Iranian Shadow

2008-12-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

My friend Nazli finally got the OK from Hossein Derakhshan’s sister, Azadeh Derakhshan, to publicly announce that Hossein Derakhshan , one of the first Iranian bloggers, was arrested on the afternoon of November 1, in Tehran.

I am quoting this news from Nazli Kamvari, a friend of Hossein Derakhshan and an Iranian blogger living in Toronto, who has been directly in touch with Hossein’s sister and just wrote about this news in her Persian blog .

My understanding is that Hossein’s family has been under pressure from the authorities not to talk about Hossein’s arrest and not to get a lawyer for him. So, it is understandable that they are not talking to the media. But we at least can assure both the Persian and global blogospher, who were previously in doubts about Hossein’s arrest, that he’s really arrested.

Hossein has gone through various changes in his politics and he has rubbed many activists the wrong way, including myself. (I personally don’t approve his politics and we have had couple of fierce arguments and fights in the past few months.) However, we should not have double standards when we deal with human rights. Any human being should be entitled to freedom of expression and should have access to an attorney while in jail. I hope human rights advocates start campaigning for Hossein Derakhshan.

2008-03-28T10:51:00.002-04:00

Pablo Neruda - Die Slowly
He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience,dies slowly.
He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions,
the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,
dies slowly.
He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly.
He who does not travel,
who does not read,
who does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself,
she who does not find grace in herself, dies slowly.
He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck,
about the rain that never stops,
dies slowly.
He or she who abandon a project before starting it,
who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know,
he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,die slowly.
Let's try and avoid death in small doses,
reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.
Only a burning patience will leadto the attainment of a splendid happiness.
Pablo Neruda

2008-02-25T14:13:00.000-05:00

This is a period in my life full of mystery and uncertainly. Am I ready for venturing into unknown? To be honest, I feel too old to risk!!!

2008-02-20T15:49:00.001-05:00

You do something and then you say "Sorry!” Listen... Repeating the word "sorry" doesn't mean that you shouldn't face the penalty!!!

2008-01-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

I have to start writing...even if it is one line a day!!!

2007-12-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

Oh....I haven't written here for a long time!!! Life has changed a lot. It is more beautiful now!!!
Ok, let's see....last days of 2007, I am trying to concentrate on my work and I can't, maybe because of the major mall hangover!!

2007-02-06T18:35:00.000-05:00

They keep telling you "I love you, you are different".
Then, after a while, they ask you for change!!!"Why aren't you like other women?""Why do you behave like this?"

2007-01-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

I really like to update this blog regularly, but there is always an excuse. Most of times, my Persian blog has the priority. Honestly it has more readers and as a blogger I can not deny that I need readers!!
The second excuse is my bad writing. I can not express myself well here. I know this is a problem and I need to practice more to solve it..
Unfortunately my English is getting worse these days!!! I do not have TV. I do not go to university this semester and I work in a quiet place with colleges who never talk. They just sit and work with their laptops. The only person who sometimes talks is Persian too!!
I desperately need to talk to someone else. I came up with ideas like reading newspaper or writing here. But nothing is better than having a native friend. As a sociable person I am working on it!!!.

2006-11-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

Before I come to Ottawa, I had never lived in such e small town during my life. Tehran, my hometown, is a big city with 15,000,000 populations. You can never imagine going out and bumping into a familiar face. Every day it took two hours getting to work place from home. Here, going from home to school takes 30 minutes and it is the longest way that I have to go. Most of the times I see same faces in the bus, because just 800,000 people live in Ottawa and most of them know each other. No body is in rush. Buses stop for every old man or woman to get on, sit and take his/her time. There is no subway and nobody gets angry waiting in a line. They get home on time, just 5 minutes, 10 minutes driving from every point of town to other point. First days, it seemed lovely. . It was like I have found a way breathing I loved this beautiful town, and I still do. But now I am kind of getting bored. This is a hard time for me as I am deciding on leaving Ottawa. I am scared and excited. I have no idea what is waiting for me, but as an immigrant, when you do it once, you can always do it. I have passed two oceans getting here.700 kilometer will be nothing though!!

2006-10-06T01:25:00.000-04:00

Iran's female racing champion barred from defending title....

The federation's vice-president, Hossein Shahryari, said "Women are speaking highly of themselves and that causes men who sacrifice their lives in this sport disappointment. Women are not champions in this sport, they are only participants. If they observed Islamic regulations more they would not have such problems."

Yes, Dear women, Watch out, don't speak highly; we are here to bring you problems

2006-09-21T00:02:00.000-04:00

I am sick of wathing Ahmadinedjad's face on TV. I left Iran, because I didn't want to hear even a word of his speeches and now what? Since I have been here, once a week, I have had to watch him, with his terrible cold eyes, smiling on camera, staring at reporters, and scaring the hell out of me, if people of my country are going to have another damn war. I am really sick of that.

An open letter

2006-09-20T03:27:00.000-04:00

I am scared from death and execution...

2006-09-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

Erika has bought these pairs of earrings last month when it was her birthday. She has put them in a nice box on top of her bed. She had written this statement on the box: "From Erika to Erika, with love, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
I am sure that many people that I know, I mean Iranian, call her mad for doing such a thing, and honestly she is not. She is just alone and loneliness and madness are totally different!
Erika is divorced and lives alone. She is around her forty, she has no child, no parents, she goes to gym everyday, practices music, practices French and last but not the least she is a very happy woman.
In our minds, people from east, there is something which makes us to be afraid of any kind of loneliness. We look at it as a kind of disaster and we try everything to avoid it.
Are we happy after all? How many of us are happier than Erika?

2006-08-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

I came back right now from my short trip to France. Every one from family was there and for the first time since my immigration, I was laughing freely because I was there again, among the family where everybody loves me.
I don't feel very well and I don't want write anything in my Persian web-log. Today is one of those days when every tiny little thing bothers me.
I don't know where and when I am going to see them again.. We live so far away from each other and we are wondering what a weird destiny we have ....and why us?

2006-07-05T11:31:00.000-04:00

Hunger Strike for Human Rights in Iran
July 4th, 2006

The human rights situation in Iran continues to deteriorate. Petitions and protests to end the abuses have gone unanswered. During the past year, Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s government has sought to monopolize power in Iran by silencing and suffocating all independent and dissenting voices. The suppression of demonstrators in Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, and Kurdistan, the silencing of labor, women, and student movements and the vicious attacks on demonstrators throughout the past year, are all evidence of the ongoing and abhorrent human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran. By arresting and imprisoning intellectuals, lawyers, political activists, and labor leaders and by forcing the resignation [or early retirement] of hundreds [dozens] of University professors, Ahmadinejad’s government is pursing polices that are reminiscent of some of the darkest days of the Islamic Republic.In such an atmosphere, Iran’s democracy movement calls for the unity and support of people of conscience from around the world. Without such unity, there is little hope of stemming the appalling human rights violations in Iran and the growing authoritarianism of regime.

In response to this deteriorating situation, we the undersigned lend our support and welcome the suggestion of Akbar Ganji, Iran’s leading dissent intellectual who was recently freed after 2222 days of imprisonment, for a global hunger strike that demands the release of three prominent political prisoners namely: Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeni, a student leader and former member of parliament, Dr Ramin Jahanbegloo, a philosopher, professor and public intellectual and Mansour Osanloo, a prominent labor leader and executive director of the Worker’s Syndicated Union.

Additionally, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political detainees from the Islamic Republic’s jails but we specifically demand the release of the above mentioned persons [who represent/symbolize various groups of prisoners of conscience in Iran]. Should their release not be secured, we, the undersigned, will begin a co-ordinated global hunger strike from July 14 through July 16, 2006 to draw attention to our demands. We ask for the support and solidarity of people from around the world who share our goals for a democratic Iran and an immediate end to all violations of human rights.

See names and signatures

2006-06-22T22:32:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all of you for asking about Iranian women. All women who were under arrest last week get released this Saturday. As I have heard two leaders are supposed to go to the court. Probably they will be charged. I hope if they are not sent back to prison again.

Does anybody care what passes in my country?

2006-06-12T19:30:00.000-04:00

My friends, women and men of my country, were beaten and arrested by the security forces because of their objection to discriminatory civic and labor laws. This was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration by women’s right activists.
I am so sad. What am I doing here? My sister was beaten brutally by a police woman, my friend has disappeared and I am here, Just crying and try to talk to someone in Iran.

Does anybody care what passes in my country?

Even Iranian are obsessed with football fever these days. Nobody pays attention to the other fever, the other patient.

I am so sad.

here are some photos

Being-Iranian

2006-05-26T02:04:00.000-04:00

I was waiting for two of my friends to come to Canada this month. One of them was to come for International women conference, the other, as I said in previous post, was in her way to university. It was really frustrating when I heard both of them got rejected by Canadian embassy in Iran. They was told because of Iranian-Canadian prisoner's case, not much visas will be issued. Even parents didn't get visa for visiting children this week.

I like to be positive; I am still hoping that my mom is coming some day.

Here is my question. What is the relationship between issuing visa and releasing Ramin Jahanbegloo? Does Canada want to push Iranian regime to respect the human right? It is not the right way. Iranian regime doesn't care even if nobody gets visa.

An innocent Iranian Canadian professor goes to prison, a mother can’t come to see her child, and a student gives up her education. They pay the price of being-Iranian and… who cares?

I am sure that no Canadian has ever paid such a price for being-Canadian!

Filter

2006-05-18T22:41:00.001-04:00

My persian blog is banned by ministry of communication, which is main internet service provider in Iran. There is a committee in this ministry which its members determine which site or weblog must be banned. They have an intelligent software for filtering. This software gives a list of blogs with more than 200 visitors in day. if the blog has sexy or political context, its address must be banned by all ISPs.
The only manual thing that they do before banning weblogs, is taking famous weblogs out of list. AS I am not such a famous Persian blogger and as I don't want to loose my visitors from Iran, I changed my blog address.
This is not the first time. My Persian weblog got also banned last summer when I wrote objective posts about Ahmadinedjad's election.

Thanks to Mr.President!

2006-05-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

It is more than 27 years that most of Iranian's visa applications for United States get rejected. Many of talented students who are banned to go to American Universities choose Canada as e second chance. These days, thanks to Ahmadinedjad, our famous president, Canada has joined to U.S.A in rejecting applications of Iranian students. Today, my friend, who had an admission form Carlton University, was rejected by Canadian embassy. She was not the only one; 200 other applicants got negative reply, too. None of applications were even checked by embassy. The answer was "NO" regardless of their files.

Paradise Now

2006-05-12T23:37:00.000-04:00

Having watched the movie" paradise now" I am wondering who is right in this world. The movie follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv; the plot focuses on their last days together.
Before watching this movie I was sure doing such an operation could be the most stupid thing which someone can even think of that. Now, I don't know. I have never been in Said's shoes. I have never been prisoner in my own town as he was.

The movie is made by a Palestinian director, it doesn't say anything in designation of suicide bombing, it talks about life which could be so beautiful, without war, without occupation.

2006-05-08T17:47:00.000-04:00

Today, I have decided to start another English weblog. My last English weblog is here . My last post was written 3 years ago and as you see, my writing hasn't improved since then.
I am such a lazy person in English writing.
I really need to write better than this.

This blog, if I continue it, can be a good practice.