Monday, July 28, 2003

Nine of the university students are sentenced to 21 years in prison. Saeed Mortazavi, the Prosecutor General of Tehran, has told one Amery's parents, one of the arrested students, to get ready for their son's funeral.

Thursday, July 24, 2003




Michael Totten: Sheema blogs about Iran, and it is well worth your time to read what she has to say.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Maman: I don't want them to open me up. Can you do some research and see what are the latest treatments for this and fax it to your brother or dad?
I: Sure. I will do the research and fax it!
Maman: I didn't want to take a bath in the hospital. I don't like it.
I: Why don't you stay at the hospital?
Maman: I can't. I can't let my life stop.
I: I love you.

Monday, July 21, 2003

Sunday, July 20, 2003

The baby had her fifteen months vaccination a few days ago.

Friday, July 11, 2003

Shahrzad Sepanlou's Azadi (Freedom) is a great song.



Thursday, July 10, 2003


Some Iranians are worrying about a repeat of 1953 coup? How? Why? Mullahs are not the late Shah, there is no Mossadegh in our political scene, people are different, the generation is different, we have no US-British backed army, it is a different time, it is a different century! The analogy of 1953 coup in the present time may very well be Rafsanjani's conspiracy to sweep power, not US staging a coup or invading Iran. Furthermore, the only people who really talk about US invasion of Iran are Iranians! No US administration official has ever indicated such desire. US media have only weakly entertained such possibility on slow news days when they have absolutely nothing else to talk about. When we say Iranians would have loved Bush had it not been for the imminent US military invasion of Iran, what we are really saying is that those Iranians have largely made up a reason to hate US otherwise they would have loved not only US but George Bush! I know the claim I am going to make may provoke a lot of anger but I say it anyways. Putting some State Department statements aside, US has pursued a very idealistic policy towards Iran, a policy well in line with what US would like to be known for and stand for. And that ideal is spreading revolutionary liberal values of freedom and pursuit of happiness in a region of the world where tyranny and indulging in sadness has become a way of life. If Iranians would really like to love the US and embrace western democratic values, now is the time to cast aside conspiracy theories and seize the opportunity, because US idealism, whatever the cause is, may not last long.

What we all have seen from the 1979 revolutionary generation points to anything but tolerance. How many really cared about prosecution of the Bahá'í community in Iran? Didn't MKO and communists applaud execution of army and intelligence officers? Didn't communists applaud execution of MKO? And didn't everybody else applaud oppression of communists? What would we have thought about a nation, say in Africa, with such a dark contemporary history? Would we call those people tolerant?

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Islamic vigilantes seized three student leaders. There have been many small groups of pro-democracy students around Ferdosi University in Mashehad.


Sunday, July 06, 2003

My husband and I took the baby for her first swim. She is 15 months now. I know my parents took me for my first skiing lessons when I was 3 years old and maybe younger than my baby when I was taken for my first swim. I loved being on my dad's shoulders, jumping in the waters of the Caspian sea. I was 2. My husband says our daughter may not remember her first swim but she will cherish her mom to the end of universe and back.


Thursday, July 03, 2003

Iranian youth are on hunger strike, some 8000 students are arrested and unknown numbers are kidnapped in broad day light.

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Students still on hunger strike. More than 8,000 students have been arrested during demonstrations against the ruling clerics.