Archive for the ‘Iran’ Category

Former lover of the poet known as Iran’s Sylvia Plath breaks his silence – The Guardian

Forough Farrokhzad, one of Irans most loved literary figures, died in a car accident in February 1967 aged 32.

Forty miles south of London, in a quiet West Sussex village, lives a 94-year-old Iranian intellectual who has for half a century kept silent about his former lover, a giant of modern Persian literature who was killed in a car accident aged just 32.

But 50 years after Forough Farrokhzads sudden death, the reclusive Ebrahim Golestan has finally broken his silence, speaking out about the seriousness of their relationship and describing her as a poet who wrote honestly about the most fundamental human emotions.

Farrokhzad, one of Irans most loved literary figures of the past century who was largely overlooked in the west, was known for her candid writings challenging the patriarchal limits of Iranian society and has been compared to Sylvia Plath.

Her relationship with Golestan, an enigmatic writer and film-maker, coincided with a period during which she wrote some of her most memorable works. But little was known publicly of their tryst, and many believed Farrokhzads feelings were unrequited.

In a rare interview in his opulent, Victorian-era palace in the village of Bolney, decorated with paintings of some of Irans most prominent artists, Golestan admitted that their relationship was mutual.

I rue all the years she isnt here, of course, thats obvious, he said. We were very close, but I cant measure how much I had feelings for her. How can I? In kilos? In metres?

Mehdi Jami, who has written extensively about Farrokhzads influence on Persian literature, said the film-maker made a significant impact on her writing, particularly in introducing her to modern literary movements in the west. If you want to name one person that had the most influence on Forough, thats undoubtedly Golestan. They met each other at the right moment, Jami said.

In every culture you have cultural icons, like Shakespeare in Britain. Farrokhzad was like that for contemporary Iran, someone who formed the identity of our contemporariness, Jami added. She wrote in a simple and intimate way. She was not fake, nor was her poetry She was the last prophet of truth-telling that our country has seen.

Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani, Irans most famous living poet, told the Guardian from Tehran that she was truly modern, without talking about modernism directly in her poetry. She was very natural. She was the epitome of a real poet in her own time, he said. She had no masks, thats why today we still read her, and in future we will read her, too.

Golestan said two friends had introduced him to Farrokhzad in the late 1950s when she was looking for a job. At the time he was running a well-known studio in Darrous, an affluent area in northern Tehran. He left Iran a few years after Farrokhzads death over his dismay at the political atmosphere under the Shah, and has lived in Sussex since 1975. He has never returned to his home country.

Golestan decided to give the young Farrokhzad a job answering phones in the office where 40 film-makers and photographers worked. He said it was months before they developed a relationship, although Golestan was married at the time.

We were very close, but I cant measure how much I had feelings for her. How can I?

Forough, who had married at 16, had separated from her husband after only four years.

Golestan said he loved the young writer as much as his wife, who knew about their relationship. Imagine you have four kids, would you not like one because you like others? You can have feelings for them [and] you have feelings for two people, he said.

The Iranian scholar Farzaneh Milani has recently published a book that contains previously unseen letters from Forough to Golestan, given to the author by the intellectual himself, exposing for the first time the intimate nature of their relationship.

In one of the letters, believed to have been written a year before her death from London, where she was visiting, Forough writes: Shahi [Golestans nickname], youre the dearest thing I have in life. Youre the only one I can love Shahi, I love you and I love you to an extent that I am terrified what to do if you disappeared suddenly. Ill become like an empty well.

But Golestan has faced criticism for not publishing his own letters to her. When asked about this, he said he didnt have them. When you write letters to somebody, do you think about the future and keeping them? Or making a copy?

Fatemeh Shams, an Iranian poet and professor of modern Persian literature at University of Pennsylvania, said Foroughs poetry was at times seen as so rebellious that it was kept hidden.

I was 15 when I first found copies of Foroughs poems, amongst old books that belonged to my mother. They had been in our basement for a long time. They were not shelved with the other books upstairs. I used to smuggle those offset copies to my room, she said.

I did not learn the art of being proudly and passionately in love from [ancient Persian poets] Khayyam or Hafez, but from Forough: [she wrote of] a love with no shame, transcending all boundaries.

Forough herself has alluded into this, once describing her poetry as a vital need, a need on the scale of eating and sleeping, something like breathing.

Golestan described Farrokhzads poems as compatible with the simple feelings of people, and downplayed his influence on her.

She was influenced by her own efforts, as if she was a seminary student. She had the biggest influence on herself. I never saw her in a state of not being productive, she was like that.

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Former lover of the poet known as Iran's Sylvia Plath breaks his silence - The Guardian

Walk of shame: Sweden’s first feminist government don hijabs in Iran – UN Watch (press release)

Sunday, February 12, 2017 3:02 pm unwatch 0 52k

GENEVA, Feb. 13, 2017 In a statement that has gone viral on Twitter and Facebook, UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights NGO in Geneva, expressed disappointment that Swedens self-declared first feminist government in the world sacrificed its principles and betrayed the rights of Iranian women as Trade Minister Ann Linde and other female members walked before Iranian President Rouhani on Saturday wearing Hijabs, Chadors, and long coats, in deference to Irans oppressive and unjust modesty laws which make the Hijab compulsory despite Stockholms promise to promote a gender equality perspective internationally, and to adopt a feminist foreign policy in which equality between women and men is a fundamental aim.

In doing so, Swedens female leaders ignored the recent appeal by Iranian womens right activist Masih Alinejad who urged Europeans female politicians to stand for their own dignity and to refuse to kowtow to the compulsory Hijab while visiting Iran.

Alinrejad created a Facebook page for Iranian women to resist the law and show their hair as an act of resistance, which now numbers 1 million followers.

European female politicians are hypocrites, says Alinejad. They stand with French Muslim women and condemn the burkini banbecause they think compulsion is badbut when it happens to Iran, they just care about money.

The scene in Tehran on Saturday was also a sharp contrast to Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lvins feminist stance against U.S. President Donald Trump, in a viral tweet and then in a Guardian op-ed last week, in which she wrote that the world need strong leadership for womens rights.

Trade Minister Linde, who signed multiple agreements with Iranian ministers while wearing a veil, sees no conflict between her governments human rights policy and signing trade deals with an oppressive dictatorship that tortures prisoners, persecutes gays, and is a leading executioner of minors.

If Sweden really cares about human rights, they should not be empowering a regime that brutalizes its own citizens while carrying out genocide in Syria; and if they care about womens rights, then the female ministers never should have gone to misogynistic Iran in the first place, said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

The government has now come under sharp criticism from centrist and left-wing Swedish lawmakers, who said the ministers should not have deferred to gender apartheid.

They go to my country, said Aliinejad recently in the European Parliament, and they ignore millions of those women who send their photos to me and put themselves in danger to be heard. And [the European politicians] keep their smile, and wearing hijab, and saying this is a cultural issuewhich is wrong.

Below, Swedens feminist trademinister Ann Linde dons the hijab and wears a black cloak like her Iranian counterpart.

Writing in the Guardian, Deputy prime ministerLvin contrasted Swedish policy with that of President Donald Trump,sayingthat the world needs strong leadership for womens rights and Sweden will have an increasingly important role to play in this. She added that many countries could learn an important lesson from this.

Her viral tweet above was meant to emphasize her governments focus on womens rights, as opposed to Trump.

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Walk of shame: Sweden's first feminist government don hijabs in Iran - UN Watch (press release)

Heidarian: Iran policy may positively impact human rights – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Amir H. Heidarian Published 3:02 p.m. CT Feb. 12, 2017 | Updated 6 hours ago

Thousands marched towards Tehran's Azadi Square on the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. USA TODAY

A handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shows him delivering a speech on Friday at Azadi Square in Tehran during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.(Photo: Getty Images)

As an Iranian American I am grateful that the Obama administration helped relocate 3,000 of my friends and colleagues, members of the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), out of Camp Liberty, Iraq. But I am very critical of its utter weakness in dealing with the Islamic Republic

Having formerly occupied the mini modern town called Ashraf in eastern Iraq, MEK members were under constant threat of attack from Shiite militant groups loyal to Iran. Dozens had been killed over the years but now, the survivors are safe in Albania and elsewhere, and are free to carry on their work for the ouster of the repressive theocratic system in place in Tehran.

Although the previous administration is owed credit for its action on this issue, even where Camp Liberty is concerned, the Obama White House carried on its work with little fanfare. It never acted as a public advocate for the MEK, and it never confronted Iran over its role in the repeated targeting of the camp with missiles that could often be traced back to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013, things have gotten worse in many respects. The so-called moderate executive has overseen a dramatic increase in executions, in a country that already had a reputation for maintaining the highest rate of executions per capita. At the same time, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has undertaken a major crackdown on activists, journalists, minority groups and dual nationals. The Rouhani administration did nothing to challenge this crackdown, and neither did the Obama administration.

This fact was repeatedly underscored by international human rights organizations, which publicly criticized the Obama administration and its allies for sidelining human rights issues in the interest of keeping a narrow focus on the nuclear deal, which effectively left 80 million Iranians at the mercy of the IRGC.

This past week, President Donald Trumps National Security Adviser Michael Flynn formally put Iran on notice over its recent ballistic missile test and its ongoing provocative moves in the region. Then Trump himself took the regime to task for playing with fire and failing to appreciate the conciliatory treatment it had received from his predecessor. That soft approach is now at an end, according to the president and his foreign policy team, who insist that all options are on the table as potential responses to any more malign behavior by Tehran or the IRGC.

We welcome this messaging, as well as the follow-through that the administration has shown in imposing new sanctions on 13 individuals and 12 companies connected to the Iranian ballistic missile program. We are hopeful that further such sanctions will be used to isolate the IRGC and shrink its influence both at home and abroad. Presently, the hardline paramilitary controls the majority of Irans GDP, is acquiring larger shares of the national budget and is benefiting from President Barack Obamas misguided nuclear agreement.

Counteracting the enrichment of the IRGC is the first step toward addressing Irans abysmal human rights record. And whether or not this is specifically part of Trumps aim, he is on the right path with his imposition of non-nuclear sanctions and his declared willingness to take more of the same measures.

Amir H. Heidarian, a resident of Mequon, is president of the Iranian American Community of Wisconsin, a member of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC-US).

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Heidarian: Iran policy may positively impact human rights - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Iran: Challenging Three American Truths – Common Dreams


Common Dreams
Iran: Challenging Three American Truths
Common Dreams
The United States recently put Iran on notice. National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn stated, The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate Iran's provocations that threaten our interests. The days of turning a blind eye to Iran's hostile and ...

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Iran: Challenging Three American Truths - Common Dreams

Excellent Zim, Iran ties hailed – The Herald

Lionel DeputeHerald Reporter Iran has commended the excellent political relations with Zimbabwe and urged the strengthening of trade and economic ties between the two countries.Speaking at the commemorations of the National Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Harare on Friday, incoming Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Ahmad Erfanian said his government will strengthen trade relations that have been low because of trade sanctions that were imposed on Iran by Western countries.

Despite the excellent political relations that exist between the two countries, the volume of trade is not what is expected, he said. I will devote all of my efforts to work towards strengthening economic and trade relations with Zimbabwe.

With the implementation of the nuclear deal with six powers, sanctions against Iran have been lifted and there is no restriction to expanding the trade relations between the two countries.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Edgar Mbwembwe said relations between Iran and Zimbabwe dated back to the liberation struggle.We celebrate this historic and momentous day fully cognisant of the close relations that so happily exist, between the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said.

These strong bonds of friendship and solidarity have been mutually nurtured before and after Zimbabwes independence.Deputy Minister Mbwembwe said Government will continue to make the visible relations stronger for the peoples benefit.

We remain committed to maintain this momentum to further strengthen these relations for the benefit of our people, he said.Deputy Minister Mbwembwe highlighted a number of projects that were imitated with the support of the Iranian government in the previous years, including Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission and scholarships for Zimbabweans in medicine and engineering.

We have consulted and mutually implemented wide ranging programmes and projects undertaken in the past years, he said.(These include) the Zimbabwean-Iran Joint Commission, scholarships for Zimbabwean students, the visit by secretary of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha in November 2016 and cooperation in the small and medium enterprises and cooperative sector.

Deputy Minister Mbwembwe said the pending visit by the Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda to Tehran was also evidence of cordial relations between the two countries.

The month of February marks the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

The Islamic Revolution gained its final victory on February 11 in 1979, after years of struggle, self-sacrifice and resistance under the leadership of Imam Khomeini.

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Excellent Zim, Iran ties hailed - The Herald