Iransara In English

TWO CONVIVTED MURDERS HANGED IN PUBLIC
Two Iranian men convicted of murder were hanged in public in the capital of Tehran at dawn Sunday, one of them in a park known as a place for dining out or hiking, according to witnesses.
23-year-old Hashem Anwarniah was strung up by a crane in wealthy north Tehran's Jamshideh park, the site of where he gunned down a police officer, Malek Hossein Amiri, in the course of a shoot-out some two months ago, AFP stated.
In the meantime, in Javideh district in the poorer southern part of the city, Farhad Rahmanpour, 32, was hanged for the murder and robbery of his aunt and her two children.
Iran’s conservative rulers are seeking two focal aims of public execution. Frightening the people and vandalizing the reform process. Hanging two people in public, right at the time that Khatami is attending an important visit in Spain, does not carry any other purpose, apart from defacing Khatami’s reform plan and making the human rights problem far more worse. Human right issue is one of Khatami’s key challenge, which could play a significant role in Iran’s relationship with Europe countries.

posted by Davood J Fard @ 6:38 PM 0 comments

IRAN GOVERNMENT: REOPEN POLL CENTER
CNN: The National Institute for Research and Opinion Polls was closed last month after publishing a survey showing nearly three-quarters of Iranians favored resuming talks with arch-foe the United States. The issue has pitted moderate President Mohammad Khatami's government against the hard-line, conservative judiciary at a time when Khatami is seeking to boost his authority in the Islamic Republic.
"The government hopes the ban on the polling center will be removed as soon as possible," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told a news conference.

posted by Davood J Fard @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

WHO IS A DICTATOR?
BBC: Addressing the parliament, Mr Khatami rejected claims that his two recent bills were aimed at giving him dictatorial powers, saying instead that unelected institutions posed a greater threat to democracy.
"Only dictators fear democracy," Mr Khatami said to the applause of the reformist-dominated parliament.
"If we're going to be concerned about the formation of a dictatorship... those establishments which have the power of violating constitutional law and are not accountable, should be referred to."

posted by Davood J Fard @ 7:50 PM 0 comments

MY BIG FAT PERSIAN CULTURE
MAHYAR ETMINAN: --Why is it that most Iranian movies these days are either too artistic (for a limited audience) or about poverty, depression or despair. Why can't Kiarostami or Panahi or Makhmalbaf make a simple movie that portrays a positive aspect about our culture?
Take for example the movie "The Circle" by Jafar Panahi. What is the purpose of this movie other than revealing life in Iran at its lowest point. We are quite tired of all these directors whose only goal is to collect as many film awards from different international organizations, disregarding the negative impact that their movies may have on non-Iranian viewers both inside and outside of Iran.
Remember the famous Chinese proverb "A picture is a thousand words"? It is extremely difficult to convince a Westerner who sees a movie like "The Circle" that most Iranians do not share the same lifestyles as the characters in the movie--.
There is no doubt that every body likes to be successful and become famous in his/her career. No matter what kind of job he/she does. Even you, as a researcher, think about your prospect and moving ahead in your profession when you are working on some subject matters. It is positive thing and also encourage you to work as well and as much as you can to achieve your goal.
So you should accept that the other people have right to think about themselves too. Kiarostami and the other film directors make movie based of their knowledge and experience of the Iran’s society and most of their movie are about the people and the way they live. They are artists and they can see some sort of things – mostly social problems- much more and better than ordinary people. They express the reality of life by filtrating it through their wisdom and feeling. I am pretty agree with you that the most of these days movies are about poverty, disappointing, depression and should not be, but we should not forget that these issues are the most obvious and touchable problems in our society and artists try to describe them by using their own language and aspect. I am agree with you that we have lots of positive things to show to the other people and we should do it, but don’t forget Iran’s political situation and our big fat countries' rulers!

posted by Davood J Fard @ 12:39 PM 0 comments

TEHRAN BACKS UN-APPROVED ATTACK ON IRAQ
NEWS TELEGRAPH: In public, the Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said Iran wanted a peaceful solution and said nothing to endorse Mr Straw's argument that only a credible threat of force can convince Saddam Hussein to disarm.
"We say we are against war and we feel that through diplomatic means, and through the United Nations, we can solve the issue and we can force Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction."

posted by Davood J Fard @ 12:10 PM 0 comments

POLICE ARREST PARTY-GORES IN IRAN
Iranian police have arrested dozens of party-goers in Tehran and charged them with mingling with the opposite sex and dancing, according to newspaper reports.
Iran’s rulers are doing their jobs consistently by arresting and lashing the people, attacking parties and groups. Doesn’t matter if they are just ordinary citizens in a regular party or politic activists in a political party. They are afraid of any amassing and gathering.

posted by Davood J Fard @ 9:34 PM 0 comments

DIRECTOR QUITS CITY FEST AMID IRAN FLAP
NYPOST: A Finnish filmmaker has canceled his visit to the New York Film Festival to protest the State Department's refusal to grant a visa to an Iranian director. Aki Kaurasmaki said in an e-mail released yesterday he will not appear for the screening of his comedy "The Man Without a Past," because if the "U.S. does not want an Iranian, they will hardly have any use for a Finn either. We do not even have oil." Officials turned down Abbas Kiarostami's application, saying they needed to investigate his background.
Kiarostami is much luckier than his colleague, Jafar Panahi. Last year, Jafar Panahi- director of “the circle”- was arrested in New York airport. He was kept in custody for 48 hours and then deported to Iran.

posted by Davood J Fard @ 6:29 PM 0 comments