Shean Penn's Letter to GW

It is really great:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/an-open-letter-to-the-pre_b_44172.html
"You want to rattle sabers toward Iran now? Let me tell you something about Iran, because I've been there and you haven't. Iran is a great country. A great country. Does it have its haters? You bet. Just like the United States has its haters. Does it have a corrupt regime? You bet. Just like the United States has a corrupt regime. Does it want a nuclear weapon? Maybe. Do we have one? You bet. But the people of Iran are great people. And if we give that corrupt leadership, (by attacking Iran militarily) the opportunity to unify that great country in hatred against us, we'll have been giving up one of our most promising future allies in decades. If you really know anything about Iran, you know exactly what I'm referring to. Of course your administration belittles diplomatic potential there, as those options rely on a credibility and geopolitical influence that you have aggressively squandered worldwide."

This is an interesting website:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Marjaneh Satrapi's interview

Click on the title. I disagree with her on many points, but she is right about a few essential one. I strongly recommend reading her interview. One great thing about Ms. Satrapi is her emotional honesty. She talks about events and people without justifying their actions or reactions. Her books Persepolis I & II are not about historical facts; they are story of a middle class Iranian family during a turbulent time. As a reader I do not use her testimony to judge, but to understand. That is what makes her remarkable as a writer.

http://dir.salon.com/story/books/int/2005/04/24/satrapi/index.html

For All Doctoral Candidates ABD

Good Luck People, these are the days and smile and check the cartoon is from: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

A Conference in DC "Portugal, the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia"

"Portugal, the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia"
Conference
Sept. 8-9, 2007
Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery of Art
On the 500th anniversary of Afonso de Albuquerque’s attempts to take Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Iran Heritage Foundation have organized a conference that will focus on the contacts of the Portuguese with Safavid Persia and various aspects of their activities in the Persian Gulf basin.

As part of an exploration of the wider contacts of Portugal with Asia, Africa and South America, the Freer and Sackler Galleries will commemorate this important historical moment with a series of exhibitions in the summer of 2007 entitled "Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries."

This quincentennial is also the occasion for a conference on Portuguese relations with the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia between 1500 and 1700. The meeting aims to examine various aspects of the activities of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf basin and their interaction with other forces in the region, Safavid Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Arab principalities around the Gulf’s littoral, India and rival European merchants active in the area.

Topics to be discussed include sources and historiography, mutual perceptions, trade, diplomacy and politics, missionary activities and cross-cultural exchange. Stay tuned for registration details at:
Iran Heritage Foundation
5 Stanhope Gate
London W1K 1AH
United Kingdom
TEL: +44 20 74934766
FAX: +44 20 74999293
EMAIL QUESTIONS TO: farhad@iranheritage.org

Exhibition opening Sunday, June 24 through Sept. 16 2007:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zotru6bab.0.ev6rhubab.kgqeopbab.6718&ts=S0230&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asia.si.edu%2Fexhibitions%2Ffuture.htm

Papers Free to Re-Appear

Tehran Court has lifted the bans on three daily papers. These are Shargh, Hammihan and Asia. Shargh was banned during last local elections and Hammihan daily was shut down on May 16, 2000. Both papers are close to Kargozaran Sazandegi, a technocrat party, and Hashemi Rafsanjani’s supporters. Hammihan’s director is Mr. Gholam Hossein Karbaschi, former mayor of Tehran and a technocrat figurehead. Asia daily used to cover economic affairs. Judge Husseinian has lifted the bans and announced that all three papers are free to publish.

Iranians abroad and 300

I have not seen 300 but most of my friends did, from what I read about the movie and the comic book I have a general picture about it. This is not the movie that I want to write about since I have found overseas Iranians’ and Iranian-Americans’ reaction far more interesting. Iranian communities in the States have reacted to 300 by starting petitions and writing several articles (to read a few) condemning the movie as a biased misrepresentation of Persians, another move in a media warfare and another calculated step in a conspiracy against “Persians”. These allegations might be true; however this is not the only misrepresentation of Persians or Iranians in media.

Several articles that appear almost daily in media, documentaries and even movies all are doing a nice job of biased misrepresentation of Iranians. Not many reacted or react as strongly to them. Even certain groups benefit from such misrepresentations and they themselves help media to produce such biased material. Then why 300 has attracted so much attention?

During last three decades many Iranians abroad have been introducing themselves as “Persians” severing any connection to contemporary Iran, seeking security in an ancient identity that quite frankly many do not know what exactly it was. Iranians abroad have avoided the negative externalities of Iran’s negative image in the media by considering themselves to be Persians. They consider themselves to be victims of another invasion and have washed their hands from Iran and its affairs. For them 300 is condemned since it soiled the image of glorious ancient Persia by imaging it as an imperial power and a massed army of untrained infantry coming to halt in front of 300 Spartans in a narrow pass by Athens. For them this is unforgivable.

To tell the truth, we are Iranians; our identity is based on two pillars of ancient Persia and Islam. In denying one and seeking refuge in another one there is no permanent peace. Ironically Persian Empire of Achaemenids was as much as a rival of west, represented by Greeks, as Islamic Republic of Iran is today. And to be honest for the sake of truth, many Iranians abroad are as illiterate about Achaemenids as they are about contemporary Iran. May be it is time to learn a few things about Iran. The pride is in knowledge not in battles, as an ancient nation we have won many and have lost many. Iranians outnumbered in Thermopolis but were outnumbered in Chalderan[1].

[1] Chalderan plain is located west of Tabriz where on August 23rd, 1514 an Iranian (Persian) army of 27’000 opposed an invading Ottoman army, numbered 200’000 armed with muskets and heavy artillery, 300 pieces of them. Iran’s cavalry and infantry were armed with spears, bows, swords and 1500 muskets and no artillery. Only 300 Iranian Cavalrymen survived the day.

An Unusual TV series

This is an awesome TV series, I hope PBS shows it sometimes soon, enjoy: http://www.cbc.ca/littlemosque/