Kamangir (Archer)

Will Do Research for Food and Accommodation

Kamangir | June 30, 2007 | Category Iran

I have been in the UK for the last few days, and that’s the main reason why my blog has not been updated. After spending three days in London, I am in Glasgow now for attending the ICC. International Communication Conference. Or at least that’s what was planned before.
The days in London were not the best. Aside from the annoying Jet Lag, I had made an awful mistake and had booked a silly hostel which was nothing like a nice place you could take a shower and have a good night sleep. I got a much nicer place in Glasgow, but not sleeping for three nights had had its effect on my hormones.

y presentation was scheduled for the second day of the conference. At the end of the first day, my professor invited me to dinner and unfortunately I dumped too much in my stomach, I guess. When I came back to my room, and after I watched the end of the movie I had been watching the night before (The Sentinel), I started practicing for my talk. I am not typically anxious before any presentation, either in Persian or in English, but this time I really needed to do it over and over. I even recorded my voice and listened to it and changed a few things in the slides. It was 12pm when I went to bed at the end. It was my first proper sleep in five days. At that time I was thinking that my presentation will happily happen the day after, at 11am.

I woke up with a knock on the door. Looking at my wrist watch I realized that it was 1pm. The reception lady was at the door (this Travelodge does not have an internal phone system). Without even knowing where my hotel was, my professor had managed to find my number and had called me to make sure I was alright. Well, I would have felt much happier if I had had a stroke the night before. He had given the talk, the very exact reason why he had paid for my travel.

I spent today listening to a few talks, in an attempt to feel a bit better. He had not found any interesting paper in the program, so he had decided to stay in his room for the day. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. I guess that’s when I meet him and will have to start looking for a new job.

I do know how to code in MATLAB and I can deal with optimization problems. I am not bad in math and my wife loves me. I will not reject any job offer, which does not include sleeping in a crappy place.

This is my talk as I recorded it the night before. It is very long and has very bad quality. It would make me feel very good if I know you listened to it. At least, that would mean that I did not waste those hours practicing it.

p.s. I talked to him later. He seems to not want to fire me. I am not sure I would be so nice to a student of mine who had been so lousy.

 

 Please Listen [16:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tehran on Gas Fire

Kamangir | June 27, 2007 | Category Iran

I am away for a conference and in the meantime the Islamic Republic is forced to come back to earth and start thinking rationally.  It is ridiculous for an OPEC member to import gas. Having said that, the Iranians have been bribed for a long time and will not quit cheap gas easily. I talked to a friend who has good insight into the gas business in Iran. Even before the riots broke out he was so anxious about this development, “this will be dangerous, Police is in full alert”. Do not miss the fantastic coverage Gateway Pundit is doing. Pajamas Media is also following the news. The picture is from here.

1-0 for us, Or Viva Iranian Citizen Journalism

Kamangir | June 20, 2007 | Category Iran

Background: Help! Help! Help! The stoning will take place in a few hours!

Fars news agency, which is state-run, reported this today,

The stoning verdict will not be carries out. The head of Qzvin Judiciary stated “According to an order from the head of the Judiciary, the stoning of these two individuals will not be carried out”…A source in the Judiciary mentioned “Following the issue of the stoning verdict, the planing was started. Late last night, the local head of the Judiciary gave a restrict order to stop this verdict. He has blamed the involved people for such a verdict.

Fars finishes with “Some websites and media sources had reported about the stoning, referring to a women’s activist”. That’s the Iranian blogestan showing its power. People in Balatarin started calling everywhere. The result? The stoning is canceled and the news has started to spread out. The Norwegian Foreign Minister summoned the Iranian ambassador and Amnesty International issued an appeal.

One, more, for us! :)

Help! Help! Help! The stoning will take place in a few hours! (Updated IV)

Kamangir | June 20, 2007 | Category Iran

Women rights have issued a serious warning. The planned stoning is to be carried out in a few hours. Reportedly, people are invited to the stoning site. These are early reports and I will look for more news. Call these numbers. Spread the news. If there is a slight chance that they are really going to stone them spreading the news can help. Add 0098 to all numbers. Numbers in Tehran need an extra 21 area code.

Local Judiciary:0282 3681625

Governor:Phone:281 3682811,281 3682812,281 3682813,281 3682814,281 3682815,281 3682816,Fax:281 3682941,281 3682895

The Supreme Leader: 64412020

Head of the Judiciary: 22741002-5

Judiciary: 22741002-5

President’s Office:88825071,88825072

Update I: I Just called the Governor’s office. I was told that they have not heard the news. Still, they do need to realize that the age of stoning people is over.

Update II: The office of the head of the Judiciary denied the news as well. Let’s hope they are not lying. People from Balatarin are going to the scene to collect more news.

Update III: The alert in English. Vote for it in Digg.

Update IV: The news is verified by the administration,  the stoning is canceled.

Breaking News: Man and Woman to be Stoned in Qazvin, Iran

Kamangir | June 19, 2007 | Category Iran

Thursday in the morning, in Takestan, Qzvin Province, a man and a woman will be stoned in front of the city’s graveyard. The stoning will take place in public and the judge will attend the event and will throw the first stone. Makroumeh Ebrahimi (مکرمه ابراهيمي) , 43, has spent eleven years in Qzvin Prison, alongside with the man with whom she has a child. Reportedly, they have even dug a hole for the stoning. The stoning verdict is reportedly based on judge’s deduction, and not on confession, as Sharia suggests. Their child is now 11 years old and the lady has two other children. The officials have denied the reports but reputable women activists has definitely confirmed it.

Earthquake in Tehran

Kamangir | June 18, 2007 | Category Iran

About an hour ago, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake slightly shook Tehran. The epicenter of the quake was 150km southwest of Tehran.

Hamas: Alan Johnston will be Freed in a Few Hours

Kamangir | June 17, 2007 | Category Iran

Hamas representative in Tehran has told Fars that because of the new situation in Gaza Strip and because “Fatah guerrillas have escaped”, Alan Johnston, BBC’s reporter, will be freed in a few hours. Abo-Osame Abdolmoatta has also stated “we hope he will be freed in a few hours. If there is any delay, that’s because of his safety. We are ready to attack where he is kept captive right now”. He added “the capturers have asked for conditions which are not applicable and Hamas is working towards his release without any condition”. BBC carries a similar report.

Salman Rushdie and the Queen, or the “Infidel” and the “Old Fox”

Kamangir | June 17, 2007 | Category Iran

Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian novelist who went into hiding after Khomeini issued a death Fatwa against him, was knighted by the Queen. That clearly did not make the Islamic Republic happy. This is a screen shot of the news as mentioned in the state-run television. The Persian text at the bottom reads “the infidel author was honored by the old fox [literal translation], Salman Rushdie became UK’s knight”.

Ayatollah Dies in Tehran and in London, at the same time

Kamangir | June 16, 2007 | Category Iran

Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, who was hospitalized since a long time ago in Tehran, passed away in his home in Qom, at the age of 76. Or at least that’s what Fars reports at first. According to ISNA, all businesses will be closed in the holy city of Qom for one day and three days of mourning (early pictures) are announced. While no mystery seems to exist in the story, as the state reports it, the fellow citizen journalists have found quite a huge discrepancy in the news, which actually make is interesting.

As a user in the Iranian Digg, Balatarin, has pointed out, through putting together the news broadcast by state-run media outlets, the Ayatollah passed away simultaneously in a hospital in Tehran, in his house in Qom, and in London. The mention of London makes the story quite fascinating when another user in Balatarin finds a list of accommodation prices in the hospital he was looked after. In fact, Ayatollah has spent the amount majority of Iranians live on for six months for every night he has been taken care of there. There is more controversy around the deceased Ayatollah, as Balatarin users manage to surface.

While the state-run news agency introduces the Ayatollah as one of the most passionate students of Khomeini, some people remember his death Fatwa, issued last December. On November 2006, a citizen of the Republic of Azarbaijan faced the wrath of the Ayatollah.

Tagi wrote a piece titled “Europe and Us” in Senet’s weekly edition for November 6, arguing that the Christian values of Europe led to more successful, peaceful, and tolerant societies than the values of Islam. “A person can’t be condemned for their opinions,” editor Sadagatoglu told the court, ironically just after Reporters Without Borders added Azeri president Ilham Aliev to its list of “predators” of press freedom. “Such a person is an apostate in view of his confessions, if he is a Muslim,” Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani said in a fatwa conveniently posted online. “If he had been an unbeliever (Kafir), he is considered as someone who has insulted the Prophet and in any case, given his confessions, it is necessary for every individual who has an access to him to kill him. The person in charge of the said newspaper, who published such thoughts and beliefs consciously and knowingly, should be dealt with in the same manner.” (source of translation, Persian source, Ayatollah’s website)

That leaves no doubt why the state would hesitate to mention that he was in fact being taken care of in London, especially after the recent anti-Britain protest held in Tehran, by people so close to the deceased Ayatollah.

Islamic Republic of Extremism

Kamangir | June 15, 2007 | Category Iran

As BBC also reports, demonstrators gathered in front of the UK Embassy in Tehran tried to disrupt a party held in honor of the Queen Elizabeth II. An obvious question is, who are these people. Are they just the average Iranian who is enraged for some reason and then goes there to attak the embassy? The answer, strangely enough, is that these people do this as a job. These are very well-known individuals, most of whom have links to the administration and are directly or indirectly paid by it. When you keep watching the pictures published by the state-run media taken at these “voluntarily-organized” events, you start to see repeated faces. These are only two examples: a clergyman and a veiled woman who seem to do this more than occasionally.

A Basij member asks an Iranian invitee to leave

The story is even more amazing than this. Talebi is a journalist who works for a state-run website and writes in a blog titled “A Muslim Journalist”. He writes in his blog, “A journalist sometimes witnesses things which he can not include in the official news. However, He will talk about them with his friends and will learn from them. I want to write down some of these events in this blog. This way, I will keep them here for myself and also for others”.

Talebi has been very active in the recent protest in front of the British Embassy, according to the account given in his blog. He writes, “We had known a few days back that a party was planned to be held in the embassy for the birthday of the Queen. We also knew that many ambassadors and also Iranian artists and administration figures were invited to this party. The gathering started at 5pm. We announced that we will not let Iranian traitors take part. What added to the anger of the students was the coincidence of this party with the recent terrorist attack in Iraq [which led to the destruction of an important shrine]“. He then goes on describing how they have captured a flower basket sent by the Iraqi ambassador and destroyed it. He publishes the picture of the card which was attached to the basket, in his photoblog. Talebi continues his post by condemning the Police for attacking them and threatens the “traitors who have attended the enemy’s party”.

The card on the flower basket sent by the Iraqi ambassador, confiscated by the demonstrators

The demonstrators finished up their gathering with issuing a statement in which they asked the Judiciary to prosecute those who attended the party. There is no surprise why the attendants eft the embassy with their faces covered when the photographer of a state-run news agency was present with his camera.

The guests leaving the party with their faces covered

“Islamic Sewage” in the Holy City

Kamangir | June 15, 2007 | Category Iran

An image printed on the back of water bills in the holy city of Qom has caused problem. According to Baztab, a website close to the administration, the image, which is also shown here, tries to increase awareness about the benefits of a public sewage system. To do so, it shows sewage coming out of an urban area and fed to vegetation, after it is processed. The urban area, however, is represented using an iconic picture of the Feyzieh seminary. That is why , according to Baztab, “some people’s understanding of this image is that the output from mosques and seminaries is not science, but is sewage which is processed by the government and then fed to the nation”. Baztab also reports that the bills are recollected.

Police Violence in Iran

Kamangir | June 15, 2007 | Category Iran

The Iranian blogger, Dajal, writes,

Following the so-called fight against immodesty, the Police caused another incident two days ago in Tandis Mall in Tehran (see this for the previous instance). According to the eyewitnesses, the Police officers where denying the so-called immodest people entrance to the mall when they attempted to arrest a girl who passed by. The girl started running away when she saw the officers and fell on the ground for a couple of times before close to Tajrish Square a policewoman arrested her. She resisted while being transferred to a Police car. That was while another girl who was transferred to the car just before was crying. With the cries of the girl, people started gathering and eventually the Police threatened to use tear gas. The officers at last were forced to carry the girl inside the mall in order to buy some time before people left the scene. During all this, the Police officers were very cautious that no one would capture the scene on tape. The video shown in the above is captured by someone standing there and it is not clear because the capturer has been afraid of the Police. The video, however, clearly shows the screams of the arrested girl.

This is what is being said in the video,

[Girl to the Police] Sir, wait for a second! [Scream] Why are you lying? You bastards! [Girl to the Police] [A woman to the Police] Do you not have mothers and sisters yourself [that treat us like this]? [Girl to the Police] Stop the BS!

Job: Protesting in the Streets II (Updated)

Kamangir | June 14, 2007 | Category Iran

When you keep watching the pictures taken at the protests in Tehran you start to find friends there. I had this experience before with a lady. Now, it is this gentleman.

April 2007- “Deport the British Ambassador!“

Today- “Protest against a party held in the British embassy“.

Update: Gateway Pundit has more pictures of this man.

Islamic Sharia, the Youth Version

Kamangir | June 14, 2007 | Category Iran

“Dear Students, for better concentration in the classroom, boys clap and girls dance, please”. The original sentence has been, “For better concentration in the classroom, boys sit on the right side and girls sit on the left side, please”. Note the two words which are wiped out of the original sentence.

Today, I went to my old university, Allameh Tabresi [in Tehran], where I saw an interesting sheet on the wall in a classroom. The interesting part was that the university administration seemed to have liked it and thus not only it was not removed but also it existed in all the classrooms. I am sure you know what the original text has been, “for better concentration in the classroom, boys sit on the right side and girls sit on the left side, please” (source).

Followup on the “Hand-Shaking Scandal”

Kamangir | June 13, 2007 | Category Iran

Following former president’s hand-shaking scandal, Rooz carries this cartoon (in Persian).

Ahmadinejadology, to be taught in Iran?

Kamangir | June 12, 2007 | Category Iran

Ahmadinejad’s secretary issued a statement regarding the establishment of a council for “managing and supervising the publication of Ahmadinejad’s ideas and doctrines”. Following that news, Haji Washington sarcastically suggests starting a curriculum in science departments for Ahmadinejadology. He suggests biology students as the eligible ones to pursue this degree. Behrang takes the issue more seriously. Choosing the title “the tragedy of a civil engineer who became a philosopher”, he writes “Mr Ahmadinejad! Getting into a Volleyball team does not make anyone taller. Similarly, seating in the President’s chair does not make you a philosopher. You are an engineer and engineers’ papers are generally published by ISI. No one has forced you to become a philosopher…Please stop kidding us, we are starting to feel like we are being insulted”.

“You Shook Her Hand?”

Kamangir | June 12, 2007 | Category Iran

The former president Khatami is under artillery fire for having shaken hands with a lady in Italy. A video sent on Youtube shows him shaking hands of a lady after his speech and that according to some narration of the Islamic Sharia is a sin. Rajanew, a website close to Ahmadinejad, has published frames of the video and Baztab quotes clerics that “shaking hands with a non-Mahram lady is a sin [a man is Mahram to his wife, daughter, sister, mother, and a few other relatives]“. Khatami’s office has published a rather sophisticated statement in which shaking hands with ladies is mentioned to be sinful while “sometimes bad could be committed for getting around worse”. His office calls the video “suspicious picture-playing” and condemns it. Khatami’s foreign minister has also raised the possibility of forgery.

Lake in Two Seasons

Kamangir | June 11, 2007 | Category Iran

Yesterday, Azadeh and I, accompanied by a friend, went to Gimli. Last time, and in fact the only other time, I had been there was January 2005. At that time, I took a few pictures of the frozen lake. Yesterday, I took hard copies of some of those images with me and tried to take new pictures of the same places. I then used the fantastic paint.net to register the images and also to produce shots which would show the same place in two seasons. Here are two of the results. See more in the photoblog.

Ortega in Tehran

Kamangir | June 10, 2007 | Category Iran

Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua, is in Tehran, visiting the heads of the Islamic Republic. Here, he is meeting with the Supreme Leader.

The scarf he is wearing, Chafieh, is supposed to have its roots in the Palestinian movement, worn in Iran as a sign of supporting the ideologies such as “exporting the revolution”. More picture of this meeting here.

Ortega also gave a speech in the University of Tehran mentioning “the Sandanista’s revolution took over the power in 1979, the exact year that the Islamic revolution succeeded in Iran. These two are twin revolutions which had and still pursue similar goals, such as justice, freedom, sovereignty, and fighting Imperialism.” In his speech which started by saying the sentence “Hi! Youth!” in Persian, he said “Today, we are witnessing a new age of nations’ fighting [for their rights]. Today, a self-aware conscious is shaped up. Today, Latin America and the Caribbeans have started a new era in the region. We have started a fight for our independence and that’s in fact the fight which has started in Iran, and the one which the Palestinian nation as well as the African people have started”.

The ceremony continued with Azghadi, a prominent Islamic Republic ideologe close to Ahmadinejad, saying “Ahmadinejad’s mission is clear. More than being a political figure he is a guerrilla who knows he belongs to the world’s poor people’s front”. Azghadi also suggested the establishment of the international poors’ party, something he gave credit to Khomeini for giving the idea first.

Reuters reports that Ortega has used Moammar Ghadafi’s plane for this trip.

The text reads “World Resistance Front”.

Ortega and his family.

“Israel? You Mean the Land of Prostitution?”

Kamangir | June 9, 2007 | Category Iran

Lisa wrote today about the bill presented to the Israeli Knesset which advocates a rather mild censorship to be imposed on the Internet. The main issue, however, is not the bill, at least for me.

I found her piece so interesting that I translated parts of it in my Persian blog. Then, I posted the link in the Iranian Digg, Balatarin. There, a very sincere comment was written which I think means a lot. This is the translation of that comment,

Amazing! I thought Israelis have no law in these issues. It seems they do. I have so many negative ideas about Israel. For example, that there are as many prostitution places there as we have supermarkets in Tehran. I don’t know if that’s correct or not but the people around me think like this. As much as I know at least…

Well, I think the Islamic Republic has succeeded in convincing at least a portion of the Iranian population that Israelis, or even Jews for that matter, have a tail and two horns.

Israeli Pirates, or Lost in Translation

Kamangir | June 8, 2007 | Category Iran

This is the word-by-word translation of a dead serious post in Baztab (hat trip Haji Washington)

Sea pirates disrupted the operation in Israel’s airport

Israeli officials had been asking for an action to be taken against the sea pirate radio stations which have caused problems for the communications systems in the airport.

Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli Minister of Transport who is visiting the states, told to the Israeli radio station that the interference from sea pirate radio stations was a clock bomb which threatened the lives of millions of the passengers who have been transiting through Ben Gurion Airport.

If you have not guessed who the “sea pirates” are you might like to read this piece in English BBC, “Israel has shut down a Palestinian pirate radio station in the West Bank that had been disrupting communications at Ben Gurion International Airport.”

“Declaration”

Kamangir | June 5, 2007 | Category Iran

This blog will not be updated in a month.

June 7, 2007: Well, I am not sure…

A few minutes later: Forget it.