‌خر‌کن می‌آورند. خود من با کمال تاسف سه سال پیش مقاله‌ای در نیو ساینتیست نوشتم و همین استدلال را برای رد نیاز ایران به انرژی اتمی تکرار کردم و الان هم کی به عقب نگاه می‌‌کنم می‌بینم که اصلا تنها دلیل چاپ این مقاله همین بود و اگر مثلا از آن دفاع کرده بودم امکان نداشت چاپ بشود. من از بابت این نادانی و دربست پذیرفتن چنین استدلالی از مردم ایران عمیقا عذر می‌خواهم.

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Do someting, like other minorities do

We, Iranians, complain about unnecessary bureaucracy in Iran and we, Iranian-Americans, complain about the same beau racy in the United States. The point to make about the U.S. bureaucracy is the recent backlog and immense delays in the processing of immigration petitions with an increased fee and official promises to expedite them and remove the backlogs. But, as you know it from your personal experience and I know it from my nationwide immigration practice, there has not been a slight and better change yet. >>>