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**freakyfreaky** · 06-28-2009, 07:00 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1305.html

Poem: This is the Time
By Mali Mostoufi, New York

This is the Time

Fallen stars!
We deeply mourn you.
Who made your fate?
-- Jackals, jackals.

Even jackals,
In their dark jungles
Don't eat fellow jackals.

Fallen Neda!
Did they permit your blood soaked body
To be buried?
Where? Where? Neda!

Our Motherland's eye
Sheds tears of blood.

"And the sealed history
Which deserted
The still warm body of a Maiden
To the community of Mature
Blood-stained the bed of a city
Without history. " *

The Jackals are desperate
Wealth and power have made them blind.
They rather walk on 72 million dead
Than hear the Nation's voice.

The name of God is a tool
The nation has opened their Fists,
No faith in God in any
Only greed for power
And more, more wealth.

This is the Time
For Freedom
And Democracy.

-- Mali Mostoufi – NY June 23, 2009

* 6 verses from a poem titled: 23 By Ahmad Shamlou, the great modern poet of Iran. I am grateful to a friend for translating Shamlou's Verses for me.

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http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1251.html

A Poem: Salvation
By Mali Mostoufi , New York

Salvation

I am asleep,
Quietly.
I dream:
With no words,
No pictures.
A rabid bearded wolf,
Sitting on my chest,
Roaring;
I don't understand his tongue,
I turn to the stand-by masses,
They shook their head;
One of them scrams:
"We are going to get rid of him,
For good.
You will be saved too,
And you'll wake up,
From 30 years nightmares,"

-- Mali Mostoufi New York, June 21, 2009

**freakyfreaky** · 07-01-2009, 07:25 AM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

404 Error

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-iran-poet1-2009jul01,0,709656,full.story

Lyrical voices hail Iranians from overseas
Watching the election protests in their homeland, an Iran-born mother and daughter -- a poet and a singer -- are part of a growing expatriate artistic movement.
By Teresa Watanabe

11:13 PM PDT, June 30, 2009

From the house we built
With blood and soil
To the road on which
The moonlight procession
Flies forth on their boat
Of shooting stars
It is a pity you did not wish
To stay here with us

The poet had crafted those words so long ago. Flush from the victory of a People's Revolution in Iran that ousted a repressive monarch for a bearded cleric who spouted promises of freedom and quality, Partow Nooriala all too soon came to believe that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had deceived them.

Ever so briefly, the poem mourns, Lady Liberty had arrived at her oppressed homeland of Iran in 1979. But, within a year after the revolution, she had vanished. The ayatollah banned opposition parties and shut down newspapers. His theocracy ordered women into the hijab and enforced Islamic family law that gave men greater rights to divorce, marry and hold custody of children.

So Nooriala and her family eventually left, bringing their dreams to California instead.

Now, nearly three decades after that people's movement, she and her daughter Shahrzad Sepanlou have become overseas heralds of another one. Nooriala, a poet, and Sepanlou, a singer, are lifting their voices in the diaspora to support their people's freedom once again.

"I could never think that in my lifetime I would see people come out into the streets twice," Nooriala says over Persian tea in her tidy Studio City condo.

Farzaneh Milani, a professor of women's studies and Persian literature at the University of Virginia, said women have long been a force of resistance against Iran's repressive governments and male dominance. The most famous artistic voice in Iran today is female poet Simin Behbahani, but amid the Iranian diaspora in the United States other female poets and writers, working in both Farsi and English, have emerged, she said.

"There is a long history of Iranian women resisting and asking for their rights," Milani said. "Partow is an important part of that. The tenacious strength of her work makes her a voice to be listened to."

Nayereh Tohidi, head of the department of gender and women's studies at Cal State Northridge, said Nooriala and Sepanlou represent a wave of Iranians who endured the revolution that overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi, came to the United States and are bridging the two lands through their work on behalf of women and human rights.

"They are part of a growing number of artists inside and outside Iran who are mobilizing to support the movement," Tohidi said.

Nooriala, 62, works out of her condo, decorated with richly hued Persian carpets and photos of family and famous Iranian poets, including Behbahani. Lively and candid, her words punctuated with frequent laughs, Nooriala pours out stories of a tumultuous life even as she jumps up to bring out watermelon, sandwiches, cucumbers and coffee. Her blond hair has darkened with age, but she still favors red in the stripes of her shirt and accents in her kitchen -- a bold color she embraced after divorcing her husband, who preferred more muted hues.

She writes daily blog posts, attends a whirl of poetry conferences and gives frequent interviews about events in Iran to international news outlets, including Voice of America. She has published nine collections of poems, literary critiques and short stories -- almost all of them written in California after escaping the censors of Iran.

Her work is included in several anthologies, including "The Poetry of Iranian Women" due out next year. In February, she was honored with a certificate of recognition from state Assembly Majority Whip Fiona Ma.

Nooriala has written about the failures of the Islamic revolution, erotic love and such taboo women's subjects as abortion and menopause. She recently posted a piece dedicated to Iranians protesting the country's presidential election.

I have seen your nightmares in my dreams

I have kept your sorrows in my heart

I picked a dandelion flown about by the wind

Bringing me news, anxiety and trembling hands

If you are tied down

I shall be your wings

If you are at war

I shall be your armor

Your voice

will fly through the blue sky again,

And your free hands

will weave through the sun again.

A few miles away in Encino, her daughter spends five or six hours a day furiously sharing information, videos and commentary about events in Iran on Facebook. Never overtly political before, Sepanlou says she, like many young Iranian Americans, is consumed by the drama in her homeland.

As she led a visitor into her bedroom office, she apologized for the children's toys and box of baby wipes on the carpeted floor of her spacious home.

"I haven't cleaned or grocery shopped. I haven't paid my bills. I feel I've been a terrible mom," says Sepanlou, dressed in jeans and casual ponytail in contrast to the glamorous looks of her publicity stills.

Sepanlou, 36, garnered local celebrity as a singer with Southern California's first all-female Persian pop group, Silhouette, formed in 1994. A solo artist since 2000, Sepanlou has released two albums that feature a mix of Mideast instruments and Western pop rhythms, and recently finished a third with songs in English, Farsi and French.

She is known for favoring music with a message. In a re-recorded 1979 song, for instance, she sings in metaphors of ancient trees and young branches, representing those who died pursuing freedom for their homeland.

"I just wish there were a day when these songs don't apply anymore," Sepanlou says. "It's a never-ending nightmare."

Her Facebook page contains video clips of an Iranian Basiji paramilitary officer hitting a child, a grief-stricken man sobbing over a dead friend's pool of blood, a BBC news clip about a threatened government crackdown, an international petition to investigate Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and her own televised interview with Voice of America.

Last month, she was especially shaken by the street shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who has become the face of Iran's public protests. When Sepanlou first saw the gruesome video of Agha-Soltan's death, she says, she was overcome with nausea and tears. She has posted that video on her page, along with a tribute.

"You close your eyes and see these images of blood on the streets," Sepanlou says. "It's very traumatic."

Sepanlou has posted some of her music and video clips on her website, shahrzadmusic.com. A fan, meanwhile, recently put together a video for YouTube featuring her song "Azadi," or "freedom," with clips of the Iranian demonstrations.

She says she has received hundreds of messages from people inside Iran, thanking her for sharing information and for letting them know they are not forgotten. Angry messages have accused her of fomenting the unrest.

For both mother and daughter, the unrest has stirred a sense of d�j� vu. Nooriala, whose father was an Army general and mother a teacher, supported the 1979 revolution over their objections. Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and his father, they told her, had modernized the country from a backwater of dirt roads, polluted water and repressive religious traditions.

But there was also repression by the Pahlavi regime and its notorious secret police, SAVAK. Many of Nooriala's writings were banned -- including one poem about red wheat that the government interpreted as support of communism. Nooriala's then-husband, also a poet, was jailed for a time.

As resistance to the monarchy grew, Nooriala's young family joined in the massive street demonstrations. They defied 9 p.m. curfews and clambered atop rooftops, chanting "Allahu akbar." A grainy photo of Sepanlou portrays a grinning 6-year-old flashing a victory sign in one hand and holding a tambourine in the other.

"We were not for a fundamentalist regime," Sepanlou says. "We were for people to be free." Within 18 months of the Islamic revolution, Nooriala says she realized it had all been a terrible mistake.

Sepanlou noticed the change too. Schools were suddenly segregated. She had to cover herself from head to toe -- even when swimming. A photo of her at the Caspian Sea shows her dripping wet while fully veiled and clothed, "a terrible feeling," she recalls.

"I have a vision of a colorful Tehran up to 1979," Sepanlou says. "After the revolution, everything became black and white."

In 1986, the family immigrated to the United States. To make ends meet, Nooriala obtained a data processing certificate and went to work for the county court as a deputy jury commissioner.

Sepanlou graduated from UCLA in sociology, married an Iranian American radiologist and had two daughters, now ages 4 and 10 months. Beyond her blogging and singing, she helps her husband, Amir Fassihi, promote nonviolence in Iran; he has recently completed a book on the topic. On a recent Sunday, the couple gathered about 50 Iranian Americans in their home to discuss ways to get the message of nonviolence to protesters in Iran.

Over the weekend, Nooriala read two poems at a candlelight vigil at UCLA for the Iranian protesters. She views her 1981 poem "Lady Liberty II" as her most prescient.

In it, Nooriala laments the loss of freedom under the Islamic regime. But she ends with a vow that the people of Iran will someday rise again to reclaim it.

Until they do, the women say, they will continue to offer them their poems and songs of support.

And in tomorrow's ruins

A phrase will be written

Which today

Is being repeated

In the depth of our memory

Over and over and over again

[email protected]

**freakyfreaky** · 07-16-2009, 07:21 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

U2 goes green and invokes Rumi for a "Sunday Bloody Sunday" played in solidarity with Iranians poised for reform. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR8d1...layer_embedded

IRAN: U2's green-tinted tributes to Iranian protesters

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/07/iran-u2-tributes-iranian-protestors.html

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links.

IRAN: U2's green-tinted tributes to Iranian protesters

Anyone familiar with U2 knows that the band is not afraid to be political. Probably its best-known song, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” was written about a violent crackdown on a peaceful protest in Northern Ireland.

The sentiment behind the song could also be applied to the protesters in Iran, which is precisely what U2 did during two huge concerts in Milan and Barcelona:

The performance is quite a visual spectacle (after all, it is a rock concert), and the symbolism is less than subtle: the entire stage is flooded in green light, the signature color of the protests, and Persian text scrolls across the screen.

The text reads “Listen! Listen! Listen!” which one blogger attributed to "The Song of the Reed Flute," by famous Persian poet Jalaladdin Rumi.

Persian poetry and Rumi in particular are some of the strongest sources of Iranian national pride.

The history of a violent crackdown behind the original song coupled with Rumi adds some intellectual weight to the visual spectacle of a rock concert.

It looks like the selection of the work itself was not coincidental. A reading of the poem suggests allusions to the violent crackdown in Iran as well as the disputed elections:

“Listen to the reeds as they sway apart,
hear them speak of lost friends.”
…
“This reed bends to spent lovers and friends,
its song and its word break the veil…”

This isn’t the first rock 'n' roll tribute to the protesters in Iran. Jon Bon Jovi collaborated with Iranian artist Andranik Madadian to cover "Stand By Me." Both artists sing in Farsi and English.

Rutgers professor employs poetry to explain politics in Iran. http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/4784171.php?

Dr. Rafey Habib's "A Poem for Neda". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhi2w2joJ4c

Iran to hold International Poetry Confrence with closing ceremonies in Shiraz. http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=9131

Iran to Hold International Poetry Conference

Tehran, July 15, 2009: Iran plans to hold a conference on international poetry in a bid to see firsthand the importance of understanding the impact of cultural diversity on literature.

Hosted by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the weeklong event will begin on October 19, 2009.

The conference, which will not be Persian-oriented, is to serve as a venue for poets to hold poetry recitation, readings of papers and lectures, presstv.com reported.

The conference, which will host 30 poets from 30 countries, will begin in Tehran and continue in Isfahan, with the closing ceremony to be held in Shiraz.

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

Neda

Beautiful form
daring to rise;
Flowering morning;
Sailing at sunrise.

Best of the rest,
Crest adorning.
Gathered with zest,
liberation soaring.

Then suddenly plucked
From streets of Tehran
Blossoming amuck
protesting Iran.

Words of freedom choked
gasping from throat;
Murdered scapegoat,
falling alone.

Neda Soltan,
blade of grass,
made enrollment
cut from masses,

a martyr arranged.
Another hardline Basij
catalyst for change-
a security service specialty:

Ahmadinejad's especially.

-- Jeff Wyatt

http://blogs.starnewsonline.com/default.asp?item=2398775

----------------------------
Iranian youth resist with music in the underground. http://www.religiondispatches.org/ar...nd_music_scene

Deev, "Dasta Bala" -- (rap) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcl-6...layer_embedded

Iranian American writers to gather in Bay Area to read literature and share music to express their solidarity with the people of Iran. http://persianmirror.com/community/E...m?eventid=2054

Activists in Montana rally in support of Iranians including reading Iranian poetry. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2...nal/news13.txt

PEN American Center, The New York Review of Books, and the Unterberg Poetry Center hosted panel discussion at the 92nd Y in New York City regarding the Iranian elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/bo....html?ref=arts

Iranian Artists in Holland express their solidarity with Iranians by gathering in Amsterdam to share poetry, music, stories and film. http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jul/1022.html

**freakyfreaky** · 10-13-2009, 01:02 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

The art of protest in Iran | Saeed Kamali Dehghan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/10/protest-cartoons-iran/print

From cartoons of potatoes to boycotts of Nokia, Iranian political dissent is finding endlessly creative expression

The art of protest in Iran

From cartoons of potatoes to boycotts of Nokia, Iranian political dissent is finding endlessly creative expression

Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk, Saturday 10 October 2009 09.00 BST larger

A poster by xxxorgmehr Hosseinpour shows Mir Hussein Mousavi pointing his finger to Ahmadinejad, asking him to be quiet. Illustration: xxxorgmehr Hosseinpour

Despite a government crackdown on public dissent since the June election, Iranians have continued to find creative and unprecedented ways to protest when they can't demonstrate on the streets any more.

In fact, some of the protests are so subtle that you might not notice them at all – unless you're Iranian and know the background. Take the colour green, for instance. Normally it has no particular significance but during the election it was the colour used by presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

For the first week after the disputed election, protesters still could go out in green. Lots of green banners were made and green wristbands were worn.

But when continuing street protest became impossible, the protests went underground. Among this clandestine activity, Irananian artists – both well-known and anonymous – began circulating posters, flyers and other political designs by email all over the country. These could then be printed out and distributed free of charge.

Mousavi himself has been a man of art, having drawn a poster depicting Iranians in green, witht the slogan "We are numerous". There is also one by a well-known Iranian cartoonist, xxxorgmehr Hosseinpour, which has become very popular. It shows a memorable moment for Iranians during the great debate on state-run TV between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mousavi, when the reformist candidate points his finger at his rival and says: "Be quiet".

Nokia and Siemens have also been a frequent target for these posters as their joint venture, NSN, sold a mobile surveillance system to the Iranian regime last year. Many prisoners have been arrested on the basis of their mobile phone conversations.

An anonymous artist has designed a poster reading as "Life is beautiful without Nokia Siemens." Another depicts a sad girl thanking Nokia Siemens for putting her parents in jail. Yet another urges people to boycott Nokia mobile and state-run TV for collaborating with the regime.

Neda Agha Soltan, the girl who was killed by the Basij militia in a street protest and became an icon of Iranian protest around the world has also been depicted in many posters. One shows her face on the background of a "Where is my vote?" slogan in Persian. Another asks Neda how it feels to be free that now she has died and is not more trapped by the Iranian regime. The name Neda, which means "voice" in English, has been used in many posters as a double entendre, such as: "We are all one voice".

Iranian cartoonists have boycotted Iran's official cartoon festival but they have been very active since the election underground. A notable cartoon shows the Islamic republic's emblem on the bottom of a riot police boot. Mana Neyestani, a banned Iranian cartoonist based in Europe, has depicted a defendant in a "show trial", whose brain appears to have been replaced by a tape recorder. The defendant is confessing to what has been recorded into his mind.

A poster showing a single potato crossed out in green is a reference to Ahmadinejad's populist campaign of distributing free potatoes among villagers to attract more votes.

In another poster, a bunch of pencils are bound together with a string. Although the pencils have different colours on the outside, they all write in green. This is meant to show that Mousavi's supporters come from different backgrounds but have the same objectives.

Another poster shows an optician's sight-test card which includes a large green hand representing the opposition – the idea being that even people with poor eyesight cannot fail to see it.

A keyboard is depicted in another poster with a Victory key instead of Enter, which shows the influence of the internet (mostly Facebook and Twitter) in the Iranian underground protests. A dove holding "@" in its beak encourages people to "be the media!" – in other words, to act as their own news agencies in the absence of free media coverage in Iran.

**freakyfreaky** · 12-02-2009, 12:53 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

Taking a page out of the Iranian Revolution playbook, the opposition paints Iranian banknotes green.

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http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/2572

Green banknotes another frustration for authorities

"According to a recent report by the Iranian opposition website rahesabz, authorities in Iran have decided to take serious measures against financial operation carried with banknotes that carry messages in opposition to the coup government in Tehran.

These measures include placing monitors at various point of transaction such as bakeries, stores, public toilets, etc which are aimed at preventing citizens from buying or selling using the green banknotes. It has also been decided to gather all the banknotes and burn them up and instead introduce more coins that would make up for the shortage of banknotes.

Following the elections, writing slogans in support of the Green Movement quickly became a common trend in Iran, an action which has until now infuriated the coup government and its supporters who would like everyone to forget about the great coup of June 12 and the unrest that followed it."

http://english.mowjcamp.com/article/id/47385

Flashback

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http://payvand.com/blog/blog/2009/11/16/exhibit-iranian-banknotes-uprising/

http://www.shahrzadnews.org/index.php?page=2&articleId=1938&Language=en

**freakyfreaky** · 12-14-2009, 04:30 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

12/14/09

A Poem in Honor the Green Movement of People of IRAN
By Ali Khalili (translated by Pirouz Azadi)

Out from my window of LOVE, the world is Green

I am in LOVE and the universe is Green

The spring vernal equinox is again upon us

In everyone's sweet dream, for lesser or more, all's Green

Eyes are for now disturbed by the dark evil pictures

My soul has since birth is eternally Green

Although Satan has temporarily occupied my paradise

Not to worry as the Human destiny is Green

Despite my shivering from the autumnal biting breeze

The intrinsic essence of us all is Green

With all these oppressing miseries inflicted

I now have no doubt that our God is Green

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http://www.payvand.com/news/09/dec/1152.html

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http://www.payvand.com/news/09/dec/1085.html

**Parskahay** · 12-15-2009, 12:46 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

great Thread
but i know all of these tho
i was in tehran when neda Died.im a parskahye actually are you too?cause i think only a parskahye can know this much

anyway thanks for letting other people tho know about this as well.our 2500 years old neighbors are suffering

**freakyfreaky** · 12-15-2009, 12:53 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

I think the western world knows now that Iran and Iranians are not as backwards a-ss as the MSM/western leaders portrays them.

Iranian activists took internet social media to new heights and demonstrated its power beyond communicating and information sharing to mobilization and grassroots activism.

I-yo. Erku ankam.

Iranians who actively seek freedom and reform in their own country deserve to be supported by all of those that are able to safely exercise their rights towards these endeavors while living in democractic countries.

These individuals who have chosen to petition their government via public dissent and action are patriots in the same vein as the forefathers of the U.S.

**freakyfreaky** · 01-24-2010, 11:38 PM

Re: Of Sangak and Shiraz

01/19/10

Anniversary of Revolution, next rally call for Iran opposition forces
Source: Radio Zamaneh
Iranian opposition forces flooded the web with calls for election protesters to join massive demonstration on the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Revolution on February 11.

Despite repeated warnings by the government that they will confront any more disruptions with no leniency, the messages defiantly suggest that the planned February 11 demonstrations could become the climactic point of all the protests and street confrontations that have marked every significant date on the Islamic Republic calendar in the past several months.

The wave of web postings also reveals that the opposition can circumvent the government's tight control on web activity and still harness the capabilities of the internet to get organized as they have done in the past several months.

In the past seven months, according to the government, over 40 people were killed in the protests, but the opposition puts the number at about 80. Thousands of people have been arrested in an attempt to quell the unrest and prominent reformists have been sentenced to long prison terms ranging from 2 to 15 years.

Five people arrested in connection with Ashura Day protests on December 27 were put on trial today facing the death penalty.

The government has made every effort to portray the protests as a foreign-backed conspiracy to topple the establishment but since the opposition leaders are prominent figures of the establishment, the authorities have refrained from arresting and prosecuting them.

While one, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was fired from his government post at the Academy of Arts and the other, Mehdi Karroubi, has been the repeated target of physical and even armed attacks, they have defiantly refused to accept the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government which they claim was fraudulently re-elected in the June presidential elections.

The Islamic Republic establishment has been dealing with deep divisions over its current crisis and even a significant section of the clergy have come out in favour of protesters and their demands.

... Payvand News - 01/19/10 ... --

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