Happy Persian New Year - سال نو مبارک

Haft Sheen:  The 7 S..., a set of objects all starting with the persian letter Sheen

 

 

 

People in and from Iran, Kurdistan and Afghanistan celebrate the beginning of their new year today. By precise astronomical calculation it started already yesterday at 11:02 GMT, since astronomers calculated that at this very minute the duration of day and night is equal (vernal equinox).

For today, I'd only like to wish all Iranian people a happy Nowruz, hoping that 2572 will be the last year of a 34 years long period of political and intellectual oppression in their home country.

I will later today add an alternative calculation here proposing a more rational estimation of the precise timepoint of Nowruz.

Forough Farrokhzad: A Poet that fell silent too soon

Recently I was invited by a friend in Munich to a reading of poetry by an Iranian writer, who died much too young in 1967, only reaching 32 years of age. Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967) was the most famous woman in modern Persian literature. She was exceptionally in the sense that only an extremely small number of Iranian women have achieved anything outside of the home without dependence upon a relationship with a man or male patronage.

From the poems of Forough Farrokhzad, which Kianoosh presented this evening I remember the verses from "Another Birth"

   ... Life may be that cloistered moment  

     When my gaze comes to ruin in your pupils 

     Wherein there lies a feeling 

     Which I shall blend ...

During her short life, Forough not only wrote some of the most influential, beautiful and ever-lasting poetries of modern Persian literature, but she also became a proponent of childrens right, in particular for those from the poor families. Her engagement for the children being isolated and hospitalized for leprosis laid in her honest sympathy with those who are suffering. Unlike modern celebrities, who too often present themself in public with an alibi "social" project, Foroughs activites to help the children with leprosis came from her very personal desire to make the world a little bit better. From the movie "Moon, Sun, Flower, Play" by the German director Claus Strigel one can listen to Foroughs voice, hear how colleagues and friends remember this extraordinary woman and watch scenes from the street-battle preceding the Shahs dismissal and from the childrens leprosis hospital.

Iranian Nose Jobs can sabotage Eugenics

Dear Michael,

It is no secret that many Iranian woman do not value their impressive, arian noses very high. In contrast, they tend to follow a very questionable beauty picture that more and more seems to be coined by the Japanese manga figures. For them, a nose is merely anything more than a small ridge to hide the nostrils.
The historical form of Iranian noses, however, is impressive, and if an ancient myth is true that the nose is the main location of human character, than Iranians must have a lot of it (which I believe many of them will agree).

The more I regret that low self-esteem of Iranians when it comes to the shape of their facial “center of gravity”. Iranian woman try to raise their competetiveness when hunting for a good match on the vanity fair, and the men, beeing either the driving force behind this or the obidient donkey, really fall for this.

Here I will explaine to you (based on what I feel as a young woman and what I learned as a young geneticist) the short and the long term consequences of this:

1) In the short term, there will be a constant drop of beauty among Iranian woman, because more and more collect or borrow money to afford a “Nose Job”. So very soon, you will see less and less Iranian ladies whom their strong and proud character is logically located in an equally strong, sharp and expressive nose. We might be confused soon, that Iranians with strong self-esteem decline to western beauty standard, have their face irreversibly damaged only to fill the pockets of those medics, who as all their colleagues from other disciplines agree, are the least qualified ones to distinguish between health and disease, let alone to cure any real sick patient.

The Iranian woman who lost this attribute of an ancient, devine beauty, however, will in fact have better chances to catch a husband and have more children. That is what we know from natural selection of the fittest, which if we like or dislike, becomes the natural selection for the most attractive in the human population.

But, thanks to genetic laws, there is not only hope in sight, as I will explaine in the following, but in the long term these “Iranian Nose Jobs” even have the potential to rescue the Iranian Nose from becomming extinct by natural selection.

2)  Because on the long term,  of course, no plastic surgery can change the genetic code, that over hundreds of generations insured that Iranians, sometimes synonymously with the original Arian nation, where characterized by nice, sharp, impressive noses. No ordinary medic, let alone the half-educted plastic surgeons, have any clue where in the Iranian genome the key for nose shape is hidden, or how this could be manipulated.  So with the current genetic knowledge and the status-quo of molecular technologies, the real treasure of the Iranian nose is still hidden and safely deposited deep in our genome.  So even if all Iranians have their “noses done”, the next and all following generations still carry the fertile seeds to grow proper Iranian noses again.

But this is only half of the truths, the real excitement comes here:  Without plastic surgery, large Iranian noses could in fact become extinct due to genetic admixture from (Iranian x Non-Iranian) partnerships (introgressing the Small-Nose-Gene-Variant from East-Asian or US or Latin-Americans) followed by preferential marriages between the descendents inheriting the Small-Nose-Genes (and consequently growing these dwarf nose variants reminiscent of a Hobbit face). Over just a few generations, there would indeed undergo a natiural selection for the Small-Nose-Gene-Variants, resulting in irreversible loss of the Iranian noses.  But this, in fact, does not happen, thanks to the plastic surgeons and their messing up with the natural link between beauty, genes, and attractiveness.  By virtually “hiding” the real heritable Iranian Nose variant behind a fake, non-heritable small nose, natural selection can not take place any more.

So in the long term, nose jobs to Iranian woman might ensure that the real traditional Iranian nose shape with its distinct and impressive sharpness will always reappear in every new generation. In other words, the plastic surgeons who make money from nose-reducing operations to Iranians on the assembly line, carry out in fact a very efficient sabotage operation against eugenics.

The Empress and Me - Farah Diba in the eyes of an exiled Iranian Filmmaker

Nahid Persson-Sarvestani, a former activist of the student branch of the Tudeh party and in the late 70s among the demonstrators against Shah Reza Pahlevi, now lives in Sweden as a film-director. In her 3 parts documentary, she interviews Farah Diba, the last empress of Iran, who now lives in exil in Paris.

part 1

part 2

part 3

Farah Diba speaks with a broken voice, and Nahid Persson, although with a politically active background, seems to be more interested in the private life of the Shahs widow. The Shahbanou, however, is a professional when it comes to any media contacts. She only repeats the details of her life with the Shah, how they first met, how Reza Pahlevi asked her to become his wife - stories, she already told too often to be published in the yellow press. Sometimes, Farah Diba tries to shift the conversation more into a political and historical context, asking Mrs. Nahid Persson-Sarvestani on which side she was on during the 1979 revolution, the communists Tudeh people, or the peoples Mudjaheddin, or the violent islamists of the Fedajin. Persson apparently fears a clear confession at this point, since the blunt anti-Shah activities she was involved in prepared the ground for the most inhuman, hypocrite and stupid regimes ever seen in recent history: the so-called "Islamic Republic of Iran". So these two woman who 35 years ago were on opposite sites of the battle line in pre-revolutionary Iran, now find them self in exile, one in Paris the other in Stockholm, and both see with bitterness their lost dreams. If the two would be ready to give up their wounded pride, maybe they would find out how much in common they had in their youth. Both were dreaming of a modern and liberal society, with secular education, open to the rest of the world, liberated woman and social and economic prosperity. But each of the two, the aristocrats and the socialist, both were wrestling for leadership in this movement. And both were loosing everything. What arose after the Shah and his family had to leave in 1979, and the Tudeh for a short moment thought their triumph is in sight, was the worst nightmare of an extreme conservative, religious, anachronistic and brutal dictatorship of uneducated and corrupt Mullahs. The people of Iran have to suffer since 34 years under a totalitarian regime, that tortures, rapes, kills everybody who is not following its islamic hypocrisis and dares to question the political regime of the mullahs with their basidj thugs. It would have been nice to see in the documentary that both, Farah Diba and Mrs. Nahid Persson-Sarvestani would finally admit that the two blocks they belonged to, the progressive Tudeh party and the Shahs court, did a historical mistake by not finding a way to cooperate and anticipate how much their dreams had in common.

Thank you, Ninelia, for pointing me to this gem of political documentation.

Sur les sommets de l'Iran

Ghazal mon cher,

Un réalisateur suisse, un alpiniste iranien et un randonneur australien traversent d'ouest en est les majestueuses chaînes volcaniques de la République islamique. Dans cette première partie, du mont Ararat aux faubourgs de Téhéran, rencontre avec des nomades, des tisseurs de tapis, une championne de ski, seul membre féminin et porte-drapeau de la délégation iranienne aux JO de Vancouver en 2010, ainsi qu'une alpiniste qui s'est photographiée sans voile à huit mille mètres d'altitude dans l'Himalaya.

An unconditional love becomes political in todays Iran ("Circumstance" by Maryam Kesharvarz)

Dear Michael, you wrote some articles here at your blog and at Iranian.com about the modern Iranian cinematography. I'd like to add a movie by the young Iranian filmmaker Maryam Kesharvarz onto your list , called "Circumstances" ("Sharayet" in its persian original).

I saw it recently with friends who got it on DVD, since it is not yet shown in the movie-theaters in Sweden. The movie is about two girls who go to University and are like sisters in mind. The parents of Shirin, the more quiet of the two, were obviously killed by the regime for participating in political opposition. The family of Atafeh, however, is very well situated and rich, although not conformist. A brother of Atafeh, in the past supposed to start a career as musician, returns from a long absence and makes a completely brain-washed impression. Still loved by his mother and dad, he is depressed and drug addicted and finally only sees a way out his mental problems by devoting his life to Allah and becoming a servant of the regime. The main person of the movie, however, are the two girls Shirin and Atafeh, who are both full of dreams of a career as singers, in a liberal and free society. This clashes with both the opressive political regime in Iran, with the dogmatic situation at the college, but brings them also in conflict with Atafehs well positioned family. In one scene of the movie, during a family celebration where usually everybody contributes a song on the piano, Atafehs brother insist that the girls should not perform any more, since he considers this as anti-islamic. Trying to avoid any conflict, her family declines to the brothers hypocrism and recommends their daughter to stay silent. Atafeh and Shirin look for freedom of thoughts and more wild experiences by joining the Tehran party scene. When one of these illegal parties is raided by the regimes Basidj thugs, they both get arrested. Whereas Atafehs parents manage to bribe some of the police officers to get their daughter out, Shirin is kept for longer in custody and she is mentally tortured there. Atafehs depressive brother suddenly appears to work for the police. When he finds Shirin he offers her to work for her release, but only if she agrees to marry her. Throughout the entire film, however, it is obvious that Shirin and Atafeh are more than just friends, they are connected by a deep, mutual love. This love between the two girls is the source of all their strength, of their endless confidence that a better and free life will come and they will start a great music career together somewhere abroad. The film finishes undecided, without happy end. At one moment, Shirin declines to the possessory claims by her husband, Shirins brother. But it is clear that she is only suffering here. The unconditional love between the two girls serves as the big contrast to a society which is driven by anxiety, lies and hate. When Shirin and Atafeh are together, their honesty and love is like a glance into a better future of the country.

And this is what I red in the UK newspaper Guardian about this marvellous movie:

"Circumstance's strength is in the exuberance of Atafeh and Shireen, filled with adolescent fantasies of escape (and cringeworthy lad's mag-style fantasies of each other: all matching underwear and high heels) and their rebellious rush to dance, drink and break rules. At times the sensuous hair-flicking and the way the camera lingers on their beauty feels overdone and their interest in liberalism seems to extend only to their right to party. But the film frames their insistence on following their desires, whatever the consequences, as a powerful form of dissent; Atafeh tells a friend: "Here anything illegal becomes politically subversive." Set immediately before the protests of the Green movement swept through Iran, the film aims to show where the anger behind the demonstrations came from. "In Iran where the state controls your behaviour … they want you to dress a certain way, and not speak to people of the opposite sex in the street – of course the personal is political," explains Keshavarz, "in a more explicit way than anywhere else.""

Andrej Sakharov price for two Iranian prisoners

Hi Michael, I was happy to hear that the EU is not only very generous in finacially supporting our life-science research and keep our genetic and mutagenesis projects running, but they at the end also became aware of the human rights situation in Iran. They gave this years "Andrej Sakharaov Price for Freedom of Thought" to two Iranians who are imprissoned for their continous fight for intellectual freedom and against political oppression: film director Jafar Panahi and the lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. It was an important message by the Europeans, since many politically active Iranians were disillusioned by the West for its hypocrisis when it comes to Iran. The oppression of the Iranian people was often considered a minor issue for the West, who was more concerned Irans nuclear program.

Take Care

Ghazal

 

Omar Khayyam: Misinterpretation in the 20th century

Ghazal my Dear,

you might have asked why I wrote this recent critical post about an Indian guru (Yogananda), and why I suggested that a modern singer like Maryam Akhondy is a much better interprete of classical Persian poetry by Omar Khayyam. Here is an example of an original Omar Khayyam rubbayat and the silly Yogananda interpretation. Also, at the end of the post, don’t miss Nancy Sinatras song “You Only Live Twice”, and tell me if you see any similarity to Omar Khayyam.

Here is the Rubbayat No 41 from Omar Khayyam (1018-1113) Translated by E.Fitzgerald 1859)

AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

And here comes the

Keys To Meaning (Hic!!)  by Paramhansa Yogananda, (“Cristal Clear Publications” Hic!)

Morning — The dawn of awakening from delusive material existence.

Bowl of Night — The dark night of soul-ignorance.

Stone — Delusion-shattering acts of spiritual self-discipline.

Stars — Falsely attractive material desires.

Hunter of the East — Eastern wisdom, hunter and destroyer of delusion.

Sultan’s Turret — The kingly minaret of pride.

Noose of Light — The light of wisdom, which, like a lasso, haloes

Expanded Meaning  (For experts only !!)

Forsake delusion! Absorb into your innermost Self the calm light of wisdom.

Listen! your soul calls you to embrace a new adventure. As the sun travels from east to west across the sky, so does the light of civilization and of knowledge move across the earth. From the east comes Wisdom’s call: Awake! all you who sleep in ignorance.

What has pride brought you but melancholia and pain?—dark products of soul-ignorance. Dispel gloom forever: Abide from today onward in the light of inner peace.

What a rediculous attempt by this 20th century wanna-be spiritual leader to understand Omar Khayyams wunderful Rhubbayat. Since Yogananda has not the slightest clue of Omar Khayyams world of thoughts, his deep love for science, pure mathematics, astronomy, and his second love for wine, beauty and the attractions of woman, he can not do anything else than spoiling the clear language of Omar Khayyams rubbayat with “interpretations”.
Karl Marx, the great analytic of human society, would have called Yoganandas rediculous “Wine of the Mystic” the clearest example of “Religion as opium for the people”. But Marx died 10 years before Yogananda was born.

Omar Khayyam, this outstanding spirit of classical Persian poetry and science, did not only gave us the collections of rubbayats, but invented the binomial coefficients (important for combinatorial calculations), which in the west were attributed to B.Pascal.

Tomb of Omar Khayyam

Here is an interpretation of his rubbayat, that he would have definitely liked much more. It is the great song “YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE”, originally by Nancy Sinatra but this modern version by Bjoerk I like better .

In this 1967 title song for a 007 – James Bond movie one is indeed reminded of Omar Khayyams rubbayat. Read yourself, and build your own opinion. You don’t need a guru to understand this.

You Only Live Twice or so it seems,
One life for yourself and one for your dreams.
You drift through the years and life seems tame,
Till one dream appears and love is its name.

And love is a stranger who’ll beckon you on,
Don’t think of the danger or the stranger is gone.
This dream is for you, so pay the price.
Make one dream come true, you only live twice.
And love is a stranger who’ll beckon you on,
Don’t think of the danger or the stranger is gone.

Accelerating Evolution on Mars

Hello Michael, 

You have probably heard that last week a new mars rover landed succesfully on Mars surface, and how this event was enthusiastically wellcomed by NASA and the entire scientific community. It follows a long series of less brilliant failures to get a working mars robot up there, one that could produce more than just pretty pictures. This new mission of an explorer vehicle called "Couriosity" is officially intended to test the existence of lower forms of life on our neighbor planet. For this purpose, "Couriosity" carries on board a couple of sophisticated devices, some that can take samples from mars' surface or from deeper layers of the ground in order to apply sensitive detection methods for organic molecules, considered to be exclusively produced by living organisms. I am wondering if they are looking there for a sort of blood stains, or some traces of blond hair or spit-out chewing gum.

What makes this new Mars exploration so special (for me as a radiation biologist) is the fact, that the rovers energy supply comes from about 5 kg of plutonium 235, providing 120 W electric energy for at least five years. Thats fine, I would say from an engineers point of view, and I would also like to drive my old Benz with this sort of low-emission, low-cost and low-maintenace type of fuel.

But the radiation-biologist in me (and I hope you agree somehow) has to wonder about the long term consequences of 5 kg plutonium, a potent alpha emitter, if it comes to its mutatgenic effects on living organisms. Assuming the plutonium is accidentally released from the mars rover and evenly spread over the hypothetical mars ecosphere,  it would cause a tremendous rise of the mutation rate in all cells, whether low prokaryotes or in higher and multi-cellular creatures like plants or animals or anything else in between. This means the 5 years mission of the man-made Mars rover will not only explore the presence of live on Mars, but if there is any, it will also drive evolution by increasing the number of new mutants. So scientists will not only be the silent observers, but active players of an extra-terrestrial evolution of life.

I am afraid, that with this man-made mutation burden, the mars creatures will indeed soon look like those in Tim Burtons "Mars Attacks". But for this, we have to blame nobody else than ourself.

I am more than worried now looking up the sky at night. There are not only beautiful meteor showers and the romantic moon, but from now on there might also be a laboratory of accelerated evolution on mars.

Take Care, yours sincerely
/ghazal

75 political prisoners from Evin received pardon

Dear Michael,
You wrote last year about the imprisonment of Bahar Hedayat, who while beeing in the notorious Evin prison send such a wunderful letter to her husband. Somebody from the Iranian community told me today that 75 political prisoners from Evin have been granted pardon, probably in occasion of the end of ramadan, which the Iranian regime likes to exploit to demonstrate a certain degree of “clemency”. Do you know by chance if Bahareh Hedayat is among those who were released ?   If so, you should up-date your Evin-Rosetta website.

Hope that everything is fine with you. That you have a great summer in Munich and that work is fine.
I am fine. Just started my 2 weeks holidays. will travel with some friends so I am looking forward to it.
My phD is good. i like having students. almost 2 years have passed from my research. feels that a lot of time passes but not much gets done. but guess it is always like that.

So you are going to Israel, when will you go?
Yes it is stupid that you have to get a new passport to go to Iran! But what to do.

Take care!!
/ghazal

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

Ghazal my Dear,

Thanks a lot for writing, and thanks for forwarding this great news. In fact, I don’t care so much what was the intentiomn of the Tehran authorities when they gave pardon to 75 Evin prisoners. I doubt they did it for any philantropic reason. I’m sure they did it because they felt pressure, either from their own people who more and more show unease with the hypocracy of the regime, or maybe there is some battle within political system, and hopefully even the international pressure to make public the unjustice in Tehran contributed to this development. I doubt that the website I set up last year (evin-rosetta.persian-cat.de) had a measurable effect, since I received very little response through the internet community.

The first prisoner, for whom I collected many translations of her letter, was indeed Bahareh Hedayat. I did not found her on the list of the prisoners who received a pardon now. I think I have to inquire about her. But at least one of the political activist about whom I wrote, Mehdi Koukan, was released now.

We will leave for Israel today in a week. I go with mixed feelings, considering the stupid speech by Ahmadenijad, where he repeated his prospect of destroying Israel.

I hope you are well up, and wherever you spend you vacations, you can relax.

Take Care

Michael

Omar Khayyam -- brought into music by Maryam Akhondy

On the occasion of the finissage of the "Servus and Salam - an insight to Iran" exhibition here in Munich, the great music singer Maryam Akhondy with her ensemble Barbad gave a concert in the Maximilian church. A strong voice, for which the term Diva would be approbiate, also she is anything else than diva-like. Her music and her very special kind of humor for me was the only valid interpretation of the Omar Khayyams poetry. When I read his rubbayat (naturally in the famous english translation by Fitzgerald) I was always touched by the wisdom, fine lyrics and human feelings that emanate from them. A very free author, great scientist, amazing spirit and precise observer put down in words how he saw his life, the pressure from the society, his love for beauty and for human desires, and all this about one thousand years ago in a poetic language that seems very clear, not modern, but of an ever lasting diction.

A while ago, however, I started to worry, if my unconditioned excitement by Omar Khayyams poetry might be the result of a very naiv misinterpretation. A friend of mine, a persian book-seller and philologist recommended to read Paramahansa Yogananda "The wine of the mystic", in which the author claim to provide the only valid interpretation (or better called decryption) of Omar Khayyams rubbayat. So for each 4-line rubbayat, Yogananda writes about 3 pages interpretation. Already in the introduction, the authors warns us that each time that Omar Khayyam mentions "Wine", he refers to the "Divine Spirit". Similarly, when Omar Khayyam writes about "Love to Girl", Yogananda wants us to believe that this means nothing more than "Love to the divine spirit". For me, this so-called spiritual interpretation of Omar Khayyams rubbayat is nothing more than a violent misinterpretation, a unsuccesful attempt to clear his most beautiful, human and real eternal poetry of all value and of all its real spirit. Yoganandas book is a bad example of the attempt to misuse a former great piece of literature for religious hypocracy, be it christian, islamic or this yoga-guru style of Yogananda (he later founded an organisation of Self-Realization Fellowship, which in my view is a religious cult like a million others, with the ambition to be in possession of the final truth). Eventhough I immediately developed a strong antipathy for this "modern" spiritual interpretation of Omar Khayyams lyrics, there was one strong argument. Yogananda was able to read Omar Khayyam as the original persian text, therefore claiming that his spiritual interpretaion is more authentic than the secular western ones (beginning by the english translation of Fitzgerald and later by the german version of Rosen). Yogananda complained that all western readers simply valued Omar Khayyam by the wrong idea that he praises love, wine and the beauty of the world in the way we used to do it in the west. Unfortunately, this was a strong argument, although for Yogananda Persian was a foreign language as well. It might even be that he did his "modern-spiritual" interpretation based on Fitzgeralds english translation as well, rather than reading the original text. Yogananda spoke hindi, and there are quite many similarities betwenn Hindi and Persian, two indo-european languages.

But to my greatest relieve, Maryam Akhondy, a true persian, a modern singer, a woman that does not need to attract followers like a guru, she obviously interpreted Omar Khayyam, one of the greatest representatives of classical persian poetry, in the same modern and human manner as I intuitively read his rubbayat. For me, Maryam Akhondys songs are the only valid interpretation of Omar Khayyam, but for the best and dedicated readers, his poetry is completely self-explained. Omar Khayyam does not need gurus (like Yogananda) who try to build an ideology around his beautiful and clear lyrics.

Persian Mojito

Hello Michael, didn't you always tried to convince me that alcoholic drinks (at least in small quantities) are an integral part of civilisation and culture, and that I should not be so reluctant in sipping at least on your glas, when you ordered one of these various types of drinks and cocktails ? I think I was not ready then, and honestly I am still the one driving everybody home after a party, since I always stay dry. But this has little to do with a fundamental refusal of alcoholic drinks, it is simply a personal dislike of its taste, and the observation that alcohol abuse here in Sweden is a major social and health issue. But I am very much aware that wine and spirits were always part of human civilisation and part of the culture heritage. This came to my mind yesterday, when we visit a family of friends of my parents. They served a very delicious, traditional iranian drink called "Doogh". I liked its taste a lot, and when I asked the lady of the house how it is made, she took me to her kitchen and showed this very simple recipe. She took some ice cubes, lime juice, peppermint-leafes, a large portion of joghurt, mixed it all well up and filled it up with gased mineral water (look here, I made a photo of a glass Doogh for you).

Watching how she prepared the different ingredients so carefully, I experienced a sort of deja-vu. I couldn't help myself, but had the feeling that someone already shown me this recipe some time ago. And than it struck me like a sudden heureka: This was so similar to another summer drink that you had shown me several times in Munich, and I think was called Mojito. Just instead of Joghurt, you used to add white rum, right ? So when I proposed to the other guests at this afternoon, to call "Doogh" the "Persian Mojito", a loud and general discussion started about what was first. Some even asked to better call "Mojito" the "Western Doogh". Sometimes Iranians can be very patriotic, and want to show that all big values of world civilisation and culture somehow have their roots in ancient Persian.

Take Care
/ghazal

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 Oh Ghazal, my Dear, you are really full of phantasy. And its nice to read that even though you refused to drink the Mijito while you have been here in Munich, obviously you liked its colours and remembered the recipe. The one you have in your memories, is it like this one ?:

I hope that one day we will have the chance to try your Doogh and my Mojito. I think the two variants of summer drinks go together very well.

 Take Care, Michael








-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Michael, For your information, I tried Mojito! Its not my favorite, the leaves are always so annoying. otherwise it is nice. And here is a recipe for Iranian Doogh as given on this website


Ingredients (4 glasses)

1 cup Yogurt

3 cups sparkling Water

Salt

1/2 tbsp Dried or fresh mint 

Ice cubes 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Ghazal, So because you disliked the peppermint leafes, thats why you always rejected the Mojito here in Munich ?? Too bad, you should have tell me this. I would have shown you how to drink it without getting the leafes inside. In Iran it may be difficult to find Mojito. And I dont know if the Basidj tolerate this. But when we go there, I could switch to Doogh for some time. It is still a year time, and may be I can convince you to come with us. Thanks for the recipe. It reminds me a bit of a delicious Bulgarian drink called Tarator. But instead of Peppermint, it has a lot of dill, green cucumber and garlik. Michael

The magnificance of Irans Nature

Dear Ghazal, Yesterday night the french-german TV channel Arte broadcasted this amazing two-series documentary about the magnificance of Irans Nature. And by chance (or perhaps not really by chance but due to a telepathic link of two like-minded souls), both Omid and myself were watching it. When we met in the morning at coffee break, we were both still out-of-breeze about the beautiful pictures, so we decided that we will travel Omids home-country next summer. In fact he already invited me several times, but I always had some issues regarding the current political tensions between the Regime in Tehran and the West. And Omid convinced me that he will teach me how to get around all hussles there. So we made firm plans for 2013, we will begin the Great Game again. Whats about you, Ghazal, will you accompany us ? It would be so much nicer, and of course we both would take care of you and protect you from the wild creatures all around.

To give you some taste of what will expect you if you come with us to visit the land of your ancestors, have a look at the Arte TV series (you can change the language to german in the tiny menue on the bottom, if you prefer):

The second serie goes to the north and north-west of Iran, visiting the reservation-area Golestan, Elburs Mountains and the Caspian Sea. It also shows peoples visiting Hafiz' tomb in Shiraz and reading his poems with great passion. Rare wild creatures such as Brown-Bear, the beautiful Ghazel, Leopard and Caucasian Deer. The animal photographs of the Serie were shot by Benny Rebel, a gifted expert of animal behaviour and the aesthetics of life.

(You can also watch the two documentaries full-screen size by pressing the tiny rectangular button below the videos.)

Super-Cooled Persian Lady

Dear Ghazal, I always knew that Persian people can be pretty cool. But who could ever think they are that cool. Watching this news from Sweden I even got the impression that the Swedish spectators dressed in their fur coats and heavy snow-boots are more freezing than the Iranian lady jumping into the ice-whole. All I can say about her courage is "Marg Bar Dictator".

   

 Before you go and try to do the same exercise, please make sure there is a pre-warmed towel kept for you outside.

33rd aniversary of Tehran hostage crisis

No, the headline of this post does not mis-calculate the days of the year 1979. In my eyes, the hostage crisis in Tehran started on March 31st 1979, and not in November of the same year. Sure, Wikipedia and history textbooks will consider the occupation of the US embassy as THE Tehran hostage crisis, and this event indeed took place at the end of the year. This "performance" of angry students, however, only temporarily caused a freeze in the US-Iranian relationship and did not caused any direct victims. In my eyes, the real hostage crisis happend already 7 month earlier, at the 31st of March. This was the day when the islamist regime took over power, after the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi and his entire family fled the country. The majority of the Iranian people, however had no chance of turning away from their home country, and these people are the real hostages since 33 years. Although there might have been a real majority being in unease with the authoritarian monarchist power of the Shah, the real tragedy for them started when the so-called Iranian Revolution established a cruel, in-human regime that refuses people their basic rights of freely expressing their opinion, chossing their life-style, clothing or religion. Hundred thousands of Iranian people were branded as enemy of Islam by the regime and cowardly killed by police and basidj thugs. The tragedy of many political activists of Iran, who in the 70s for honest reasons were engaged in the fight against the political unfreedom under the Shah, but suddenly found themself in a system of uncomparable opression and hypocracy is exemplified by the story of Maryam Farman Farmaian, nicknamed the Red Princess. When Princess Maryam was 10 years old she continued to learn at the first Tehran school for girls, where her sense for social rights and equal opportunities and human progress developed. She received a liberal education for the Persian women of her time, and attended university later in life while living in exile. She was a linguist, fluent in Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, German, and English. An independent thinker, she appreciated communist theory. She chose to become a member of the Tudeh party, because this political organisation was the only party willing to accept her as a woman and give her a chance to become active in the women's rights movement. Maryams enthusiams for political changes and a new society with equal rights for everybody was so strong that she decided to abandon her aristocratic name and adopted the surname Firouz in her political struggles;  her grandfather's name. She became known as Maryam Firouz in the political arena. She retained her legal name as Maryam Farman Farmaian with pride.

Read the full story here Princess Maryam

When an irrational power reaches for hellfire

While Israel prime minister Netanjahu warns the Iranian regime of a military strike against their nuclear facilities, Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) explains the background motivation of the mullahs attitude to gain full access to nuclear technology. But his interview with the US late night comedy "Daily Show" appears more as a promotional event for his book, than the thoughtful explanation of one of the most dangerous geopolitical constellations of our times.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Iranian movies attract greater international attention

Dearest Ghazal,
Before the 2012 Oscar will be awarded on February 26th to the different categories of cinematography, I would like to say something about the state of the Iranian Cinema. This year, the highly acclaimed masterpiece "Nader and Simin - A separation" by the prominent Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi is nominated as the best non-english movie and for the best script.

"Nader and Simin" was not the only Iranian film which made it to the western screens during the last years. We were mesmerized by Ali Samadi Ahadis "Green Wave" and "Salami Aleikum", by Shirin Neshats "Zanan-e bedun-e mardan (Woman without Men)" and by the magic realism of Marjam Satrapis "Persepolis" and "Chicken with Plums".
Movies by Iranian directors who have the chance to work abroad (like Marjan Satrapi or Ali Samadi Ahadi) are extraordinary masterpieces, carrying a very unique handwriting of their directors. And they breath the spirit of freedom and of unlimited creativity. But because they are produced in the west, they attract much less media attention. The media and critics in the west too often judge a movie more by the circumstances under which it has been produced, and therefore grant a movie that has been produced inside the country an extra bonus for "braveness". And for this extra bonus there seem to be a consensus that Iranian movies which are a domestic production (like those by Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Fahadi or Mohammad Rasoulof) might lack the free-spirit and the very personal and experimental techniques and tough expressions, which are characteristic for movies like "Green Wave" or "Salami Alaikum" by Ali Samadi Ahadi, "Woman without Men" by Shirin Neshat or "Chicken with Plum" by Marijam Satrapi. How is it possible, that although anything else than happy ending soft-stories, these four movies leave the audience with a feeling of hope, with the confidence that even the biggest tragedy will find a solution, or at least a meaning ? Is it because each tragedy will loose its horror if it can be openly narrated, if a movie-director can show and say everything he/she wants to say, using the words and pictures he/she feels are appropriate in this very moment ? This way even the saddest and tragic stories like in "Green Wave" or in "Chicken with Plum" can be presented with the greatest of ease. Here, the movie will be a relieve for the director, for the actors and finally for the audience. Because the emotionally strong stories were transformed into movies with all possible and all neccessary cinematografic elements, the audience feels a strong satisfaction and happiness.
In contrast, the movies produced at home in Iran (like "Darbareye Elly" or "Nader and Simin - A divorce" by Fahadi or "Offside" by Jafar Panahi) can not make us forget that censorship is the dominating condition under which artists have to live and work. Each single word in a dialogue, every character, every scenery has to be considered under the threat of censoreship. The so-called "scissors in your own head" might help the director to finally produce a movie that passes the ideological watch-dogs of the regime, and therefore wont suffer too much from beeing "trimmed" by some uneducated beaurocrats. But the movie itself, even if it fullfills the highest standard of movie-arts and creativity, innovation and honesty, can not make us forget that it was produced under conditions of unfreedom. You still can smell the sweat of the film-makers from the fear of loosing the battle against the beaurocrats, you can feel the many frustrating moments they had when another brilliant idea had to be put aside, for the sake to get the whole project through the machinery. One feels that they had to carefully select their words and their pictures, and this leaves a feeling in the audience that not everything what should have been said and shown in the movie became real.
I still advocate the Oscar beeing awarded to Asghar Fahadi, I think the battle he fought against the dump and dogmatic Iranian censoreship and the excellent team work he set up with great artists such as Sareh Bayat, Leila Hatami, Peyman Hatami and many others should be honoured. I think that none of the directors that left Iran would have had enough mental energy to fight through all these odds as Fahadi did, always beeing aware of the risk to end up in prison or beeing sentenced with a ban to work, as his colleague Jafar Panahi has experienced it. For sure, neither Ali Samadi Ahadi, nor Marijam Satrapi or Shirin Neshat would have had the stand and the courage (and maybe other qualities as well) to go through all the husles and restrictions to produce their movies at home in Iran - but maybe under conditions of relative freedom they are the more innovative and creative art-directors. A case where an Iranian film-maker probably tried to get "the best of both worlds" was Bahman Gobadis "Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh (No one knows about persian cats)" According to IMBD, ".. during filming, Ghobadi and his actors were arrested twice but released after giving presents to the authorities and lying about the real subject of the film." This way Bahman Gobadi found a half legal, half underground style to get a movie approved by the Iranian authorities, although it was full of satyrical episodes and signs showing that a way-out of the misery requires the abolution of the dogmatic islamic laws of the mullahs regime. But this film must be considered a singular event.

In general, Iranian movies must be judged either by their political braveness (if they are produced inside Iran) or by the high cinematographic standard (when they are produced abroad). At the current political situation and the degree of oppression of intellectuals and arts-people under the islamic regime I think it is legitimate to honour with the Oscar award the movies who are the result of a brave political fight. But in history books of Iranian movie arts, I believe, the films of the exiled directors Ali Samadi Ahadi, Marjam Satrapi or Shirin Neshat might be considered more innovative and of longer-lasting value.

Persian Drag Queens

Dear Ghazal, In general I don't like to send or forward uncommented videos or photographs. But the following one is just so funny, I think any additional words would just spoil it. Enjoy, Take Care, Michael PS: the video has recently be blocked by youtube or classified as "privat". Thats too bad, cause it was nice, funny, and not offencive at all ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Michael,

Drag Queens are cult. Makes me smile. I love how they perform. Do you also think that transvestites very often look more attractive then real woman ? Shava, however complained about the jokes they did in the video about big noses ! She insisted that big noses are beautiful, that they are precious, that they give character and are a sign of  strong personality. But now big noses become an endangered species in Iran. Because its the easiest and most profitable operation for the plastic surgeons. Shava said people who have their big nose reduced should better be send  to a neurosurgeon to get a Brain bypass operation. I hope everything is fine  with you, Take Care /ghazal --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghazal my dear, First of all, I have to say how much I agree with Shavas opinion regarding big noses.It always makes me very sad to hear that people can be ashamed of their sharp noses. The attempt to "correct" it to resemble japanese manga figures is a regrettable and irreversible damage to the personality. Large, sharp noses were always seen as a reflection of a strong character. Therefore it does not come as a surprise they are so common among the Iranians.

In many mythologies the nose was even considered to be the breathing organ of the human soul. Therefor invading troops in ancient times used to break off the noses off statues that portrayed the local gods and goddesses. They thought that this way they can destroy their power.  What comes as a relief: a corrected nose can not be inherited to the next generation. Size of the nose is largely genetically determined (i.e. by fixed DNA variations that are differently distributed among different ethnic groups). Therefore, the iranian people, even if they have their large noses reduced by plastic surgery,  will transmit their original size as a genetic treasure to the next generations. Tell Shava that hope is in sight. The attempt to improve its own chances on the hunt for a partner by "correcting" ones nose has even a long-term effect that causes even more large noses in Iran. It is simply by increasing the chance of woman with (genetically large/surgically small) noses to find one or more partner to have children with. Therefor the natural selection for genetically small noses is fooled, since the eyes cannot see whats hidden in the genes. Befor plastic surgery, partnership preference for small noses would have really caused continious loss of the large-nose-genes with the dangerous consequence of (as Shava called it) large noses becoming an endangered species. With the advent of plastic surgery, however, sexual selection against large noses does not work any more. Therefor, large noses are not lost, but rather hidden in our genes for future generations. Take Care, my Dear  (and take care of your beautiful nose. If any moron makes silly comments about it, print out this post and stick it him on his forehead !!!)

 

 

A rediculous spelling mistake by the UN

In 1971 the Princess of Iran Ashraf Pahlavi, sister of Shah Reza Pahlevi, presented the United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of Cyrus Cylinder. This archeologic artefact stems from the 6th century BC and was excavated in 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam, an Iranian-British archeologist. On the clay cylinder a declaration is written in Akkadian cuneiform script, guaranteeing equal rights to every subordinate of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great, independent on nation or religion. In the late 1960s the Cylinder gained new prominence when the last Shah of Iran called it "the world's first charter of human rights". The cylinder was a key symbol of the Shah's political ideology and is still regarded by some commentators as a charter of human rights, despite the disagreement of some historians and scholars. He wrote that "the history of our empire began with the famous declaration of Cyrus, which, for its advocacy of humane principles, justice and liberty, must be considered one of the most remarkable documents in the history of mankind."

On top of the UN protocol about the ceremony are some handwritten remarks, which show that even in the surpreme international organisation some people had difficulties in not mixing historical characters and places of the mideastern hemisphere.  Instead of linking Iran to the "Edict of Cyrus", they "newly invented" an "Edict of Cyprus". It would be interesting to find out if a copy of this protocol was ever forwarded to the Shahs palace in Teheran, maybe with a post-it saying "For your information" !!  This typo remained unnoticed for more than 40 years,  although the protocol must have been available in the web since several years.

The entire UN protocol can be found here.

               

Persian Drag Queens

Dear Ghazal, In general I don't like to send or forward uncommented videos or photographs. But the following one is just so funny, I think any additional words would just spoil it.
 




Enjoy, Take Care, Michael

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Michael,

Drag Queens are cult. Makes me smile. I love how they perform. Do you also think that transvestites very often look more attractive then real woman ?
Shava, however complained about the jokes they did in the video about big noses ! She insisted that big noses are beautiful, that they are precious, that they give character and are a sign of  strong personality.
But now big noses become an endangered species in Iran. Because its the easiest and most profitable operation for the plastic surgeons. Shava said people who have their big nose reduced should better be send  to a neurosurgeon to get a Brain bypass operation.

I hope everything is fine  with you,
Take Care
/ghazal

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghazal my dear,
First of all, I have to say how much I agree with Shavas opinion regarding big noses.It always makes me very sad to hear that people can be ashamed of their sharp noses. The attempt to "correct" it to resemble japanese manga figures is a regrettable and irreversible damage to the personality. Large, sharp noses were always seen as a reflection of a strong character. Therefore it does not come as a surprise they are so common among the Iranians.

In many mythologies the nose was even considered to be the breathing organ of the human soul. Therefor invading troops in ancient times used to break off the noses off statues that portrayed the local gods and goddesses. They thought that this way they can destroy their power.
What comes as a relief: a corrected nose can not be inherited to the next generation. Size of the nose is largely genetically determined (i.e. by fixed DNA variations that are differently distributed among different ethnic groups). Therefore, the iranian people, even if they have their large noses reduced by plastic surgery,  will transmit their original size as a genetic treasure to the next generations. Tell Shava that hope is in sight. The attempt to improve its own chances on the hunt for a partner by "correcting" ones nose has even a long-term effect that causes even more large noses in Iran. It is simply by increasing the chance of woman with (genetically large/surgically small) noses to find one or more partner to have children with. Therefor the natural selection for genetically small noses is fooled, since the eyes cannot see whats hidden in the genes. Befor plastic surgery, partnership preference for small noses would have really caused continious loss of the large-nose-genes with the dangerous consequence of (as Shava called it) large noses becoming an endangered species. With the advent of plastic surgery, however, sexual selection against large noses does not work any more. Therefor, large noses are not lost, but rather hidden in our genes for future generations.

Take Care, my Dear  (and take care of your beautiful nose. If any moron makes silly comments about it, print out this post and stick it him on his forehead !!!)