Sex in Ayatollah's country
Saturday, January 31, 2009
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If, as the poet Philip Larkin observed, sex began in 1963, it has finally reached Iran over the last year.True, girls and women can still be imprisoned for going out without proper Islamic dress. But young people are completely redefining such dress so it heightens sex appeal instead of smothering it.
Women are required to cover their hair and to wear either a chador cloak or an overcoat, called a manteau, every time they go out, and these are meant to be black and shapeless. But the latest fashion here in Shiraz, in central Iran, is light, tight and sensual.
''There are some manteaus with slits on the sides up to the armpits,'' said Mahmoud Salehi, a 25-year-old manteau salesman. ''And then there are the 'commando manteaus,' with ties on the legs to show off the hips and an elastic under the breasts to accentuate the bust.''
Worse, from the point of view of hard-line mullahs, young women in such clothing aren't getting 74 lashes any more -- they're getting dates.
''Parents can't defeat children,'' Mr. Salehi mused. ''Children always defeat their parents.''
And that's what Iran's baby boomers, a wave of 18 million people 15 to 25 years old, are doing. They will transform their country, just as baby boomers in the West changed America and Europe. I don't think Iran's theocracy can survive them, for I've never been to a country where young people seem more frustrated.
The regime's problem is that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini exhorted Iranians to have more children, and they responded -- today, 60 percent of the country's population was born after his Iranian revolution. And these young people are determining social mores and carving out a small zone of freedom for themselves.
In one sense, the relaxation in clothing requirements is superficial, and some Iranian women have scolded me for asking them about head scarves when they are more angry about discrimination in divorce, child custody and inheritance rules. But the clothing rules affect every woman every day and raise the central question in Iran's future: should a few aging male mullahs still determine the most basic and intimate elements of every Iranian's life?
From that vantage point, it looks to me as if the revolution is sputtering. The mullahs are refusing to accept real democracy, but they are giving in to popular pressure in some areas. The draft is immensely unpopular among young men, for example, so this year the hard-liners shortened the service requirement. More important, individual Iranians are reclaiming their individuality and their autonomy -- and how they dress is the best measure of that.
The morals police no longer order women to cover up stray hairs. These days, the fashion is for brightly colored, glittery see-through scarves, worn halfway back on the head.
''It's possible head scarves will be gone in another year or two, the way things are going,'' said Amir Suleimani, a scarf salesman in the Tehran Bazaar. ''God willing.''
No wonder conservative newspapers in Tehran denounce Iranian women for strolling around ''nude.''
The baby boomers include Saghar Tayebi, a 17-year-old in Isfahan who wore a tight manteau with high slits, embroidered jeans and a red headband. Her mascara was hefty and her lipstick bold, and her sleeves were rolled up to reveal lots of bracelets. Lots of hair escaped her scarf. But when I asked her whether she dreamed of wearing Western-style skimpy clothing, she looked aghast.
''We totally reject that,'' she said indignantly. ''We don't want that freedom.''
Conversations with young people like Saghar suggest that youths want to remain good Muslims, and that some are happy enough in an Islamic republic -- but that, above all, they want to laugh and love. Many are not overtly political, nor sure exactly what kind of government they want, but they do know that this isn't it.
''We want fun,'' declared Tannaz Haj Hosseini, a 20-year-old university student who was out with her boyfriend in Tehran. ''There's no joy here.''
I protested that her nail polish and see-through scarf -- not to mention the boyfriend -- underscored the progress in Iran. A few years ago, she would have been lashed
''I don't compare myself with 10 years ago,'' she said. ''I compare myself to what I could have and don't.''
Ayatollahs, look out
posted by Goftaniha @ 4:12 PM,
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Iran asks Japan to pay for oil with yen, not dollars
Monday, January 26, 2009
Iran has asked Japanese oil wholesalers to pay for their oil purchases in yen instead of dollars, which are currently used for most transactions, industry sources said Saturday.
The request by the National Iranian Oil Co. is believed to be part of Iran's efforts to increase oil transactions denominated in currencies other than the dollar to avoid a possible seizure of its assets by the U.S. government amid tensions over its nuclear development program.
The Iranian state-owned oil company sent letters to Japanese oil wholesalers requesting them to pay in yen, the sources said, adding some companies received such requests through trading houses.
"We have yet to decide how to respond," said an official at one wholesaler. "We cannot find any advantage in switching to yen-based transactions."
Late last year, Iran sounded out Japanese oil firms about switching their payments to the yen or the euro, the sources said.
Tokyo has been reducing its Iranian oil imports amid the nuclear standoff. Still, Japan imported about 28 million kiloliters of crude oil from Iran, which accounted for about 11 percent of Japan's total oil imports, in 2006.
Tehran has refused to halt its uranium enrichment program, despite the threat of U.N. sanctions, saying it only wants to produce electricity. The U.S. accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran has already taken other measures to reduce its dependence on the U.S. currency. Earlier this year, Tehran announced it had started pulling its foreign currency accounts out of European banks to protect its assets from possible sanctions.
posted by Goftaniha @ 9:36 AM,
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Israeli claim: Iran elite forces killed in Gaza War
Friday, January 23, 2009
The Israeli sources said the military killed an unspecified number of advisers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the 22-day war with Hamas, which ended on Jan. 18. They said the IRGC officers helped the Hamas regime and Islamic Jihad fire BM-21 Grad rockets from urban areas."We believe there were dozens of IRGC personnel in the Gaza Strip during the war," an Israeli source said. "Some were killed; others went into hiding, and others escaped."
The sources said IRGC sent officers to the Gaza Strip to help Hamas improve the range and accuracy of missiles and rockets. IRGC was also authorized to help establish facilities to produce the Grad and other extended-range Katyusha-class rockets in the Gaza Strip.
posted by Goftaniha @ 4:11 PM,
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Israel: Hamas killing Gazan children
Monday, January 19, 2009
An Israeli government spokesman says Hamas has been killing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip to make the Israeli army look bad.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said in a BBC interview that it is not clear how many of the children killed in Israel's military offensive on Gaza "were killed by Israeli forces, how many were killed by Hamas forces."
Regev made the remarks when asked whether he was personally "proud" with the outcome of the war on Gaza considering the massive number of civilian casualties in the densely-populated area.
Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 to put an end to rocket attacks against southern Israeli towns.
Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of the coastal region, demands a cessation of the Israeli blockade before its fighters suspend rocket attacks.
At least 1,300 Palestinians have been killed and some 6,000 others have been reported wounded. According to Gaza medics, 411 of the dead are children and 98 are women.
Regev's response prompted a shocked Gavin Estler, the News Night presenter, to ask him, "You are not serious that Hamas is killing Palestinian children, are you?"
The Israeli spokesman responded, "I am a 100 percent very serious and this has been documented and I am sure more information will be coming out. And we have no doubt that Hamas ordinance was responsible for many of the deaths."
He added that the Israeli military is convinced that "a large number of civilian casualties were caused by Hamas."
Regev said if a "sustained period of quite" follows the military campaign in Gaza, Tel Aviv would consider the operation as "a job well done."
posted by Goftaniha @ 11:40 PM,
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Alavi Foundation and the Iranian regime’s web of influence in US
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization of the Pahlavi Foundation founded by the Shah of Iran in the 1970s. The Foundation constructed an office tower at 650 Fifth Avenue, New York, which was financed by a substantial loan from Bank Melli Iran a state-owned bank in Iran. The loan was later changed to a %40 share in the ownership of the building.
As the federal agents are looking deeper into the activities of this foundation, the Iranian community wonders if the time has finally come to examine and scrutinize the Iranian regime’s activities in the US. For almost three decades, Alavi has granted tens of millions of dollars to groups and individuals in the US.
For example, in the past 3 years, this Foundation has granted several hundred thousands of dollars to Rutgers University’s Hooshang Amirahmadi operation. Amirahmadi is the president of Middle Eastern Studies in Rutgers. Interestingly, he also founded the American Iranian Council in 1997 and launched a large scale lobby and campaign to lift the pressure off the Iranian regime. Meanwhile, Amirahmadi also bid for the Iran’s presidency.
In November 2008, Amirahmadi traveled to Tehran and demanded increased support from the government. Openly and unequivocally he admitted to lobbying for the Iranian regime. He told the Iranian governmental newspaper Etemad , taken by Emrooz, Nov. 12, 2008 ( Persian ) .
There is clash between various regional [Middle East] lobbies. Israelites will fast gather around Obama. Arabs will also spend their money to get close to Obama. Unfortunately, Iran is very lonely in Washington, and those few, like us, who defend the Iranian rights, are subject of unkind hostility in Tehran. These gentlemen [in Iran] do not truly understand what they do, and how they weaken our position. As a result the field is left wide open for Israelis and Arabs and enemies of Iran. Firstly, Iran should realize that, and empower its friends in Washington, especially in the next one to two months, which is the time [to do it].
Iranian leaders should pay attention to what is going on, and strengthen their friends. They [Iranian leaders] should have confidence in, energize, and trust their friends [in Washington] so they enter the arena. This is very important. Therefore the next two or three months are the time to conquer Obama’s heart and mind and that of his teams. Anyone who acts faster will rest trouble free for the next 8 years. Anyone who does not go to that bazaar [marketplace] now, will have a tough time entering that bazaar in future.
posted by Goftaniha @ 6:32 PM,
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From her lips to God's ear: The fury of a bereaved Palestinian mother captures evil of Hamas in Gaza
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The collateral damage that has been inflicted on the residents ofGaza is a sorrowful consequence of living under the rule of rocket-firing fanatics. It is because of Hamas, and only Hamas, that Palestinians are suffering.At least some of them know the identity of their tormentors. A New York Times dispatch captured an excruciating moment that took place in a hospital morgue, where a mother had just found half of the body of her 17-year-old daughter.
"May God exterminate Hamas!" screamed the woman in crystal-clear understanding that the terrorist band's reckless, inhuman actions had brought death to her child.
There will likely be more tragedies as Israel presses an assault on Hamas by air and, now, on the ground. Each will trace to Hamas' refusal to desist, once and for all, from raining rockets onto Israeli soil. And, perversely, each will increase pressure on Israel to stand down prematurely.
Calls for a truce have mounted with the European Union, the secretary general of the UN, Arab countries and others urging both sides to come to an immediate ceasefire.
Both sides? Let's start with one: the bad actor.
All the world knows that Israel would give up the fight in the event Hamas stopped firing and agreed to verifiably disarm. Those terms are both the short-term fix and the long-term solution that the international community should be demanding.
Lacking either one, Israel is waging a high-risk, highly skilled operation to destroy Hamas' capacity to lob missiles at will into Israeli territory, some with a range of 25 miles. The group's arsenal is formidable.
More than 3,000 rockets hit Israel in 2008. More than 500 have struck since Hamas ended a "truce" on Dec. 19. And, 10 days into the offensive, Hamas was still able yesterday to fire several dozen, including one that blasted an empty kindergarten.
The weapons stores must be dismantled and Hamas' supply routes - tunnels into Gaza from Egypt - must be shut, with oversight to prevent Hamas from rearming. Israel and the U.S. are properly seeking such terms.
Hamas' unending barrage had forced hundreds of thousands to live in fear, yet the onslaught drew barely a fraction of the outrage now directed at Israel's exercise of self-defense.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy went so far as to say, revoltingly, that Israel had hurt the cause of peace in the Mideast by sending ground troops into Gaza. There had been no peace - and there will be no peace until Hamas lacks the will and/or the way to attack.
Given no choice but to push in that direction, the Israeli military has done an extraordinary job of targeting Hamas fighters and arms in crowded environments - while holding down civilian casualties. It is up against demented enemies who sacrifice their own people.
posted by Goftaniha @ 7:13 PM,
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DO NOT LET THIS BEAUTIFUL SOUL BE EXECUTED BY THE ISLAMIC REGIME IN IRAN!
posted by Goftaniha @ 10:05 AM,
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The Author
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi . Phd
My name is Amir Farshad Ebrahimi ,I was born in Gholhak(north of Tehran), I am a freelance broadcast journalist and a blogger.I have written many articles and blog posts related to Iranian politics. I have been working with an American organization as a consultant on Iran's human rights issues and against radical fundamental groups since 2005. This blog on Iran's politics, culture, and human rights news is designed to inspire young Iranians. I hope to one day return to my homeland, Iran. I have written (Persian) can be found under: www.goftaniha.org
About This Blog
This blog is a on Iran, Political and pop culture, art, and Human Rights. Its purpose is to inspire creativity by sharing links and resources. Albert Einstein said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources,” but what the hell did he know anyway? The site was conceived by Farshad , like all good ideas, while goofing off at work.
Contact me
Very Very easy Send Mail To : afebrahimi[at]journalist[dot]com
Good Bye & Good luck !
