Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Photo Essay on Iran

You may like to take a look at these two Photo Essays:
Faces of Iran
Who are the Iranians?

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Arrest of Human Right Activists in Iran

Today, many of women right activists were arrested in front of the Revolution court in Tehran, I.R. Iran. They were there to show their objection to the the recent rush of illegal activists' arrests, but instead of being heard, they were arrested!

I copy the complete news from Azadeh Pourzand's blog post here.


Iran-Emrooz,Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 04, 2007
http://www.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/news1/12208/

50 of the women's rights movement activists were arrested in front of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

The security police forces attacked a peaceful gathering of women's rights activists that had taken place at 8:30 am in front of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran in objection to the recent governmental oppressions and the summoning of some of these activists. The police forces who used violence to scatter the crowd, arrested at least 21 of the protesters.

According to the report published by Advar News, the list of the arrested is as follows:

Asieh Amini, Jila Bani Yaghoub, Mahboubeb Abbasgholizadeh, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Sara Loghmani, Zara Amjadian, Mariam Hossein Khah, Jelveh Javaheri, Niloofar Golkar, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh, Maryam Mirza, Saghar Laghayee, Khadijeh Moghaddam, Saghie Laghayee, Nahid Keshavarz, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Nasrin Afzali, Tal'at Taghinia, Fakhri Shadfar, Maryam Shadfar, Elnaz Ansari, Fatemeh Govarayee, Azadeh Forghani, Sommayeh Farid, Minoo Mortezayee, Sara Imanian.

Nooshin Amhadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari and Susan Tahmasebi—five prominent members of the women's rights movement—who had to attend their court hearing left the court session in support of their fellow activists. They, too, got arrested upon their departure from the court.

The police officers hit Nahid Jafari's head to the police van and as a result of such violent actions, her teeth broke and the officers are currently refusing to take her to the emergency room.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

An Old Phenomenon Regarding the Human Nature

It is almost a shame that I haven't written here for this long time.
I was a bit lazy, crazy, and even dizzy lately!

What can I write here?
Let's talk about a funny phenomenon I have observed recently. But before going on, I should warn you that this post is just a grumbling!

OK! The phenomenon is this:
"If someone needs you, you can see her/him almost every few hours. If s/he doesn't need you anymore, well, you are often forgotten".

There is a guy and his wife in our school who came in the town in the last September. At that time, he felt lonely because he didn't know the place, people were not so helpful for him, and anyway, he needed someone to talk, and get advice.
That's completely alright. I helped him a bit, talked with him a few times a week, and after a while, I invited him and his wife to join me for watching a movie, or going to dinner.
After a few months, his wife returned to their own country, and he became lonelier than ever. This forced him to keep in touch with me more often, and the result was simply that I spent most of my time with him.
I must note that I am a person who likes to be lonely most of the times. I don't like other peoples bother me so much. Also I do not like to accompany an individual (even if she is a girl!) for a long time. I need breaks, I need to meet new people and situations, and then come back to old guys.
However, I felt that I can tolerate this situation and at least eat most of my lunches, and dinners, and drink all my coffees with him. Moreover, I almost always invited him for any program I had for my weekends (which usually is just going to a theatre or having a dinner).

Yesterday, we were sitting in our cafeteria and talking about "scientific" subjects. His phone rang and he started talking with some person. During his phone call, he was arranging a meeting for going to a theatre (the one that we always go) for some specific time. After his phone, he smiled and continued his stupid discussion! That was astonishing for me, since I thought if I have invited some person for every program I had for two or three months, it would have been fair to anticipate being invited for the same kind of things. However, it seems that he'd founded some other person to accompany him, and well, there is no other reason for thinking about you! Damned utilitarianist.

I am not a chauvinist (or I believe I am not!), but I feel a strong correlation between where he was raised and this attitude: you gain something from this person, gain it. You can a gain a better thing from other person, go after him.

This is not all of the story though! In the recent few weeks, I sometimes spent my time in another place in the university. So, he couldn't find me anytime he liked. This resulted in his odd reaction which was complaining about my whereabouts and suggesting that I look suspicious. This behavior makes me so angry! Who does anybody think s/he is that s/he can ask such a stupid question from me? I have the freedom to be anywhere I like, without telling anybody beforehand or afterward. I can tolerate these kinds of comments for the first three or four times, but it is annoying for me if I hear it four times a day, and for a two continual weeks. I am tempting to reply him back with something like "I don't care if you ask such a thing from your wife (though I think you shouldn't), but you cannot ask me such a stupid question!".

Invading Iran

For those who dream invading Iran, may your dreams become a nightmare!