Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, Memories, Sidewalk Lyrics on Apr 25th, 2011 4 Comments »
Nearly a century ago, a man by the name of Marcel Proust wrote of a particular Madeleine cake dipped in tea. The sweet, nostalgic taste leads the narrator to longingly recall having the treat as a child, and subsequently invokes involuntary memory. To me, that madeleine will always have to be the sandwich I get [...]
Posted in Generation-Go-Fuck-Yourself, Iranian Rose Garden, Memories on Apr 19th, 2011 10 Comments »
I always envied the white ones. So light … so free. The pale, white creatures standing in front of me at the check-in line, with the miniature, trim suitcases; with the sleek hand luggage the size of the backpack I carried when I was 5. Somehow, if the skin color went just a shade beyond [...]
Posted in Democrafascism, Generation-Go-Fuck-Yourself, Iran-Iraq War, Iranian Rose Garden on Feb 11th, 2011 2 Comments »
They may call us “children of the revolution”, but we are really children of war. I was born years after the revolution, but the war is what I remember well. I still remember those air raid sirens so well. As does anyone who lived those days and nights. So does this beautiful animation by Maryam [...]
Posted in Alfred Pennyworth, Iranian Rose Garden, People with brains on May 3rd, 2010 16 Comments »
I was meaning to write about Mohammad Bahman Beigi ever since I wrote the post on The New School. How ironic that he passed away this week, and Iranian blogistan is abuzz with the news of his death … and his life. Kalemeh writes of this departure: It was exactly a year ago when Mir [...]
Posted in Generation-Go-Fuck-Yourself, Iranian Rose Garden, Norouz on Mar 25th, 2010 7 Comments »
Symbols are the key. They have always been for us as Iranians, and with the birth of the green movement, our symbols have thrived. I’ve spent so long looking at this photo of Sohrab Arabi’s mother, because in this one photo, there are so many symbols to look at, there’s so much that might at [...]
Posted in Iran-Iraq War, Iranian Rose Garden, Islamic Nazis of Iran, The Death of Humanity on Feb 1st, 2010 13 Comments »
Asghar Hashemi is P.O.W who fought in the Iran-Iraq war. He was, for quite a number of years lost without any trace and his family feared the worse, thinking he had died. He was to reemerge years later, in a prisoner swap between Iran and Iraq. His son, Sourena Hashemi is now one of the [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, Sidewalk Lyrics on Nov 30th, 2009 5 Comments »
Yes, we are increasingly under the rule of a military industrial-complex. Yes, dissidents are killed, tortured, imprisoned, silenced. Yes, the traffic is horrible. The pollution worse. But sometimes, I think people forget that we are living too. We are getting married, divorcing, having children, laughing, eating, creating art, science, literature … Life goes on and [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, Sidewalk Lyrics on Nov 30th, 2009 8 Comments »
Saw this photo of Bahram Beyzaie at the Parvin Etesami festival and was mesmerized by his greatness. Wow. [on a side note: Who is Parvin Etesami? If you don't know her, I will briefly introduce her later.] Never one to remain fully silent, while accepting his award, he lamented the fact that it really belonged [...]
Posted in Generation-Go-Fuck-Yourself, Iranian Rose Garden, IRIB on Nov 25th, 2009 1 Comment »
“If there’s one author the mention of whose name is apt to cause an Iranian face to light up, it is Houshang Moradi-Kermani. He was born in Sirch Village near the city of Kerman in south central Iran in 1944. At the age of twelve, he left his village, first moving to Kerman and then [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden on Nov 3rd, 2009 10 Comments »
ٍEhsan Dadvar has a delightful account of the Iran Art Portico, which Mir Hossein Mousavi designed. The opening ceremony was April 2009, less than two months before the election. The building is the new center for Iran’s Academy of Arts. Check out his website for more great photos. Iran Art Portico Architect: Mir Hossein Mousavi
Posted in Heroes, Iranian Rose Garden on Nov 1st, 2009 10 Comments »
Two very important Iranians passed away this week. Their death however, was not headline news. It wasn’t plastered all over the media, inside or outside Iran. It was not mentioned a fraction of the times that the rumored illness of another Iranian was just a few weeks ago. Neither was ever involved in the Iranian [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden on Oct 30th, 2009 10 Comments »
This is from the weblog of Masoomeh Ebtekar, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Mohammad Khatami. To be able to picture this better, you need some info: aghdkonan refers to the actual religious and/or legal marriage ceremony. Sometimes, couples have that months before their wedding. For this ceremony, the couple can sit [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, Kids, madreseh on Oct 28th, 2009 5 Comments »
This is one of my favorite photos to come out of the euphoric pre-election gatherings … before it all turned into blood and savagery. The guy in the middle is holding a Mousavi poster. ——————————- This is a story about the Imam Reza junior high school in Mashad which is overseen by the Imam Reza [...]
Posted in Alfred Pennyworth, Beautiful Music, Iranian Rose Garden, Sidewalk Lyrics on Oct 14th, 2009 7 Comments »
A Lor tribesman from the province of Khuzestan. ————————– And then there are those places where beauty is abundant and the magnificence of the earth seems to come together in a spectacle of full proportion … but places which will remain forever sealed off from the glaring stare of the world. And maybe that’s not [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, The Illusionist on Oct 2nd, 2009 14 Comments »
Mashhad-s Ardehal is a small village in the township of Kashan, Iran. Legend has it that in 730 A.D., the people of Fin in Kashan sent a delegation to Medina, to the 5th Shia Imam, Imam Mohammad Bagher and asked him to lead their people. He in turn sent his son, Sultanali to the city [...]
Posted in Iran-Iraq War, Iranian Rose Garden, Kids, madreseh on Sep 24th, 2009 8 Comments »
(2005) The beginning of the school year is celebrated in Hajar Shahed junior high school, in Tehran with the mayor. ———————– Madreseyeh Shahed in Iran are schools which were changed or built after the war, to accommodate the children of war veteran and martyrs. I had the pleasure of going to one such school for [...]
Posted in Iranian Rose Garden, Kids, madreseh on Sep 23rd, 2009 17 Comments »
(These photos are from January 18th, during an even in Tehran called zangheh havayeh tazeh – ringing the bells for clean air) As I mentioned here yesterday, today is the first day of school in Iran. I have a new category called “madreseh” (school). I’m going to start featuring more stories and photos from school [...]