Window on Iran - 22

Fatemeh Kashevarz

THANK YOU all for your wonderful words of encouragement about my NPR interview/discussion of Rumi with Krista Tippett on “Speaking of Faith.” I had to stop responding to individual messages which continue to come in as the program gets aired in various parts of the country. I do appreciate your words of support, and your use of the program in your respective courses, presentations, etc. If you didn’t get to listen to the program, it is at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/ Click on archive where you will find the program under “The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi.” In the archive there is a also a video clip of my reading Rumi to music with my delighful musician friends the Lian Ensemble. Enjoy!

Visual Delight

I’d like to share with you a wonderful new video clip from Iran thanks to my cousin Abe Massoudi and a dear friend Bahar Hashemi who both sent it to me this week:http://www.iranian.com/Clips/2007/February/iran.html

Current Issues

A VERY IMPORTANT piece of information that did not get much publicity in the main stream U.S. media. As you know, Iran has recently been accused of making the IEDs that are responsible for much of the American causalities in Iraq. As it turns out, these IEDs are actually made in Iraq:  http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002629.php
Here is the latest anti-war clip going around with great images from Iran: http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

The current threat of an American military assault on Iran has politicized the Iranian American community to a degree that would probably not have happened for years to come. I have already told you about NIAC (The National Iranian American Council) and CASMII (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran). Here is an article by Dokhi Fassihian on how Iranians can get involved in stopping the military threat, courtesy of Amir Amini: http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1059.html

Speaking of CASMII, the founder Nader Sadeqi has forwarded a very interesting article “Building Confidence, or Building Confidence for Regime Change?” http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1027.html

A common excuse for military action against Muslim countries is saving Muslim women from oppression. Senator Clinton has recently suggested a rescue mission to help Iranian and Syrian women. My friend Zari Taheri, Professor of Persian in Japan, has sent a new piece about Women in post-revolutionary Iran by the outspoken Pakistani poet and activist Fatima Bhutto. It is a criticism of the view that Iranian women are voiceless victims in need of rescue. As you read the piece, please remember that it is not a testimony to the gender sensitivity of the Islamic Republic but to the strength and resilience of the Iranian feminist movement which continue to thrive ... and would object to “liberation” through outside military intervention: http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1091.html

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Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Washington University in St. Louis