Last week we had a spontaneous reunion of some former and (most of the) current members of my group. We used this nice occasion to have lunch at our favorite turkish fast food Olivia. It is not only the excellent quality of their Doener Kebab, but also that Bahar (1st on the left) can always negotiate free tea for us. This lunch break lasted for about 2 hours, but we had a lot of accumulated overtime anyway.
The persion feast of Norooz is traditionally a celebration of joy and hapiness about the rebirth of nature and life. Inside the grey and cold walls of the Tehran Evin prison, however, the men and woman arrested there for month or year see little evidence of the awaking nature. Many of them suffer from bad health conditions and are deprived of adequate medical care. So for them life is continously threatend, and the happiness about Norooz remains a very abstract and distant feeling.
Nevertheless, the authorities of the IRR regime try everthing to suppress traditional Norooz Mobarak activities among the inhabitants of Evin, since this tradition is considered not in line with the Shia faith. Therefore, on March 24th a simultaneous raids took place in two wards holding political prisoners at Evin prison, namely the female ward and the general ward 350 assigned to male political prisoners, on the eve of Persian New Year, Norooz.
On Monday March 18th, 2013, both the female and male wards holding political prisoners at Evin prison were thoroughly inspected in a simultaneous raid by a prison guards. As with similar, unexpected and often offensive raids in the past, according to accounts by political prisoners currently at Evin prison, the political prisoners protested the raid by singing [national and revolutionary songs] such as “Ey Iran”, ” Sar Oomad Zemestoon” and “Yare Dabestani” and chanting slogans such as “long live Mousavi and Karroubi”, ” death to the oppressor, whether it be the late king or the Supreme Leader”, “death to the dictator”, “Mousavi reclaim our votes!” and “Ya Hossein… Mir Hossein” resonated inside the wards.
During the past three years both the female ward and the general ward 350 housing male political prisoners at Evin have undergone several unexpected raids resulting in the violation of the personal privacy of prisoners, the disruption of their daily lives and stricter security measures. The political prisoners have strongly condemned such raids and in November of last year, one such raid on the female ward led to female political prisoners launching a hunger strike protesting the inappropriate bodily searches and the desecration of their personal space.
ورود به حریم خصوصی و بر هم زدن آسایش زندانیان، در آستانه سال نو
بازرسی ناگهانی از بندهای سیاسی زنان و مردان در زندان اوین
یکشنبه, ۴ فروردین, ۱۳۹۲
چکیده : روز دوشنبه ۲۸ اسفند ماه سال 91، تعدادی از ماموران حفاظت زندان اوین به طور همزمان به بند ۳۵۰ و بند زنان زندان اوین، یعنی دو بند زندانیان سیاسی این زندان، رفته و به بازرسی کلیه بند، پرداختند. …
در آستانه ی سال نو، دو بند زندان اوین که محل نگهداری زندانیان سیاسی در این زندان است توسط ماموران زندان مورد بازرسی قرار گرفت.
به گزارش خبرنگار کلمه، روز دوشنبه ۲۸ اسفند ماه سال ۹۱، تعدادی از ماموران حفاظت زندان اوین به طور همزمان به بند ۳۵۰ و بند زنان زندان اوین، یعنی دو بند زندانیان سیاسی این زندان، رفته و به بازرسی کلیه بند، پرداختند.
بر اساس این گزارش، زندانیان همچون تمامی دفعات گذشته که در این چند سال با بازرسی های ناگهانی و گاهی توهین آمیز روبرو می شوند با مقاومت در برابر ماموران، اقدام به خواندن سرود “ای ایران”، “سر اومد زمستون”، “یار دبستانی” و شعارهای “موسوی زنده باد کروبی پاینده باد”، “مرگ بر ستمگر، چه شاه باشه چه رهبر”، “مرگ بر دیکتاتور”، “موسوی موسوی رای مرا پس بگیر” و “یا حسین میر حسین” کردند.
طی سه سال و اندی گذشته این چندمین بازرسی ناگهانی از بند ٣۵٠ است که ماموران حفاظت با ورود به حریم خصوصی و شخصی زندانیان سیاسی باعث بر هم زدن نظم و سلب آسایش آنان می شوند و فضا هر بار امنیتی تر می شود.
بازرسی هایی که دفعاتی از آن با مقاومت و واکنش های شدید زندانیان سیاسی روبرو شده است و حتی آبان ماه سال جاری زندانیان زن سیاسی که بازرسی بندشان با هتک حرمت و آزار آنها همراه بود، دست به اعتصاب غذای دسته
Source: Banooye Sabz
Kaleme
On its concert tour through Israel a German chanson singer introduced one of his songs (about the mutual dependence of men and woman) as following:
“A woman needs a man mainly for two things: First, to open the champaign bottles, and second, to explaine things.”
One of his fellow musicians, a violinist girl replied after a few seconds “Hold on, wasn’t there one more thing, I just can’t remember what it was”.
I guess you are referring to our duty to wait for her at the side of the pool, with the a fresh towel ?
Yes, you are almost right. It has something to do with waiting. But woman don’t need a man who waits for them, but they need a man they can wait for, like Penelope was waiting for Odysseus.
A more modern version, although from last century is the below graphic that Marina gave me last year for birthday. It shall symbolize me leaving in the morning for work, and returning home in the evening. I have to admit, the most realistic on this image is the happiness of the dog.
We were out to watch the new Iranian movie “Paziraie sadeh” (MODEST RECEPTION). Movie director Mani Haghighi lets his two main characters (Laila played by Taraneh Alidoosti and Kaveh by Mani Haghighi) drive through the mountains on a random search for people, whom they can hand over buckets of bank-notes they carrie with them. The actors act very statically, I got the impression though they could do much better, i.e. the director did not managed to let them show their real artistic potential. It remains very difficult for the audience to understand the personality of Leila and Kaveh, what drives them trough all the difficulties. The whole story is full of symbolism, a shrub in the desert set afire by Kaveh, a pack of wood he is carrying on their ride, an injured mule that is shot dead at the end, a man in the middle of nowhere burying his baby. All these symbolic scenes together might form a single messianic secret, but this is hidden behind the very fast cuts of the movie and the sometimes hysteric acting of the characters. I think a movie should not require a special introductory lesson for the ordinary audience to decipher and enjoy the story. Because that will always remain the essence of a movie, whether a tragedy or a comedy, a love story or a political thriller, a science fiction tale or a historic epos: Over 90 minutes or longer, we want to follow a story, characters that interact and respond, who change and develope under the influence of their experiences. I missed all this in Haghighi award winning movie here, Leila and Kaveh where exactly the same at the beginning and at the end of the movie. The only changes that occured were outside of them: The money was all given away, the car was a bit dirtier than originally, the sick mule was dead, the baby was layed down in the grave. Perhaps the most relevant impact on peoples life and destiny took place in the non-visible side-characters: most of the people that were given the bunches of bank-notes were only visible behind helmets, beards, or face scarfs. And as soon as they grabbed the money, the scenes were cut and the people were never seen any more. I would predict that for these poor people the encounter with Leila and Kaveh, that suddenly brought a lot of money for them and their families, had a much greater impact on to their life than for the two Tehrany nuveau-rich.
I had only two associations after the movie: A hopeless situation without an exit. People kept in troublesome state that only gets worse, and no sign for a solution. Very much Kafka like, so really coming from the heart of the Iranian intellectuals.
This movie convinced me that most cinematography produced inside the country gives a pessimistic impression, showing people suffering in one or the other way from the hopeless situation. The movies by Iranian ex-pats produced in Europe or the US, on the other side, show the characters as strong, active and optimistic person. I have to admit, I like this outside view more.
Ghazal Dear, I wish you, your family and friends, your neighbours and colleagues, the people you meet on the street and in the Tehran underground line, your doctors, your basar shop owner, your bus driver and your post-man, and the lady that sold you the marvellous flowers, I wish all those a happy, prosperous, healthy and liberal new year.
Michael
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| Haft Sheen: The 7 S…, a set of objects all starting with the persian letter Sheen |
Ghazal, my Dear,
We recently discussed the issue of translating poetry from one language to another. You told me ones that in Persian language there are no gender specific prepositions, as there are HE and SHE in English or IT for all un-animated items. In German, in contrast, also un-animated objects usually are assigned a male or female gender, which has its roots in very ancient understanding of the world and the role of all devine creations. So if a poem is translated from German to English, the natural gender of un-animated objects is lost, cause they all turn neutral in English (LOST IN TRANSLATION).
But, this is what my british colleague told me about the common practice of assigning a gender to unanimated objects in poetry. Whether you choose male or female depends not simply on the context, but on the “character” that this item carries. So I guess if the poem is about a gently blowing summer wind, this will be a SHE, but if it is about a horrible thunderstorm, this must be a HE.
A nice, colourful, delicate and well-smelling flower will most likely be assigned a female gender. But if the poem is about a carnovourous plant, ugly looking and nastly smelling, it would be more appropriate to assigned it a male gender.
Unless, of course, an american trash musical such as “Little Shop of Horrors” introduces a man-eating nasty plant and calls it “Audrey II” (where – I guess – this conflict between expectation and reality is crucial for the humor).
There are some fixed cases of assigned gender: The Sea is always male, whereas ships are always female. In contrast to German, where the Sea is female (but the Ocean is male (?), and ships are neutral.
So british poetry, like the british character in general, takes a very pragmatic position, in contrast to German, where you have to follow the rules of grammar, does not matter whether you write a sonett or a car damage report.
best regards, TAKE CARE , Michael
Yesterday night, after opera “Aneas and Dido” was over, I was still in the mood to hear some more music. Went to the nightclub at “Bayerischer Hof“, in the basement of the hotel where every year in February the notorious annual “Munich Conference for International Security” takes place.
How nice, that deep below the spot were little sympathic characters such as Joshka Fisher, Donald Rumsfield, Sergej Lawrow or Irans foreign affairs minister A.A.Salehi use to fool each other year by year, there are people of a more creative business and please us with their music.
(EZ Pieces, “Valerie” by Adele, Nightclub Bayerischer Hof)
Dear Michael,
I recently observed the rediculous attempt by one guy in our University to change his traditional role. We all knew him as the deans “Lap Poodle”, a guy who had the official function as a speaker for the research departments, but in fact never showed any ambition to help the scientists. Quite in contrast to his duties, he only enforced the deans policies when it came to further reductions of the research sector. So quite in violation of his official duties, i.e. representing the researchers interest to the dean, he in fact did exactly the opposite: promoting and justifying any adverse decision of the dean and the university administration. This was as we knew this guy for the last years.
But recently, for some reason, his “star declined” and I don’t know why, but he lost his prominent position as the dean’s lap poodle. First we greeted this new development with a sort of “Schadefreude” (I think you will understand this term, which from German made it into many other languages). But what happened next left me simply speechless: This guy now wants to turn into the leader of the anti-dean scientist coalition. So he not simply changed his mind in face of the ungrateful move of the deans office, but he wants to turn from one privileged position to another one, so to say from the farmers lap-poodle to the leading wolf.
Funny, how similar types of characters you can find all over the society and in different cultures. So often I am disgusted to see to what extent the Iranian society is coined by political opportunism, and how little support the minority of brave political activists receive. Large parts of the society simply decline to the pressure and indoctrination of the inhuman regime of the mullahs and their thugs. But I am sure, as soon as the IRI regime will begin to fall apart, many of the former 120% supporters will present themself as leading characters of the green opposition movement.
How similar the human characters are, here in the free and democratic West or there in an undemocratic society.
best greetings, Take Care
Ghazal