IRAN
Iranian-ness
A couple of years before the revolution, having made my life in Paris, I found myself in Tehran, visiting family. One day, I was walking in Ferdowsi Square with a dear friend, a famous writer now long gone. He was also a doctor with two areas of specialty, one of which was psychiatry. He pointed at a building on the square, the top stories of nondescript bricks in a state of disrepair while the lower part sported arches covered with pretty blue mosaics. Isfahan it was not but still, at street level, the effect was quite pleasant (read more)
It's time
Azadi, Tahrir, freedom, libertion, the word is different in every language but an essential moral concept in each and the idea behind it is the same everywhere--the aspiration one of the highest in every human being. Liberté is the first of the three words that sustained the French Revolution of 1789 (liberté, égalité, fraternité) and later the word the poet Paul Eluard said he was writing on the walls of the world (read more)
A date to remember
If today doesn’t turn out to be the big day that we all hope for, the day that brings about the end of Tehran’s repulsive regime, it is at least bound to be a major milestone in the right direction. All we must hope for now, beside a decisive blow to the awful theocracy that has been crushing Iran and spreading hatred and terror in the world for the last thirty years is that the brave Iranian people will not be weeping over new casualties but be a step closer to victory (read more)
Iranian-ness (2)
When people ask me if I’m happy to be Iranian, my response is that the part of the world I was born in is an accident of birth, not something to be happy or unhappy about. Then comes the follow-up question: “But are you proud to be Iranian?” I’m not sure I understand. What is considered here? Is my being Iranian an award bestowed on me for some exceptional achievement? Is it the result of a particularly trying and grueling effort on my part? (read more)
Iranian-ness (3)
Few things make my blood boil as much as remembering the assassination of Theo Van Gogh for his documentary “insulting” Islam or the threats against the Danish cartoonist Lars Vilks for his “disrespectful” depiction of Mohammad, or the Turkish family in Italy burying alive a 16-year old girl who had committed the abominable crime of talking to boys. Get over it, people. Honor is an ugly concept good for primitive societies, washing offenses in blood is uncivilized (read more)
Iranian-ness (3)
Few things make my blood boil as much as remembering the assassination of Theo Van Gogh for his documentary “insulting” Islam or the threats against the Danish cartoonist Lars Vilks for his “disrespectful” depiction of Mohammad, or the Turkish family in Italy burying alive a 16-year old girl who had committed the abominable crime of talking to boys. Get over it, people. Honor is an ugly concept good for primitive societies, washing offenses in blood is uncivilized (read more)
Tilted scales or skewed vision?
Reactions to several events last week got me thinking about our perception of what is fair and balanced and what isn’t. The web was filled with comments, none of them particularly friendly, about the fact that for Hamas to return Gilad Shalit, the Israelis agreed to liberate a contingent of 1027 Palestinian prisoners. Vox populi – populi in this case myriad analysts and commentators – was raised, there were howls about the insulting imbalance in the swap. What, they said, one Israeli equals more than a thousand Palestinians? Is that what we’re hearing? (read more)
Tilted scales or skewed vision?
Reactions to several events last week got me thinking about our perception of what is fair and balanced and what isn’t. The web was filled with comments, none of them particularly friendly, about the fact that for Hamas to return Gilad Shalit, the Israelis agreed to liberate a contingent of 1027 Palestinian prisoners. Vox populi – populi in this case myriad analysts and commentators – was raised, there were howls about the insulting imbalance in the swap. What, they said, one Israeli equals more than a thousand Palestinians? Is that what we’re hearing? (read more)