A random collection of my thoughts, interests, and stuff that I find amusing. I'm a foodie at heart so you'll see a lot of my recipes and culinary attempts. Feel free to connect via Twitter @ByndPcktFences .
13
Apr
Powerful song in support of the people of Syria produced by Emad Ghavidel and Hamed Fard.
via @CNN http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/13/world/meast/iranians-syrians-bond/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2
Here is a link to Emad’s Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/EmadGhavidel
09
Jul
July 9 marks the 11th anniversary of the uprising of Iranian university students that began in the dormitories of the University of Tehran and spread to several campuses around the nation. It shook the foundations of the Islamic Republic and demonstrated that, despite the vast purges of progressive faculty that took place in the 1980s under the guise of “Cultural Revolution” and the hardliners’ tremendous efforts to control students’ political activities and very thoughts, the universities’ grand, decades-old tradition as centers of resistance to oppression survived. Tehran Bureau
Photo: Ahmad Batebi on the cover of The Economist, July 17, 1999, during the Iran students protests. Shortly after this cover, he was arrested, tortured, suffered a partial stroke and spent almost eight years in prison.
During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. He was played recordings of what he was told was his mother being tortured. His captors wanted him to betray his fellow students, to implicate them in various crimes and to say on television that the blood on that T-shirt was only red paint. He says he refused.
He was sentenced to death for “creating street unrest”. But after a global outcry, the sentence was commuted to 15 years in jail. He speculates that his high profile made it hard to kill him without attracting negative publicity. For two years, he was kept in solitary confinement, in a cell that was little more than a toilet hole with a wooden board on top. He was tortured constantly. Only when he was allowed to mingle with other prisoners again did he begin to overcome his despair.
Read his amazing story and eventual escape from Iran on The Economist and NYTimes.
05
Mar
I pass Evin [Prison] everyday on my way to work and on my way home and there are about 400 people standing at the bottom of the Evin hill waiting in silence and there are plainclothes agents wearing ski masks on bikes in front of the prison.
If [the families waiting] make the slightest sound, they come down and beat the people waiting outside the prison.
Generally, everyone is mad but we don’t have the courage to do anything, and on some level I believe people know that to get rid of the Islamic Republic they must stop pinning their hopes on Mousavi and Karroubi who are former members of IRI. Unless they are willing to do that, no form of change will ever come this way.
28
Feb
This interactive by The Daily Beast spotlights ”17 people who are changing the world”. The person honored from Iran is Tehran Bureau’s Editor-in-Chief, Kelly Golnoush Niknejad.
Under her editorship and management, the Tehran Bureau website, in editorial partnership with FRONTLINE, offers timely and incisive analysis, reporting, commentary and essays on Iran — one of the world’s most important and consistently challenging stories. On learning about the map, Niknejad said she simply wanted to note — “To the extent I’m associated with any of the daring and probing reporters in Iran and abroad who contribute to the Tehran Bureau blog, I am honored. I hope one day they’ll be given the recognition they deserve.”
Others include:
- Tunisia: Ben Mhenni Lina
- Bahrain: Esra’a Al Shafei, MideastYouth, CrowdVoice
- Saudi Arabia: Eman Al Nafjan
- Pakistan: Sana Saleem, Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi
- United States: Mark Horvath
18
Feb
Makes me wish I had violet eyes.
Elizabeth Taylor’s 1976 trip to Iran, as photographed by Firooz Zahedi—the story of her travels and the photos are here.
15
Jun
For Neda - A new HBO documentary about Nega Agha Soltan and the fraudulent Iranian elections last year. This documentary is done well. Beautiful, powerful, and informative. It will move you. It taught me a lot, and I consider myself well informed on the subject. They also have it in Farsi and Arabic.
I encourage everyone to watch. If you don’t know much about the events surrounding the Iranian elections and the death of Neda, this will tell why it is so important for us to remember and to support the people of Iran and their struggle.
10
Jun
“Neda” by The Airborne Toxic Event — a song about Neda Agha-Soltan, whose brutal murder at the hands of the Iranian regime during the protests in Tehran last year made her a symbol of human rights the world over.
As the first anniversary approaches, take a moment to remember and send your support to the people of Iran. To learn more visit: http://nedaspeaks.org/
You can also purchase this single on iTunes: http://idj.to/AmnestyNeda. All proceeds from the sale of the song will benefit Amnesty International.
25
May
I was in tears by the end of this poem.
As we approach the anniversary of the fraudulent elections in Iran, we need to remember the protesters who died standing up for their rights and those who are still in jail.
Freedom is not free no matter where you are in the world.
Remember Me by F. Mehrban, read by Richard Trinder. F. Mehrban is an Iranian poet and former political prisoner. She now lives in London.
via seaofgreen
via standwithfreeiran