It is in the middle of the night. I woke up to feed my baby and then check my e-mails. There is a message to the members of humanrightcampaigns on Facebook. I check it and am surprised. There is mention of each and every regime, and crime on planet earth but not once a mention of Iranian regime and its crimes!


Are the crimes committed against Iranians by the current regime of Iran of less importance than petitioning for Orangutan friendly palm oil? Aren’t Iranian women’s sufferings as important as those in other countries? What about the genocide committed against Kurds in Iran, arrests of the Baha’is, and political activists? And let us not forget the public hangings, and stoning! Human Rights campaigns should be more than a fashion statement!

  

 

IRAN: Crimes Against Humanity



The twenty five year old Kaveh Azizpour, an Iranian Kurd and political prisoner was tortured and killed by the oppressive regime of Iran. Most political prisoners in Iran are marxist or other leftist elements, democrats, monarchists, and ethnic and religious minorities fighting for their human rights.

  

 

IRAN


I dedicate this posting to the memory of T.C. who passed away at the young age of 38 yesterday. Despite being born in Western Europe and having the advantage of living a luxurious life as an attorney, he chose to live and work in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.

Peace is a Dinosaur bone where democracy and human rights don’t exist, justice is not done, corruption is an everyday norm, the laws that treat women badly, ethnic and cultural cleansing, and citizens who are arrested and killed. For these and more, I blog today.

  

 

IRAN

I had promised a reader and supporter of NIAC to write why I think an Iranian lobby is a must in the United States. My reasons are simple. With an impressive national history and being one of the power players in the Middle East, Iran must have a lobby in the U.S. but not in the hands of the current Iranian regime. What credentials of people like Trita Parsi are?! He and his organization are playing a dangerous game. Human rights are not to be bargain with.

  

 

Victimising Khatmai equals Khatmai into making!


The overseas extensions of Islamic Republic in the U.S. (Abbas Milani, Trita Parsi, and Hooshang Amirahmadi) should be very happy these days. With the next presidency nominee, and Khatami in the game to secure the U.S. and Iran talk, they should start blowing in their trumpets! Let us not forget it was Khatmai's presidency which led to the deaths of many students and the arrest of many more.

  

 

SEVEN VALLEYS OF LOVE


I was born on a November day 1972 in a room on the third floor of Hashtroudian hospital in Tehran, Iran, nine months after my mother was assured by my father that yes, she didn't have to be a stay-at-home mom, and could continue her independent busy working life style.
Not the kind of information you were looking for? Okay, here is a more detailed one:

I wake each morning to the lovely sound of my few-months-old baby and with a body not fully recovered from the shock of an emergency c-section, I get ready to feed the now-all-screaming-up apple-pie. Once I am finished feeding, changing the diaper, rinsing my hands, and putting my contacts in, I go to wake up my daughter who asks for more time to sleep and I reply no!

Of course, while all of the above is exciting I should stay with the original plan which was to announce the release of my latest book. It is a bilingual anthology of women poets from Middle Ages Persia to present day Iran. I have translated and edited poems by Iranian born women of different ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds whose life in many ways has been a journey.

It goes without saying that Seven Valleys of Love makes an excellent every day gift for all of your loved ones! To learn more please visit publication info here and to order you can go here. I started the translation of these poems after losing my mother to breast cancer. I chose to work through my grieving period. Some donations will proceed to a breast cancer research center in Connecticut and copies of this anthology have made their way to public and university libraries. I also like to thank Ms. Pouran Farrokhzad for giving me the permission to use and translate a selection of Persian poems from Zanan-e Hamisheh, a contemporary anthology in Persian.

  

 

IRAN

Women's Rights Activists, Nasrin Afzali and Nahid Jafari, are sentenced to six months in prison and 10 lashes by whip.

  

 

NIAC launches new logo, amended mission statement to reflect growth? Yes! We are well aware of that!

Hossein derakhshan: “National Endowment for Democracy (NED)has awarded three grants to NIAC since its creation in 2002," the same people "whose successful lobby group tries to convince the Americans that the Islamic Republic is here to stay and the U.S. eventually has to acknowledge the reality of this sovereign, democratic state..."
And anyone who as much as questions Trita Parsi or the pyramid complex is either a MKO supporter, a financed Orientalist, a separatist, or needs MFA to write!

  

 

Signposts to Elsewhere is a succulent, stunning collection of images and thoughts more well-lit than the old swinging torches of the lamplighters. I find myself pausing everywhere among these wisdoms, wondering why the world stumbles and staggers through such a dark and greedy time when there are people alive with such keen, caring insight. If Yahia Lababidi were in charge of a country, I would want to live there.” – Naomi Shihab Nye