Nostalgia

Thanks to this blogger, I found many of Dariush's songs on YouTube.

Perhaps it is because I recently saw a friend I had not seen for a long time, but listening to those songs brought back a lot of nostalgia and memories and -- sadly -- I felt the following had to be posted:



buye gandom male man, har tchi ke daram male to -- the smell of wheat is mine, all that I have is yours. The song was at the time of the Shah and granted Dariush some time in prison, I believe. The video seems to have been revisited, since it also shows a few clerics -- says quite a bit about our country and its successive leaders, doesn't it?

Outspoken insights

I remembered being quite depressed by Abbas Amanat's opinion piece in the New York Times last May -- I had expected more from him than once again indulging in the usual middle-eastern rhetoric of blaming others rather than doing a little introspection.

Well, on the contrary, Ahmad Zeidabadi never ceases to impress me, please read his piece in Rooz (although, and quite unfortunately, the English translation never renders the full content of the Persian).

Women and human rights activists

When most in Iran do not dare to come out and speak of human rights, these ladies demonstrate, write a petition open for signature, create a website, are prosecuted, and demonstrate some more and get arrested some more.

Their courage is remarkable, particularly as we all know too painfully that torture and rape is not unheard of in Iranian prisons.

Here's a remarkable piece written by one of them and translated by another, just a week ago.