Kamangir (Archer)

When I wrote an article for my Persian blog on how the Islamic Republic of Iran benefits from glorifying the Ayatollahs into holy figures, I had no idea that it would create such a backlash. The reactions, however, offer good insight into what Iran’s main problem is. It is neither Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nor the Ayatollahs who have “corrupted” Iran, as some people suggest. The core problem is the corrupted framework of thought with which the Ayatollahs have infested Iran.

As mentioned before (see: January 30th, Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students), this blog, and its Persian counterpart, proudly support bloggers’ solidarity with Iranian imprisoned students. Join in! Spread the news!
Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students
“There is no doubt winter will have an end
And, the post of spring will come to [...]

“My M.Sc. application was rejected, not on the basis of my academic performance, but because of where I am born”, writes Amin, an Iranian reader of this blog. Attaching a snapshot of the communication he has received from University of Twente, in the Netherlands, he asks if this action is acceptable under international norms.
Apparently, the [...]

A large group of Iranian bloggers have decided to show their solidarity with tens of Iranian students who are imprisoned by the administration. More information, in Persian, is given in this blog.
This is the statement issued by the organizers (revised by me for grammatical mistakes in the original text),
Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian [...]

Ashura in Lebanon

What are the objectives of your research and how do you want to develop them?
First, I aim at finding the population of the Persian blogosphere and the connection pattern in there. This will only concern Persian blogs that exist, independent of their nature and frequency of update. Then, in the second phase, I’ll work on [...]

Ebrahim Latif Allahi (Persian: ابراهیم لطف اللهی) was killed under torture. He studied law in Paiam Noor University in Sanandaj and was arrested about two weeks ago by the Intelligence. Reportedly, his family has been informed that “he has committed suicide in the prison” but that “his body is already buried”. His family is under [...]

Hossein Deakhshan’s repeated attempts to be given the green light to go back to the country seem to have been accepted.
In August 2007 he wrote,
I wish the Islamic Republic.. would be tolerant enough to give financial support to any Iranian who was willing to get back to the country, whether or not they said their [...]

You might know that I am currently working on a project called KiBeKi (project’s page). It is a research I started out of curiosity, but then as the databases grew I realized the value of the information it gathers. I am in touch with a few researchers who have requested to use this information for [...]

The parliamentary elections are approaching and for the first time candidates can register through a website. Apparently, some people are having a bit of fun with the system. As reported by the daily newspaper Etemad, a person has registered under the name George Bush [Persian].
It is not mentioned in the piece, but knowing the Iranian [...]

Well, apparently, Maradona doesn’t like Ahmadinejad at all! You don’t send your sh*t over to people you like, do you (Link in Fars News)? Hat trip Gateway Pundit.

A Song for Mahmoud

In a piece titled “The reality of the recent confrontation (?) of the Iranian boats with Americans vessels” (Question mark used by the source), the state-controlled website Tabnak seems to claim that the speedboats which apparently threatened to explode American warships were in fact American, or at least definitely not Iranian. The piece reads [Persian],
Tabnak [...]

When I was writing the post “Do Ayatollahs Fart?” I had no idea how wrong I was.
Today, Ahmadinejad went to the parliament to present the budget for the next year (the Persian new year is approaching). This was the first time many MPs saw him since his return from the Hajj pilgrimage. Aftab continues [Persian],
A [...]

One of the top news of the day is the event of IRGC warships trying to provoke US Navy ships (CNN). The Iranian blogger Haji Washington, who writes from the US, has an interesting idea about the incident [Persisn].
If the US is telling the truth and if IRGC vessels have gotten close to the American [...]

When I wrote a piece about how the Islamic Republic benefits from turning the Ayatollahs into holy figures, in my Persian blog [Persian], I had no idea about the backlash it would create. The reactions, however, offer a good insight into what the main problem in Iran is. It is not Ahmadinejad or the Ayatollahs [...]

One of the high-commanders of the Police force stated a few days ago that in 63% of cases of murder with a female victim, women are killed by a family member and that “the Police cannot intervene in these cases” [Persian]. The Persian blogger Ghoghnoos (means Phoenix) is outraged by these remarks and asks [Persian],
Why [...]

Today, the Islamic Republic executed 13 people, 8 of whom were hung up in the Evin Prison, among which was one woman.
DW Persian quotes Reuters as qouting from ISNA that the eight people were executed on charges of murder. Three others were hung up in Qom for drug trafficking and and two more were executed [...]

The Persian blogger Shekkar [Persian] (means Sugar in Persian) has been on board the Iran Air Fokker 100 which attempted to take off for Shiraz but ended up losing its landing gear and caught fire [Persian].
Shekkar writes,
Today 7:26am, local time, because of ice on the ground and the frozen control equipment, the plane lost [...]

Islamic militia and Basij members attacked the office of a reformist newspaper in Shiraz, Iran. The attackers destroyed the equipments and injured the staff. The incident followed a clash between the Sharia Police and people in front of the office of Today’s Analysis (Persian: تحلیل روز), because its staff came to their windows and watched [...]