After all, at the level of observation, there is still something about these cultural currents at which to marvel. It is not hard to see why Mahdavi felt that her young subjects were the leading edge of something significant, even if we don't come away quite knowing of what. Nearly thirty years into its Islamic Republic, Iran has become a country its revolutionaries never imagined, let alone desired. Its population has doubled; its countryside has modernized; its cities have burgeoned. Heavy-handed religious rule has produced a profound ambivalence about organized religion even among Iranians who cleave strongly to their private faith. Young Iranians, born after the revolution, burrow tunnels under the walls the regime has erected to isolate them from the West. And no amount of repression has succeeded in smothering the seemingly trivial but inextinguishable human impulse toward beauty, the playfulness of fashion or the electricity of sex. Maybe this is a story about Iran, with its restive political culture and loss of faith in institutionalized religion; maybe it's a story about Islam and the return of its repressed; or maybe it's just a story about the human spirit and the things it is not prepared to live without.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/secor/1

295 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2008

Etefaghi ke nabayad mioftad belakhare oftad. Baad az 3 taghriban sal bel akhare ghazieh be badtarin shekl khateme peyda kard. Nemidoonam hala chi mishe vali ye shabe ye bare sangin be rooye doosham oftad ke nemidoonam che ghadr az pasesh bar miam. Omidvaram betoonam manage konam, toonestan ke mitoonam: Omidvaram ke betoonam aramesh ro be khanevadam bargardoonam.

dadaradan!(sedaye sheypoor!): va inak Mehrdud vared mishavad! daradan da dan da daaaaaaan(sedaye sheypoore mojadad!) Hefze roohie avalin sharte! :D

Shode ta hala fekr koni ke che ghadr khoobe ke be kasi ya chizi fekr nemikoni? Mesle ye kasi ke ba baseball bat zadan too saresh o hanooz gije! Akh ke che ghadr khosh migzare

Recession hitting hard!

Oh well, it's started. One down 4 more to go. A colleague lost his job yesterday!

I did it! Whose the man!!!!

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My visa application has been ...! I am so ...!


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They've posted my application result. I should recieve it within the next few days and will fill in the blanks using correct words shortly.

Juliette Binoche & me!

Juliette in Tehran

It was intense: she was there on the stage, staring into my eyes, clearly nervous with her sweaty face, and I was just stunned by her beauty. And no, we were not on a date! It was her debut as a dancer in in-i at National Theater.

A woman has a crush on a bald guy she met in the Cinema while watching Casanova! So she decides to go after him. The rest of the story is everyday life of a couple and how they're struggling to coup with their problem caused by simply being a Man/Woman, Muslim/?, Brown/White...

The play was good but not great, just good enough. Simple story line, simple set, above average dancing & acting helps you to connect better to the whole thing. Although There were moments of quality dancing, good acting, funny jokes, and technological marvels (you can tell who the geek was that night!) but it just didn't add up to give me a feeling of “wow I've just seen something special”.

Now my understanding level of dancing is close to that of a hippo, but I can tell that Akram khan is a good dancer. I specially liked the scenes that... hang on! I'm not gonna give it all away. Go & see it! It's highly recommended if you happen to have a crush on Juliette Binoche as a teenager and want to see her in flesh. It's always a good experience to see something at NT!

نگاهم با نگاهت به مبارزه برخاست
شبی تنم در مهمانخانه تو
روی زمین کنج اتاق
تا سحر ناله می کرد

Untrustworthy Bear

As an Iranian, I happen to have a good sense of Russian opportunistic foreign policy. Combined with maximum aggression when they have clear military advantage, Russian empire always has taken full advantage of each crisis. Invading Iran twice in 19th century, occupying Finland, Ukraine & Czechoslovakia during WWII, the fact that they were allies with Hitler, and now Georgia situation all are just a handful of historic examples of aggressive Russian foreign policy.


The white tsar, Red Tsar & now the FSB Tsar, all of them are absolutely terrifying tyrants that just cannot be trusted. With USA ignoring each & every single international law by invading Iraq, how can anyone argue against Russia? What would happen if Russia tries to annex parts of Georgia? Putin's administration, a mixture of FSB and militaristic ambitions, is out of control. The bear is cornered and a new era of cold war has already been started. Russia & China are the dangers of 21 century. The behavior of Russia & China when it comes to Iran, Georgia, Tibet, and Darfur... shows that these countries cannot be trusted.



But there is still hope: American troops in Romania, Missile shield in Poland & Czech republic, membership of WTO & G8, and the most important of all pushing NATO further to the east are some of the pressure points available to deal with Russia. The bear should be contained otherwise we all would be in trouble

Newsweek: The Star Students Of The Islamic Republic

In 2003, administrators at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren't American wasn't odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.

Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that's because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That's no small praise given its competition: MIT, Caltech and Stanford in the United States, Tsinghua in China and Cambridge in Britain.

Sharif's reputation highlights how while Iran makes headlines for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's incendiary remarks and its nuclear showdown with the United States, Iranian students are developing an international reputation as science superstars. Stanford's administrators aren't the only ones to notice. Universities across Canada and Australia, where visa restrictions are lower, report a big boom in the Iranian recruits; Canada has seen its total number of Iranian students grow 240 percent since 1985, while Australian press reports point to a fivefold increase over the past five years, to nearly 1,500...[Read more at Newsweek website]

........................................................................................

p.s: Where the hell is my university on the list: Iran University of Science & Technology! Some of the finest brains of Iran has been screwed up by IUST! (like mine :D)

Fact: Iranian universities are nowhere on the list of top 500 universities in the world. I think this is a bit fishy!

آی ام سو هوم سیک

Muuuuuuuuuuuugabe

Zimbabwe: A dictator clinging to power, torture, political assassinations, sham of election… all and all as we call it back at home: "Tuesdays"

Last week a journalist/blogger was hanged in Zahedan prison on charges of “supporting terrorism”. 2 doctors who were running the most successful HIV AIDS clinic in Middle East and had been praised by health organizations were sent to jail because they were “plotting to topple the regime”, I suppose it’s because Islamic Republic and HIV AIDS have a lot in common. 4 kids under 18 have been executed so far this year. New laws currently being discussed in Iranian "Parliament" would make it possible for a security panel (not a court) to set up semi-martial courts and punish bloggers because of "Disturbing public peace of mind" or in other words “blowing the whistle ” and just another law to make polygamy legal.


Where is the world media? What the hell are they doing? The world's media has ignored Iran's human rights record for good part of past 7 years. It's only getting worse. All they care about is nukes. Why does MDC gets so much media attention but nobody knows about Iranian opposition? I'm so pissed off...

!!!برای اینکه کوری

World's Smallest School

A class room with only 4 kids in primary school. The blogger, "Abdul Mohamad", is the soldier/teacher who is doing his military service in "Kalu" a remote southern village in Iran just by Persian Gulf. "Hamideh" the eldest girl in the class is leaving for "Bushehr", the capital of the province , to continue her studies. Here is his Blog

خوشم میاد عمرا نفهمی چی نوشتم. دهنم رو صاف کردی!!!! به من چه؟ من چه گناهی کردم گیر شماها افتادم. جون مادرت دست از سرم بردار

God's state and the state of written English

In response to the world's 6 powers offer to Iran, Iranian delegate to Geneva talks distributed an unofficial letter repeating its stance on the nuclear issue. The paper was titled “The Modality for Comrehensive Negotiations (None paper)”. Only Iranian diplomats can write a letter with 2 mistakes in the title. Apparently one of the Russian diplomats could not stop laughing. read more here

Things you shouldn't do in London

1. Learning Spanish on Saturday afternoon in summer
2. Locking your bike with a tiny little chain
3. Keeping 13 boxes + 2 suitcases + 2 bags of your friend's stuff
4. Going to a gay bar with your female friends
5. Getting out of a pub in a rainy day without going to the loo first

Gene Robinson

Coming from a country that systematically prosecutes and sadly even executes Gays, being there with Gene Robinson was an extraordinary experience. LGBT people have very hard time in deeply religious countries. Although comparing USA and Iran might not make sense, but looking carefully it’s hard to ignore the similarities. Both nations under God with deeply religious right wing conservatives where liberal left struggling to challenge them on human rights & civil rights issues.

To hear Gene Robinson, a truly remarkable man who has pushed the LGBT agenda through new territories, joking about his sexuality and talking about God at the same time was truly inspiring. It was an amazing personal experience to see that “Man of God” can be actually pleasant people! To hear a clergy talking so passionately about social struggle of LGBT and at the same time giving his faith’s “Message of Hope” was great.

Being a non-believer, I couldn't stop judging his views on God and religion, but at the same time I cannot ignore his immense sacrifice. I admire the man for his courage and wish more people of faith would have the balls to stand up to their religious institutions.

p.s: I paid £12 for a compelling documentary, a nice talk by Gene Robinson and Sir Ian McKellen, and a magnificent performance by Sir. M.

جمهوری اسلامی و انتخابات

در حال حاضر حکومت ایران در اوج قدرت خودش هست. انتخابات بدون در نظر گرفتن نتیجه، می تونه راه خوبی برای مطرح کردن مسایلی باشه که برای ما مهم هست. سکوت طبقه متوسط ایران بعد از انتخابات دور دوم خاتمی، باعث شد تا مسایلی مثل معیشت و پول نفت بشه موضوع انتخابات ریاست جمهوری، که اونوقت یکی مثل احمدی نژاد یا کروبی موج سواری می کنه.

گفتم بدون توجه به نتیجه، چون ما می دونیم انتخاباتی که آزاد نباشه اصلا ارزشی نداره و تغییری ایجاد نمی کنه. اما اگر طبقه متوسط دوباره فعال بشه، می تونه حداقل یقه کاندیداها رو بگیره، حتی توی جمهوری اسلامی!!! همین احمدی نژاد سر حرفها و قول هایی که داده الان چقدر آبروش رفته؟ چقدر شانس انتخاب مجدد داره؟

مبارزه با استبداد در ایران چند دهه کار داره، سکوت هیچ دردی رو دوا نمی کنه. 18 تیر بهترین فرصت بود که از دست رفت. حداقل کاری که الان میشه کرد مطرح کردن مسایلی مثل حقوق زنان تو انتخابات هست. این بازی اگه رای بدی یعنی مشروعیت دیگه معنی نداره. دنیا میدونه که ایران انتخابات آزاد نداره، حکومت هم با همونایی که به احمدی نژاد رای دادن انتخاباتش رو برگذار می کنه. این وسط ما که رای ندادیم، برامون طرح امنیت اجتماعی اجرا می کنن

ششششششششششششش ... من خوابم

امشب قاطیم! خیلی بد

Note

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خیلی باحال

حصاربوعلی را با سکون را تلفظ می کند این آبادی در جنوب کردوی قدیم(نیاوران امروزی) و مغرب باغ صاحبقرانیه است.قدمت این آبادی بر ما روشن نیست.سنگ های قبور قبرستان عمومی میان سال های 1015تا1095ه.ق بود.اهالی, این دهکده را منسوب به ابوعلی سینا حکیم و فیلسوف مشهور می دانند.فاصله این دهکده تا تجریش سه کیلومتراست===================================کوچه های معروف حصاربوعلی کوچه ی درآسیاب و کوچه ملک آباد(نامهای قدیم) است زمینهای ملک آباد در جنوب کاشانک است که آب قنات معروف به ملک آباد امروزه از قنات های معروف حصاربوعلی است مخصوص این اراضی بوده است. این اراضی را حاجی عبدالله امینیان از دو نفر شریک خرید وسپس به آقای طبیب زاده فروخت.آب و هوای ای محله نسبتاً خنک است و از طرف شمال و جنوب بادهای منظمی بر این آبادی می وزد. مرحوم میرزا محمد نراقی از کسانی بود که در این دهکده تعدادی باغ داشت.وی یکی از زمین های خود واقع در محله حصاربوعلی را وقف ساختن مدرسه راهنمایی پسرانه انصارکرد===================================ساکنان حصاربوعلی به هفت طایفه تقسیم می‌شوند:اول طایفه جابرانصاری که سرشناس این طایفه آقا محمدابراهیم جابرانصاری است.جد پنجم این شخص در زمان محمد شاه قاجار در ایگل رودبار قصران تحت نظر بوده استدر ایگل دو عیال اختیار کردو دوازده پسر به وجود آمدو اولاد ایشان به تجریش ,تهران و حصاربوعلی آمدند.وی را آغا محمد خان به ایگل آورد .دوم طایفه ی عسگریان که حاجی غلام حسین عسکریان و احمد آقا عسکریان سرشناسان این طایفه اند.سوم طایفه قره گوزلو که حاجی رجبعلی و غلامرضا بزرگ این طایفه اند.چهارم طایفه خانسفید که ازشیرازبه این محل آمده اند و مشهدی محمد و روح الله از سران این طایفه هستند.پنجم طایفه یزدانیان که مشهدی کاظم سرشناس این طایفه است===================================ششم طایفه ی نظر که باقر خان و کاظم خان از بزرگان این طایفه محسوب می‌شوند و هفتمین طایفه ناطقیان.این طایفه از اهالی آهار می باشند که به حصاربوعلی کوچ کردند.از حاج محمد ناطقیان می توان به عنوان یکی از سرشناشان این طایفه نام برد.علی اصغر ,غلامعلی و گداعلی از پسران وی بودند==============================================ساکنین این دهکده به زبان محلی شمیران صحبت می کنند.شغل اکثر افراد در حدود شصت سال پیش صیفی کاری,کشاورزی,باغبانی,گله داری بوده است ======================================================================منبع== جغرافیای تاریخی شمیران اثر دکتر ستوده

Episode 2

He, a 72 year old farmer, is married to a 30 year old woman. Their neighbour, Molook, a 57 year old housewife, over heard the old man asking the new bride: "Honey, I'm going to the supermarket, do you need anything?". That night She told her husband of 40 years: "You bastard, you never called me honey ever!". Ghadam, the 62 year old, Mollok's husband, left the house so angry.

Episode 1

"... Ladies & Gentlemen, the time is now 6:50 which means we've been ahead of schedule. May I just remind you that you're not allowed to bring any alchohol into Iran. Ladies are obliged to follow the Islamic dress code according to the Islamic law. I hope you've had a nice flight today and enjoy the rest of your journey. On behaf of all the staff on board today, May I wish you a very happy new year."

... and here I am, once again.

Hilary vs. Barack

2 Nations, 2 Elections

Iranian president "Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad" claimed in few occasions that Iran is one of the most free nations in the world and proposed that Iranian government can hold up US elections in an attempt to show the American people what does a free election look like.


Although it's a tempting offer, but we all know that it can't happen, mostly because many Iranian officials are/were members of "Qods force" which is now declared as a terrorist organization by US government! So, as an Iranian, I feel that it's up to people like me to explain to Americans what a real democracy is & what does free elections taste like! Well, you get 2000 candidates in whole country, then a non elected body of 12 people appointed by god's representative on earth will decide who can actually run for elections.

After making sure that only god’s favorites can run, you need to use army and a network of mosques to promote the candidates that god(or his/her representative) really likes. In case of United States probably churches can do the same, although church and state are separated in US so I guess after teaching you guys about free election we should fix your constitution as well. Just 2 months before the election, your secretary of state declares that "70% of people will vote!" after all you know how many people you've paid and how many ballots you have in case you need to vote for some people who are lazy to vote on a Friday afternoon.

There you have it. A free and fair election!!! Enjoy...