Recently I was interviewed by Tehelka. Here are three of those questions and my answers.

Q) After September 11 attack, often heard that people from Middle East and Asia are under suspicion in US and Europe? Do you feel so?
A) Yes. I do feel so when I go to the airport. Last month my husband, the director of a research center in Washington, D.C. was humiliated on the airplane and his safety was put in danger by the flight attendant. He could easily have been shot by US air marshals. But truth be said the United States is where we can voice our concern.

Q) How you evaluate the governments in Iran and US.
A) There is no comparison between the Iranian regime and the U.S. government. The Iranian regime commits crimes against its own people and supports terrorism around the world. The United States has a democratic government and if people are dissatisfied with one political group they have the chance to elect a different one four years later. When the U.S. committed war crimes in Abu Gharib prison in Iraq we did hear and read about it and people get convicted. The same doesn’t apply to the ruling regime of Iran.

Q) Lot of Iranian writers are now in exile? What is their contribution generally? Exile literature has any major role in total.
A) Exiled writers are contributing a lot, not only to the Persian literature but to the world literature as well. Exiled and immigrant writers and poets have, throughout history, had an important role to play in discovering new frontiers in articulating experience and finding new means of expressions. Think of Russian exiles like Marian Tsvetaeva or Josef Brodsky. Think of German exiles like Paul Celan. The same applies to Persian literature. Not many people might know the bright exiled Iranian writers now. But in time they will.

  

 

SHE

We sit in the car waiting for the chicken wings and carrot juice. She asks why we are born to die. I answer laughing at the fact she is 5 and I am 34 and neither have a clue. I tell her I don't know.

But I thought moms know everything.
Not everything! Dear!

  

 

Ahmadinejad: My Hero

Why some people say Hamid Dabashi has been wrong to invite Mahmud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University? I personally see it as Dabashi’s greatest contribution to his country of birth. In fact there should be more invitations send for each and every one of the regime psychopaths to come and speak their mind. With such media coverage more people will get to see the true nature of the regime and its representatives. While the Iranian ethnic and religious groups and political activists are arrested and executed and public hangings are the norm of the society, homosexuals are arrested, beaten, hanged, women are bruised emotionally and physically by their husbands and the society, and have no right to divorce or to their children after divorce, are buried up to their waist to be killed by stoning for whatever reason, we hear the regime representative say: "The freest women in the world are women in Iran and our people are the freest people in the world" and "We have no homosexuals in Iran."

  

 

An Iranian-Canadian has made one of the most successful short films of all times.

Iranian Times: The T-Shirt, a short film by Hossein Martin Fazeli, has enjoyed an exceptional success on the international stage. Since it's release a year ago, the film has been screened at 97 international film festivals, winning 30. A month ago the film was invited by Sundance Festival to participate in its selection process for 2007. On a related front, Sundance Institute has picked Fazeli as one of its candidates for the prestigious 2008 Sundance International Filmmakers Award.

  

 

Is Haleh Esfandiari the ambassador of Iran's PR group now?

Within fifty three days there have been seventy nine executions in Iran. Twenty seven of those were public hangings. Twelve of those broadcast on the Iranian TV and Haleh Esfandiari comes on the U.S. TV and tells us how polite and friendly the regime has been to her! Is she the ambassador of Iran's PR group now or she simply can’t care less to discuss prisoners, hangings, human abuses, and women's conditions in Iran.

  

 

این مکالمه قدیمی من و دختر کوچولو هست که تبدیل به نوشته یا شعر شده و در وازنا به چاپ رسیده. این شعر-نوشته ام رو دوست دارم.

  

 

Lemon Tree

There are white spots on my teeth now. I am still as sick with vomiting and nausea as I was many months ago. I am physically and emotionally exhausted. Back when I was pregnant with my little girl the sound of crickets, rain, and the smell of summer was driving me up the wall and now I can’t stand this city, and its conservative atmosphere. I want to have lemon trees in my house. I want to squeeze the leaves and have the scent ride on my fingers. I want the air to be spiced up with the smell of lemon and lime.

  

 

Is NIAC calling for a Jihad?


Ah! Who knows what comes next with these NIACies and the rest of these Iranian regime appeasers! Depending what they have had for dinner they wake up to a whole new horizon the morning after! I guess freedom of expression is limited to what they think is right or wrong and not what Freedom of Expression is about! In addition to these entire why do they speak on my behalf? They have so boldly spoken for each and every Iranian-American as if they really believe each and every Iranian-American supports their actions!

  

 

Yesterday

Despite my sever nausea and vomiting I managed to accompany my husband and our little girl on her first day of kindergarten. I was excited and smiling so big that my husband said it feels more like my first day of school. That’s true. I loved my first day of KG where as my husband had cried the whole day so that he could stay home and go canoe riding with his mom! Anyway back at home my day got better. I had received a box full of beautiful gifts from my poet-painter friend Katayoon Zandvakili. Ah, I was so excited that I felt I have my hands in a jar of cookies! To make my day even better -- and despite the fact I had my mouth and half my head hidden in a plastic bag while being driven-- I managed to meet Kellye Kathyrn Betancourt later that afternoon and saw her at home exhibition. The night ended while trying to answer my daughter’s question about the creation. I drew Creation versus Evolution on a napkin and she said she likes the Evolution theory more because of the monkeys but both theories seem interesting!